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Over the centuries, poetry has endeavoured to communicate human emotion and ideas. Bruce Dawe’s grave Homecoming and the saddening Dulce et Decorum est by Wilfred Owen convey the trauma in war-stricken situations and the loss involved. Significantly differing from these sombre themes, William Shakespeare is able to convey his love and appreciation for a woman in My Mistress’ Eyes which conflicts with the self-hatred and resentment apparent in Jennifer Maiden’s stark Anorexia. Delving into personal emotions, a number of the poems express despair in conflict or, conversely, aim to portray an inner turmoil.
The depressing atmosphere of Homecoming appeals to the reader by evoking a sense of despair. As the soldiers’ bodies are returned from war, Dawe explores the undignified treatment of the corpses, zipped “in green
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The soldier’s voice is communicated in first person to add a personal touch. “I saw him drowning” enables the reader to envision the terror associated with witnessing such a scene. Dulce et Decorum est speaks honestly of the atrocities of war to convey how war is nothing to be glorified, exposing the saying “it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s native land”. “Innocent tongues” would not elevate the conflict if they only knew the “bitter” reality. Soldiers are “bent double”, weighed by exhaustion, forced into degrading situations “like old beggars”. Barely conscious, they “trudge” in their shoes of blood, “deaf” to the loud noises around them as they lose their senses. The haunting sight of a man grabs the reader, while his “froth corrupted” lungs drown in mustard gas. Alliteration in “all went lame, all blind” and “watch the white eyes writhing” employs rhythmic features to convey the atrocities. successfully expressing shock, terror and pain, Owen honestly advises his readers of the true emotions in
The imagery and figurative language in “Dulce et Decorum Est” highlights the suffering of the soldiers, contradicting any notion of romanticized war. Owen uses the simile “like old beggars” (1) to describe the soldiers, which is ironic in that most of the soldiers in World War I were young men. This irony emphasizes how war has changed the soldiers for the worse; they seem “old” and bedraggled, unrecognizable in comparison to their old selves. In addition, the soldiers are “deaf even to the...Five-Nines that dropped behind” (7-8). Owen conveys the soldiers’ exhaustion to be extreme enough that they take no notice of the bombs falling around them, as if they are a
“Dulce et Decorum Est” shows how one soldiers need to survive indirectly causes another soldiers death. From the very beginning of the poem the reader sees how the war affects the soldiers. Fighting in the war has aged the soldiers, the once young men now “bent double, like old beggars under sacks, knock-kneed, coughing like hags” trudge through the warzone (Owen 1-2). The men, completely drained f...
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.
Many of the young officers who fought in the Great War enlisted in the army with glowing enthusiasm, believing that war was played in fancy uniforms with shiny swords. They considered war as a noble task, an exuberant journey filled with honor and glory. Yet, after a short period on the front, they discovered that they had been disillusioned by the war: fighting earned them nothing but hopelessness, death and terror. They had lost their lives to the lost cause of war, which also killed their innocence and youth. They were no longer boys but callous men. Wilfred Owen's poem "Dulce et Decorum Est", Pat Barker's novel Regeneration, and Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, all portray the irony between the delusive glory of war and the gruesome reality of it, but whereas Owen and Sassoon treat the theme from a British point of view, Remarque allows us to look at it from the enemy's.
The meaning of "Dulce Et Decorum Est" is "it is sweet and right", yet there is nothing sweet and right about going through what these soldiers went through on a daily basis in WWI. The first few lines use sad and depressing language to express an image of roughy soldiers pushing through an ever threatening battlefield. "Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, knock- kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through the sludge" (lines 1- 2) is the way Owen describes the soldiers. This dismisses the belief that the soldiers were happy, proud, and patriotic. This shows them as physically and mentally exhausted, still pushing forward towards the one and only goal of surviving. Their disintegrating body reflects their inner turmoil and tiredness. The horrendous quality of war is shown by the description of the soldiers "men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood shod" (lines 5-6) this enhances the fact that war is not normal. It seems unreal, much like that of a nig...
