Wilfred Owen’s ‘The Sentry’
To me Wilfred Owen’s poetry is visually descriptive, so much so that he seems to be able to effortlessly transport you into whatever situation he is describing.
This particular poem leaves you in no doubt as to the horrors of war and the terrible atrocities these poor men endured.
In the opening line he says ‘and he knew’ using the technique of personalisation he has turned the massive opposing force into a single person, someone who was actively trying to single them out, to attack them personally. This shows you just how desperate they felt and how to them no matter where they seemed to find shelter ‘he’ was never far behind.
He goes on to say ‘and gave us hell for shell on frantic shell hammered on top, but never quite got through’. By using the word ‘hell’ he is actively describing the terrible endlessness of their situation or the perseverance of the enemy and the fact that they cannot escape. enduring the onslaught, hour on hour, day by day.
‘Frantic shell’ the word frantic to me describes the non-target based shelling, as the enemy knew they that their enemy was somewhere in front of them, so just seemed to shell anywhere within that vicinity in the sure hope that they would be causing death eventually. The use of the rhyming words ‘hell’ and ‘shell’ automatically connects the two words in the reader’s brain, forming a connection and reinforcing the idea of the battle being ‘hell’.
‘Hammered’is also a very thought provoking verb used in this line, this word used in this particular sentence is brilliant, it not only describes the noise, as you cannot hammer quietly, but describes the repetition, when hammering something you repeatedly strike it. Hammered is a violent verb and its two syllables makes the word sound short and harsh.
In the following line, ‘rain, guttering down’ this makes me think the guttering I have on my house, a purpose made moulded channel used to transport water. He deliberately used this word to convey just how much rain had fallen that it had naturally moulded gutters out of the mud, channelling the slime and slurry into waterfalls. There is also assonance in this sentence emphasising the guttering (which I have already analysed above).
Wilfred Owen is cleverly able to relate to you a description of a bomb without ever actually calling it a bomb.
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.
...s, demonstrated through the author's talent, are denouncing the authority figures who were supposed to guide his generation into adulthood but instead turned the youth against each other in the pursuit of superficial ideals. The soldiers were simply the victims of a meaningless war.
War and its ramifications for those who are unfortunately entangled in it, is an issue that has fueled both political discussion and literary exploration throughout the previous century. Underived, authentic accounts of the experience and effects of war, from those who have served in it, can be especially enlightening for the majority of society who have had the fortune of not being intimately familiar with war. Through the examination of poems and stories written by soldiers, who were inspired by their involvement in conflict, one can obtain a greater understanding of this gruesome aspect of life, without having to directly experience it. Similarly, soldier turned poet, Bruce Weigl, has contributed his perspective on war through his literary
Edwards says,“...the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, their flames gather and flash about them..." This establishes a place of horror and frightens the people in the audience. The words devil, hell, flames, and flash exemplify a world of misery that no one would want to live. More importantly, it makes the experience of hell so realistic and effective that people would want to change decisions on what to believe on.
Through reading this poem several times I decided that the message from the poem is that war is full of horror and there is little or no glory. Methods which I found most effective were Full rhyme and metaphor.
...f the poem is that each soldier will not be remembered because they are one in so many that did not have no funeral or a body; they would have no grave stone and will just be forgotten.
How Wilfred Owen Uses Language and Imagery in His Poetry to Communicate his Attitudes of War
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.
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
Owen was able to evoke emotions through the use of imagery, as well as the usages of literary devices. This poet tends to use a lot of similes, metaphors and personification to express his image of the death and destruction of the war. ‘The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires.’ The use of personification gives the reader a clear feeling of what Owen is trying to express. Furthermore, sense of demonic force is also shown about torture for the soldiers. . Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle’- personification, alliteration and onomatopoeia combine as methods to make war seen more brutal, violent and cruel. His uses of describing ...
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.
This type of writing interests me because it was used as a tool to open people’s eyes to the brutality of war. In a way it protested and spoke up against this injustice and most importantly gave a voice to the people who became the biggest victims of war – the soldiers themselves.
Then to further instate his isolation in the next stanza the narrator admits to being the source of his seclusion. The narrator claims to put walls around him, but then goes into it more to say, “ A fortress deep and mighty”.
...Unlike other poets who glorified war and eluded people’s mind Owen brought the reality of war and death in front of people’s eyes. War is not just fighting for your nation and gaining victory, it is looking at death and inhumanity eye to eye and experiencing agony, suffering and reality. The name of heroes and heroism just remains in words but the reality is the inhuman situation faced during the war. In my opinion war is not a solution to all problems, there is no need for bloodshed, killing, violence and destruction. The problems, the difference of opinion and disputes can be settled by non violence, agreements and understandings. Mahatma Gandhi proved to the world that you can achieve your aim by means of non violence and peace. He rightly said: “I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.”