How Wilfred Owen Uses Language and Imagery in His Poetry to Communicate his Attitudes of War

By 1917, his poetry had changed from blind patriotic disillusion and encouragement, to bitterness and anger. “Dulce et Decorum Est’, and “Disabled” were poems he wrote during his time in Craig Lockheart hospital, where he was suffering from shell shock. He had seen the tragedy and graphic brutality of trench warfare, and the trauma he had seen and experienced had sunk in. Both the poems focus on one main person or event. Wilfred Owen wrote these poems to highlight the reality of war, they were ‘protest poems’ to propaganda declaring fighting for soldiers as an honor.

The tone is bitter and intense in a realistic way. It is achieved by the vivid and gruesome images in the poem. Wilfred Owen 's use of imagery in this poem is by depicting emotional, nightmarish, and vivid words to capture the haunting encounters of WWI that soldiers went through. In the first stanza, Owen depicts his fellow soldiers struggling through the battlefield, but their terrible health conditions prevent them from their strong actions in the war. When Owen says, “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, knock-kneed, coughing like hags” (lines 1-2).

Comparison of Three First World War Poems The three poems that I will be studying in this essay are “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, “Comrades: An Episode” by Robert Nichols and “Who’s For The Game?” by Jessie Pope. These poems are about the First World War and two of them seem to have a negative attitude criticising and downgrading the so-called spectacular experience of the First World War. In “Dulce Et Decorum Est” Wilfred Owen seems to mention good aspects of the War but compares them to low-class tragic events. In “Comrades: An Episode” Robert Nichols describes the event of a soldier being badly injured and eventually dying. It describes what the corporals and soldiers did and how they reacted to the situation.

Strange Meeting ‘Strange Meeting’ by Wilfred Owen is a poem about a soldier in war who makes contact with the spirit of a dead soldier. The poem begins with the relief of a soldier as he escapes the war; but then realizes where he was when he sees the dead soldier. The spirit tells him that joining war is simply a waste of your life. The poem describes the cruelty and harshness of war, and what it’s like to be in it. 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.

In line 25, “my friend you would not tell with such high zest”. Owen makes reference to “my friend” in an ironic way, trying to make them understand that if they had witnessed those scenes, they would never repeat this revolting lie to children, with such unrealistic enthusiasm towards war, “with such high zest”. In conclusion, Wilfred Owens anti-war poem successfully demonstrates the horrors of war. The poems theme is an anti-war, trying to show the horrid experience men went through during World War 1. In order for this theme to have been created Owen uses of many poetic devices and appeals such as imaginative appeal, sensual appeal as well as intellectual appeal.

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.

Wilfred Owen was born in 1893 and his poem was published in 1920 (December). Both these poets have strong but opposing views about war. 'Dulce et Decorum est' means it's a good and noble thing to die for your country, which is ironic as Wilfred Owen doesn't think this is true and he thought war was horrific. This poem is about the First World War and Owen describes how he feels and he describes the trenches appalling from first hand experience. At the beginning the troops are marching in awful conditions to battle.

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.

Owen’s poem uses symbolism to bring home the harsh reality of war the speaker has experienced and forces the reader to think about the reality presented in romanticized poetry that treats war gently. He utilizes language that imparts the speakers experiences, as well as what he, his companions, and the dying man feels. People really die and suffer and live through nightmares during a war; Owen forcefully demonstrates this in “Dulce et Decorum Est”. He examines the horrific quality of World War I and transports the reader into the intense imagery of the emotion and experience of the speaker. Works Cited Griffith, George V. “Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est”.

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.