Hope can best be described as having an optimistic attitude that a desired outcome may come true. In contrast, hopelessness is the feeling that the desired outcome may never come true. Mary Oliver’s poem, “Wild Geese” uses various avenues to express her hope in personal acceptance. On the contrary, Wilfred Owen’s poem, “Anthem for Doomed Youth” displays hopelessness that a soldier’s sacrifice goes unnoticed. Both poets implore the audience’s attention and participation using several literary devices to achieve their individual purposes to instill their poem’s version of hope. Mary Oliver’s tone in “Wild Geese” is perceived as one of encouragement. She uses hope as a backbone to providing her encouragement for the audience’s personal acceptance. …show more content…
Owen’s hopelessness is obvious as he cries out from experience. The poet appears to push the solemnity on the reader. He begins this in the title of his poem, “Anthem.” Anthem means “a usually rousing popular song that typifies or is identified with a particular subculture, movement, or point of view” (Anthem). Owen desires the attention of the reader, toward the reality of soldiers whom die with no audience or appreciation. The audience is unable to feel hope when they are drawn in to “monstrous anger of the guns.” Owen only allows the reader to feel guilt and responsibility. He steals the opportunity to allow the reader to feel appreciation. Owen’s anger bleeds through his words when he says, “The shrill, demented choir of wailing shells.” Wilfred Owen’s hopeless tone paves the way for using metaphors to establish clear imagery. It is my intent to explore these devices to help give a better understanding of “Anthem for Doomed …show more content…
In actuality, a metaphor is a “figure of speech which makes an implicit, implied or hidden comparison between two things that are unrelated but share some common characteristics” (Literary Devices). Both Oliver and Owen use metaphors to further develop the imagery for their poems. One of the metaphors that Oliver uses is “Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and deep trees, mountains and the rivers.” The “sun,” I believe, means days that are glorious, and “pebbles of rain” are days that are hard. The clearness of the pebbles tells me that those hard days are not always dark and troubling, that they can appear to cleans the soul, to make life good again. However, she uses the rain to “move across the landscapes” to tell the reader that our attitudes on those days will vary. We may be grumpy, we may be joyful, we may be receptive, whatever the attitude, “The world offers itself to your imagination.” Likewise, Owen uses several metaphors to establish his poem’s imagery. One of his metaphors is “The pallor of girl’s brows shall be their pall.” What Owen is literally saying is that the unhealthy appearance of girls’ brows shall be their tomb or coffin. In this metaphor Owen is complaining that the soldiers do not receive a proper funeral or burial. I feel that the use of “pallor” is signifying
Nature is a universal concept that nearly everyone on the planet can relate to, as well as the struggle of not knowing one’s place in the world, both of which are central themes in Mary Oliver’s poem. For example, in the opening lines of her piece Mary Oliver urges her readers not to feel guilt or shame for how he/she may be feeling via metaphors from nature, “You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.” (Lines 4-5) She also utilizes nature to create beautiful imagery for her readers. These images not only add to the splendor of the poem but are part of her purpose as well. An example of this is Lines 8 through 11, in these lines Oliver writes out, “Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers…” By using these examples and symbols from nature Oliver helps to communicate her message, which is that every person on the planet has the right to be comfortable in his/her own skin. When the author uses these techniques she is able to harness the pathos technique to convince her reader that she is correct in her statement within the
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.
Wild Geese-- a poem by Mary Oliver. 1 May 2009. Youtube. 2 Sep. 2010. .
Therefore, Oliver’s incorporation of imagery, setting, and mood to control the perspective of her own poem, as well as to further build the contrast she establishes through the speaker, serves a critical role in creating the lesson of the work. Oliver’s poem essentially gives the poet an ultimatum; either he can go to the “cave behind all that / jubilation” (10-11) produced by a waterfall to “drip with despair” (14) without disturbing the world with his misery, or, instead, he can mimic the thrush who sings its poetry from a “green branch” (15) on which the “passing foil of the water” (16) gently brushes its feathers. The contrast between these two images is quite pronounced, and the intention of such description is to persuade the audience by setting their mood towards the two poets to match that of the speaker. The most apparent difference between these two depictions is the gracelessness of the first versus the gracefulness of the second. Within the poem’s content, the setting has been skillfully intertwined with both imagery and mood to create an understanding of the two poets, whose surroundings characterize them. The poet stands alone in a cave “to cry aloud for [his] / mistakes” while the thrush shares its beautiful and lovely music with the world (1-2). As such, the overall function of these three elements within the poem is to portray the
One of the America’s most popular poets finds her inspiration in an unconventional way: on frequent walks through the forest with a small hand-sewn notebook in her back pocket, brandishing pencils she had previously hidden in trees so sudden ideas would never leave her bereft of something to write with. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, Mary Oliver pulls much of her subject matter from the nature that she immerses herself in. She is intensely private and secretive, preferring instead “to let her poetry speak for itself” (Duenwald). Oliver’s highly commended work is dedicated to her late partner of over 40 decades, Molly Malone Cook, an established photographer responsible for many of the photographs available of the seclusive Oliver (Popova). Drawing inspiration from her Ohio childhood and Provincetown home, Oliver’s unique style of poetry features straightforward imagery that is easy to
The use of compelling figurative language helps to reveal the reality of war. In the first line, "Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,"(1) shows us that the troops are so tired that they can be compared to old beggars. Another great use of simile, "His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,"(20) suggests that his face is probably covered with blood which is the colour symbolizing the devil. A very powerful metaphor is the comparison of painful experiences of the troops to "[v]ile, incurable sores on innocent tongues."(24) This metaphor emphasizes that the troops will never forget these horrific experiences. As you can see, Owen has used figurative language so effectively that the reader gets drawn into the poem.
