Comparing the poems Dulce Et Decorum Est and Anthem for Doomed Youth

Comparing the poems Dulce Et Decorum Est and Anthem for Doomed Youth,

comment on the poet's use of language and poetic technique showing how

successful he is in conveying his message.

'Comparing the poems 'Dulce Et Decorum Est' and 'Anthem for Doomed

Youth', comment on the poet's use of language and poetic technique

showing how successful he is in conveying his message.

'Comparing the poems 'Dulce Et Decorum Est' and 'Anthem for Doomed

Youth', comment on the poet's use of language and poetic technique

showing how successful he is in conveying his message.

Wilfred Owen wrote both the poems 'Dulce Et Decorum Est' and 'Anthem

for Doomed Youth' during the First World War.

Wilfred Owen was a British poet born in 1893. He entered World War 1

(1914 - 1918) in October 1915 and fought as an officer in the battle

of the Somme in 1916 but was hospitalised for shell shock in May 1917.

Here he met Siegfried Sassoon, a poet whose anti-war works were in

harmony with Owens concerns. Under Sassoon's care, Owen began

producing the best work of his short career. His poems are suffused

with the horror of battle and are a passionate expression of outrage

at the horror and pity for the young soldiers sacrificed in it. Owen

was awarded the military cross for serving in the war with

distinction. He died one year after returning to battle and one week

before the war ended in 1918.

I believe that Owen wrote these poems because he wanted to tell people

about the horrible things he has seen and been through. Also I believe

he wrote them to deliver the truth to the people at home and to the

people who were thinking of going to war because it was glorious. I

don't think he was telling them not to go to war but to go to war...

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...poems have a few differences, which make them

contrast with each other. 'Anthem' is describing the funerals/burial

of people at home and 'Dulce' is about the death on the battlefield.

'Anthem'is a reflective poem whereas 'Dulce' is very visual and

extremely graphic giving it a deeper impact on the reader. 'Anthem'

is written as a sonnet because it has 14 lines, 3 quatrains and one

rhyming couplet. This immediately gave me the impression that the poem

was softer than 'Dulce' (Which is written in free verse) because I

tend to associate a sonnet with Romeo and Juliet, which is all about

love.

In conclusion I think that 'Dulce Et Decorum Est' effectively conveyed

Owen's message to the reader because it was much more visually

disturbing, and made you feel pity and sympathy for all the thousands

of people who die like that in the wars we have had in the past.