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As a poet, Wilfred Owens wants to show the effects of warfare from the viewpoint of a soldier during a War. Owens uses his own experience as a fighter to capture the reader’s attention and get across his point. He often uses graphic imagery and words to depict his thoughts about war. Wilfred Owens, poems, “Dulce et Decorum est” and “Anthem for doomed youth” talk blatantly about the effects of warfare on the soldiers, their loved ones, and those who make an ultimate sacrifice by making a statement about the efficacy of war.
In both the poems he shows and discusses death in warfare and its effects, which are far reaching. In “Dulce et Decorum est” the point of death is shown in a real light, Owens uses strong imagery to connect us to these soldiers and their plight for survival in World War I. I think the line that shows the reader this aspect is, “He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning” (16). Owens paints the graphic scene of a dying soldier during a gas raid. Owens deliberately makes the scene graphic in order to gain the reader’s attention, and keep them reading. In “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” Owens never brings up the word war or the name of any country in particular; he does this so that every war can be applicable to the poem. Owens also does this so that the topic that all wars are horrible comes into play. He personally takes the stance, that we as humans have not done anything to change the fate of the dying soldiers and he expounds upon it. “No mockeries now for them, no prayers nor bells; / Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, – / The shrill demented choirs of wailing shells.” (5-7) In this line Owens talks about how these boys/men have no proper ceremony for their death. Shells from bombs and guns replace t...
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...viously pronounces that war is a waste of human life and energy.
In the thick of a war Owens wants the reader to know that these young men are giving their lives, for nothing that is worth dying over. He showed though out both of these poems that war is grim and pointless. Although Owens thought war was not worth the ultimate sacrifice of death, he still fought in World War I. He did so because so many men his age were pushed to fight in the war. Owens eventually died in the war one week before the war ended, he ended up living the old lie “Dulce et decorum est /Pro patria mori” (27-28).
Works Cited
Gioia, Dana, and X.J. Kennedy, eds. Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Writing. Boston: Pearson, 2013. Print.
Owens, Wilfred. “Anthem for Doomed Youth.” Gioia and Kennedy 1115-1116
Owens, Wilfred. “Dulce et Decorum est.” Gioia and Kennedy 709-710
In conclusion, depending on the position from which one views war, the standpoint may vary ranging from being supportive of the soldiers because those who die are dying for the country or they are completely unsupportive of war activities because it is a brutal and gruesome experience involving countless unnecessary injuries and deaths. Affected by a number of factors, the authors of the two poems have chosen opposing standpoints on the issue of war where Tennyson glorified it with the main message that it is an honour to die for one's country whereas the other, Owen suppresses the idea of war by illustrating all the horrid experiences of a soldier.
Throughout the poem Owen has worked so that the reader feels different emotions throughout. As a reader I felt conflicted and confronted with the images first presented. The more you read the darker and more depressed your emotions became. I could feel the life, light and happiness being sucked out of you. Upon a greater analysis of the poem I feel the anger that Owen has towards the lies that the government had told not only him but the public as well. We still are lying to ourselves as a society of the death occurring in Afghanistan as a heroic event that should be celebrated. Today, though we aren’t as ignorant in what our soldiers go through, we still underestimate the seriousness of war and glorify our soldiers’ actions. In the 100 years since World War 1 nothing has changed.
A poem I have recently read is “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen. The main point Wilfred Owen tries to convey in this poem is the sheer horror of war. Owen uses many techniques to show his feelings, some of which I’ll be exploring. Wilfred Owen was a tired soldier on the front line during World War I. In the first stanza of Dulce Et Decorum Est he describes the men and the condition they are in and through his language shows that the soldiers deplore the conditions.
World War One had an inevitable effect on the lives of many young and naive individuals, including Wilfred Owen, who, like many others, joined the military effort with the belief that he would find honour, wealth and adventure. The optimism which Owen initially had toward the conflict is emphasised in the excerpt, in which he is described as “a young poet…with a romantic view of war common among the young” (narrator), a view which rapidly changed upon reaching the front. Owen presents responders with an overwhelming exploration of human cruelty on other individuals through acts of war and the clash of individual’s opposed feelings influenced by the experiences of human cruelty. This is presented through the horrific nature of war which the
Wilfred Owen expresses his feelings about war in “Anthem for a Doomed Youth”, which revolves around the events that took place in World War I. Throughout the sonnet, the speaker talks bitterly about modern warfare, noting the harsh sounds of war and questioning the treatment of the soldiers that perish. In the octave, the speaker wonders what can be done to honor the soldiers that died, but realizes negatively that the soldiers only receive death instead of ceremonies. In the sestet, the speaker expands upon this idea of a proper ceremony for the deceased soldiers, saying that the families must be the ones to properly honor their dead. Owen’s use of the Petrarchan sonnet with a Shakespearean rhyme scheme, helps him express his frustration about war and its subsequent treatment of the dead.