Owen expresses his anger in a set of contrasts between a real funeral and the lack of a funeral for these young men,. For example, instead of a service with a choir. they only have ‘the shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells’. As you would expect, the tone and mood of both poems is deeply serious. as Owen has a strong message in both of them.
...e the heron both literally and figuratively add to the sense of wonder in the tone of the passage. In the poem by Mary Oliver, the diction used to describe the heron is completely different. The words "gray", "hunched", "clutching", and "scant" give the poem a desperate, unpredictable view of nature. The tone is dreary, begrudging, and almost helpless. Diction truly can take hold of the tone of a work and steer it in whatever direction it wishes.
The title ‘Anthem of Doomed Youth’, is juxtaposed to its real meaning of anthem being something to celebrate and be proud of. The assonance between the ‘Doomed’ and collective noun ‘Youth’ can come as a shock to society as topic of death and youth do not go together. In other words, the soldiers are too young and are already fated to death by enlisting in the war. This highlights how war is cruel as the soldiers are stolen of their youth, entering a battlefield designed to ‘sapt the soldier 's spirit.’ Furthermore, Owen shows that the fallen soldiers themselves will not get a proper burial of “candles,” “pall,” nor “flowers.” Instead, these are substituted with negative imagery “The pallor of girls’ brows” and personification “patient minds” to demonstrate that the thoughts of the ones waiting for the fallen soldiers back home are the closest thing they will have to a funeral. This is epitomised in the personification “bugles calling them from sad shires,” which conveys a nation in mourning back home. Collectively, these poetic devices in “Anthem for the Doomed Youth” shows that the death of the young soldiers negatively affects the people around
As a poet, Wilfred Owens wants to show the effects of warfare from the viewpoint of a soldier during a War. Owens uses his own experience as a fighter to capture the reader’s attention and get across his point. He often uses graphic imagery and words to depict his thoughts about war. Wilfred Owens, poems, “Dulce et Decorum est” and “Anthem for doomed youth” talk blatantly about the effects of warfare on the soldiers, their loved ones, and those who make an ultimate sacrifice by making a statement about the efficacy of war.
Wilfred Owen expresses his feelings about war in “Anthem for a Doomed Youth”, which revolves around the events that took place in World War I. Throughout the sonnet, the speaker talks bitterly about modern warfare, noting the harsh sounds of war and questioning the treatment of the soldiers that perish. In the octave, the speaker wonders what can be done to honor the soldiers that died, but realizes negatively that the soldiers only receive death instead of ceremonies. In the sestet, the speaker expands upon this idea of a proper ceremony for the deceased soldiers, saying that the families must be the ones to properly honor their dead. Owen’s use of the Petrarchan sonnet with a Shakespearean rhyme scheme, helps him express his frustration about war and its subsequent treatment of the dead.
The similes and metaphors used by Owen illustrate very negative war scenes throughout the poem, depicting extreme suffering of young men fighting during World War I. The first simile used by Owen describes the soldiers as “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks”, giving them sickly, wounded, and exhausted attributes from battle and lack of rest (1). Next, the soldiers are described as “Knock-kneed, coughing like hags”, which once again portrays these young men as sick...
‘Poetry can challenge the reader to think about the world in new ways.’ It provokes the readers to consider events, issues and people with revised understanding and perspectives. The poems Dulce Et Decorum Est (Wilfred Owen, 1917) and Suicide in the Trenches (Siegfried Sassoon, 1917), were composed during World War One and represented the poets’ point of views in regards to the glorification of war and encouraged readers to challenge their perspectives and reflect upon the real consequences behind the fabrications of the glory and pride of fighting for one’s nation.
In the first stanza Owen uses strong metaphors and similes to convey a meaningful warning. The first line, “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks”, describes the soldiers tremendous exhaustion. They have been brought down to a beggar’s level and are being compared to low society. To reinforce this the speaker says, “And towards our distant rest began to trudge” (3). Everything seemed farther and so the troops desire for relaxation and peace. Owen uses metaphors:”Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots/B...
In this comparative piece on these two anti-war sonnets, from World War One and the Battle of Vinegar Hill, I will attempt to explain how each writer displays the particular event in their poetry. Both these poems have irregular rhyme schemes and around 10 syllables on each line. The aim of these poems is to remind us to respect those men who lost their lives in battle, and how disgraceful war really is. In Anthem for Doomed Youth, Owen splits his sonnet into two stanzas, an octet and a sestet. The octet describes the imagery of the battlefield and the trenches on the front line.