In contrast Owen's poem attacks the idealistic and romantic view put forward by Brooke. He argues against the ideals of heroism and self-sacrifice. He is more concerned with all the men going into war thinking that it is heroic and glorious when actually it is horrible and that millions of men die every day. The poem which I prefer between Rupert Brooke's The Soldier and Wilfred Owen's Dulce Et Decorum Est is Wilfred Owen's Dulce Et Decorum because it describes the war as I believe it is and it is very descriptive on how the gas attack happened and how all the men felt. So I like Wilfred Owen's Dulce Et Decorum overall
Despite his patriotic view, he has repeated the danger of an early death in his poem, proving he is fully aware of war's horrors. Owen has shown war as being gruesome. His poem describes the war through the senses, which allows readers enter the shoes of Wilfred Owen, and understand war's tragedy. He believes that 'sweet and proper to die for your country' is a lie, unlike Tennyson. Alfred Tennyson's poem was based on a newspaper article that has made the poem biased and patriotic.
His view of war is that dying for your country is the most honorable act of man. The poems have contrary attitudes towards the life of a soldier and this is shown through poetic devices such as personification and imagery. Both poems present different views on war. Rupert Brooke, The Soldier, portrays dying for your country as glourious and patriotic. He explains how he is a great man because he fought for his country.
Owen presents us a sarcastic view towards the idea of being honorable to sacrifice for their country and buttresses it with abundant of horrific images. It is a war sonnet that captures the feelings of survivors to those who lost their lives in war. The use of a sonnet creates a sense of intensity in his poem, briefness and portrays the nature of death on a battlefield. Moreover, Owen uses the rhyme scheme of “ababcdcdeffegg” to show the strong division between the lines. The choice of a sonnet allows Owen to convey his message effectively and remain emotional to keep the readers interested.
Owen’s main aim was to open up the truth about war and the horrific and gruesome reality of being a soldier, contradicting the propaganda illustrating soldiers as heroic, honorable, and proud. Owen’s poem ‘Strange Meeting’ shows the horrors of war through dramatic and memorable imagery that allow us to feel deep pity for the young soldiers, whether it’s physical or the soldier’s inner mental pain. For example, “They will be swift with swiftness of the tigress” (line 29) is a metaphor describing the violent attacks during the war. Meanwhile, “With a thousand fears that vision's face was grained” (line 11) gives a clear picture of what the dead soldier’s face was like, bringing pity to the reader. These images are used to show the immense harm and the brutality of war and its effect on men.
The Views of Rupert Brooke and Wil My selected poems are 'The Soldier' by Rupert Brooke and 'Dulce et Decorum est' by Wilfred Owen. Both war poems but conveying their different feelings and presenting their views of war in radically different ways. The poets have polarized views of war with Rupert Brooke writing his poem in a romanticized and patriotic way referring to the possibility of death as a noble cause, for England the land that gave him life. This is at odds to how Wilfred Owen views the reality and horror of war. The poets choice of title 'Dulce et Decorum est' which translated means 'It is lovely and honourable to die for your country' which in its self is irony, misleads you to think that the poem is going to be about how blissful it is to die for your country and how proud you should be, when the reality is so different.
During his time in war he wrote many powerful poems; the conditions they lived in and how futile it was. During war propagandists publicised war as daring and heroic, encouraging families to send their sons to join the army. The glorification of war is reflected in the Latin notion; ‘Dulce et decorum est propatria mori’ meaning it is sweet and noble to die for ones country. Owen illustrates this by labelling it as the ‘old lie’. Men were tricked into war considering that after war, they may have a chance of having possessions such as fame and riches.
This shows that in Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s eye, it is noble and glorious to fight and die for your country. The message that ‘Dulce Et Decorum’ delivers is very different. Again the theme of this poem is war, but it tells us of the disaster, chaos and truth of war. The poem ends with a very clear message: My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori ‘Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori’ is Latin and it means it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. Wilfred Owen sees this as a lie as he believes war is violent, disastrous and glorified.
In the poem "Dulce et Decorum Es... ... middle of paper ... ...inions about war, in fact, almost opposite opinions, each poet uses different types of diction, figurative language, imagery, sounds, and tones to achieve his purpose. There are also a multitude of differences between ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ and ‘The Soldier’. While ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ conveys the ruthless reality of war and mocks the very act of patriotic death, Brooke uses ‘The Soldier’ to stress that it is undeniably an honor to die for ones country. To build on his tone, Owen uses harsher, more repulsive onomatopoeic words that give off ‘g’, ‘c’ (k) and a lot of hissing ‘s’ sounds, which continue to keep you on your toes-“ knock-kneed… sludge… trudge… guttering… choking… gargling”. But Brooke uses softer words, such that give off ‘f’ sounds.
This was illustrated in his poem by using words like 'Honour... ... middle of paper ... ... The history of the old lie is that it means that it is sweet and fitting to die for your country. It was believed by many poets of whom two are known as Brooke and Tennyson. These are two well known poets that made the majority of the public believe in the old lie through their own poetic techniques which included positive thinking and heroism but through the poetry examined it can be seen that the attitudes to war have moved from believing the old lie and thinking that war is noble and honorable, to the majority thinking that war is horrific, evil and inhumane this is due to the effect of poems written by poets such as Wilfred Owen which had such an effect on peoples attitudes to war that they begin to believe a complete contrast of what they believed before. This is due to Owen explaining the concept of the old lie.