Similarly, Wilfred Owen’s poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” describes a soldier who witnesses the death of his comrade from poisonous gas. Using imagery and irony, Owen presents a blunt contrast between the propaganda practiced for recruitment and the truth behind the suffering endured by the soldiers. While presented in different formats, both literary works criticize the romanticism of war, arguing that there is no glory in the suffering and killing caused by conflict.
...e see a young boy being taught how to use weapons. In “Exposure”, Owen depicts a group of soldiers freezing to death at war, even though they aren’t in the midst of fighting. Lastly, in “Dulce Et Decorum Est” we read about a soldiers who struggles to get his mask on during a gas attack (when the enemy releases a gas deadly upon inhale). Owen describes the soldiers slow death in detail. Not only do these images provide the reader with first hand accounts of war, but they also show Owen’s feelings towards the war. All of these images that are glued into his head will be there forever, which is why he incorporates these realities in his poems, so that everyone can realize that war is nothing more than a inhumane act of terror.
Hardships from hostile experiences can lead to the degradation of one's mental and physical state, breaking down their humanity. Wilfred Owen's struggles with the Great War has led to his detailed insights on the state of war, conveying his first-hand experiences as a front-line soldier. 'Dulce et Decorum Est' and 'Insensibility' displays these ideas and exposes the harsh and inhumane reality of war. From the imagery and metaphors, Owen's ideas about the deterioration of human nature resonates with the reader of the repercussions of war.
Both Stephen Crane's "Do Not Weep, Maiden, For War Is Kind" and Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est" use vivid images, diction rich with connotation, similes, and metaphors to portray the irony between the idealized glory of war and the lurid reality of war. However, by looking at the different ways these elements are used in each poem, it is clear that the speakers in the two poems are soldiers who come from opposite ends of the spectrum of military ranks. One speaker is an officer and the other is a foot soldier. Each of the speakers/soldiers is dealing with the repercussions from his own realities of the horror of war based on his duty during the battle.
To draw into the poet’s world, the poet must draw relations between them, including the reader, making them feel what the poet feels, thinking what the poet thinks. Wilfred Owen does this very creatively and very effectively, in both of his poems, Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori and Anthem of Doomed Youth, who is seen as an idol to many people today, as a great war poet, who expresses his ideas that makes the reader feel involved in the moment, feeling everything that he does. His poems describe the horror of war, and the consequences of it, which is not beneficial for either side. He feels sorrow and anger towards the war and its victims, making the reader also feel the same.
Wilfred Owen wrote about the distilled pity of war from his first-hand experience. Owen concisely features the carnage and destruction of war in both the poems, ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ and ‘Strange Meeting’ Owen uses these poems document the psychological and physical debilitation of war. In ‘Dulce et Decorum est’, Owen uses a various amount of literary techniques to visually depict the cruel and grotesque death from the mustard gas whereas ‘Strange Meeting’, portrays the speaker in conversation with a dead soldier that he is presumably responsible for killing, symbolically which emphasises the effect of the wartime trauma. Wilfred Owen’s poetry effectively highlights the carnage and destruction of war to educate the audience on the disillusionment of war.
The media also has a great impact on the minds of the public, like newspapers, televisions, radios, arouses the public’s interest and motivates the young generation to join the army and fight for the nation. However, there are artists who look at war in its very naked form. For example, the poet Wilfred Owen in his poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est” demonstrates that no sweetness or honor is earned in dying for one’s country, instead humanity is taken away during war. In the first stanza, Owen uses strong metaphors and similes to convey a meaningful warning. The first line, “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks”, describes the soldiers tremendous exhaustion.
War consumes the youth of young men and completely alters a person. From numerous poems, it is made clear that war exhausts the youth of young men, and has left their lives with no meaning. These poems are “Dulce Et Decorum Est” and “Mental Cases” written by Wilfred Owen. Similarly, they both employ the same techniques, such as similes and metaphors. However, a somewhat different perspective is projected through the poem “In Flanders Field” by John McCrae, which dissimilitudes yet intensifies the main message. Whether from a more emotional perspective or from a physical view, war has devastated the prime time of many young men in multitudinous ways.
In this comparative piece on these two anti-war sonnets, from World War One and the Battle of Vinegar Hill, I will attempt to explain how each writer displays the particular event in their poetry. Both these poems have irregular rhyme schemes and around 10 syllables on each line. The aim of these poems is to remind us to respect those men who lost their lives in battle, and how disgraceful war really is. In Anthem for Doomed Youth, Owen splits his sonnet into two stanzas, an octet and a sestet. The octet describes the imagery of the battlefield and the trenches on the front line.
Owen who experienced the war himself writes the truth about war through his poems without dramatizing it. A powerful argument against the complacency of those who believe war to be a glorious patriotic duty is mounted by Owen. He is also succeeded in portraying the reality of the war—the boredom, the helplessness of the people in the war through his writings. Instead of direct description of the anger and frustration of the people due to the devastation of war, Owen euphemistically delivers his messages by painting vivid imaginaries through his tonal, point of view, sentence struct...