The phrases “skulls blown open”, “two feet cut off”, “splintered stumps”, and “smashed knee” portrays the bloodthirsty battlefield that soldiers have become used to. Dotted with commas and semicolons, repetitive word choice and length are used to illustrate the multiple forms of pain the soldiers experience and impose upon others. Similarly, the gruesome word choice uses imagery to give the reader a sense of discomfort towards the actions human beings inflicted upon one another. As the men become accustomed to brutal killing, emotions and morals are slowly pushed away, replaced by the dehumanized desire for murder. The poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est” confirms Paul’s descriptions as it also describes the horrors of war, “GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!... But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And floundering like a man in fire or lime.-- Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light/As under a green sea, I saw him drowning”. The exclamation marks and capitalization depict an urgency and fear, but never does the author question why an individual would gas another person; this portrays the narrator as a
I am going to compare and contrast the two poems ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen and ‘War Photographer’ by Carol Ann Duffy. They both give a view of war. Owen gives first hand experiences he witnessed whilst fighting in World War One and where he unfortunately died one week before the war came to an end. Carol Ann Duffy may be writing about the feelings of her personal friends who were war photographers, showing some of the horrors they witnessed.
“Dulce Et Decorum Est” is made up of grotesque diction scattered all across the poem to illustrate the conditions in which soldiers try to retain their humanities both physical and psychological, whereas “Suicide in the Trenches” offers little description of the horrendous physical aspects of war. Right from the get-go, Owen jumps into the brutality of war as he recalls, “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,” (Owen). His use of words like beggars, knock-kneed, and ha...
War is an event that has been trivialized and encouraged by authority for a thousand years. From the First Crusade, to the American Revolutionary War to the current war in Afghanistan; it is something that society today still encourages men and women to participate in. Although our soldiers now have a far greater support system and understanding of war then those who participated in World War I, our ANZACs enlisted relying on the cheerful, happy times proposed in the government’s propaganda. Wilfred Owen’s ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ challenges the image that the government put forth and brings portray the reality of war. The poem depicts the struggles of a soldiers return to base camp. It defies the image created by the government by displaying how gruesome and horrific the conditions that these men had to survive through.
The poem ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen portrays the horrors of World War I with the horrific imagery and the startling use of words he uses. He describes his experience of a gas attack where he lost a member of his squadron and the lasting impact it had on him. He describes how terrible the conditions were for the soldiers and just how bad it was. By doing this he is trying to help stop other soldiers from experiencing what happened in a shortage of time.
...n the face of war. Similarly to “Dulce et Decorum Est,” “The Sentry” has a highly descriptive tone. The images of “deluging muck” (Sentry 15) and “wretches… [bleeding] and spew[ing]” (Sentry 28) are so graphic that the audience feels as if they are on the battlefield with the soldier. This, along with the abundant literary devices and poem structure, decisively reaffirm the concept, also in All Quiet On the Western Front and “Dulce et decorum est,” that war, despite its regal façade, is dehumanizing.
To conclude this essay we have acknowledged that ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ and ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ are contrastable. However, in some points they are compatible as both involve war. Even though they mention war, it is shown in different ways. As ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ glorifies soldiers and the war, whereas, ‘Dulce Et decorum Est’ points out that war are not as heroic as it seems but instead is a horrifying brutal affair.
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.
Wilfred Owen’s poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” makes the reader acutely aware of the impact of war. The speaker’s experiences with war are vivid and terrible. Through the themes of the poem, his language choices, and contrasting the pleasant title preceding the disturbing content of the poem, he brings attention to his views on war while during the midst of one himself. Owen uses symbolism in form and language to illustrate the horrors the speaker and his comrades go through; and the way he describes the soldiers, as though they are distorted and damaged, parallels how the speaker’s mind is violated and haunted by war.
Through the use of dramatic imagery in Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est,” Owen is able to recreate a dramatic war scene and put the reader right on the front lines. The use of language is very effective in garnering the readers’ attention and putting the dire images of war into the mind. He emphasizes that war is upsetting and appalling at times. There is nothing sweet about it. He only strengthens his argument by the use of strong descriptive words and vivid figurative language. The utilization of these techniques gives the poem a strong meaning and provides the reader with a vivid portrayal of the events that took place during this grisly occurrence.