War Poem Essay

In doing do I will look at how each poet is effective in conveying the message through their use of imagery. Wilfred Owen most eminent poem regarding war is known as Dulce et Decorum est which means The Old Lie in Latin. T... ... middle of paper ... ...eam for fighting for their country is in reality a living nightmare both physically and psychologically and in fact there is nothing honourable in war and life on the battlefield. Instead he wants the reader to understand that war rapes a soldier of human dignity. He does this effectively through the use of his bold description of the gas attack incident and his elaborate description of the soldiers appearances.

Owen presents us a sarcastic view towards the idea of being honorable to sacrifice for their country and buttresses it with abundant of horrific images. It is a war sonnet that captures the feelings of survivors to those who lost their lives in war. The use of a sonnet creates a sense of intensity in his poem, briefness and portrays the nature of death on a battlefield. Moreover, Owen uses the rhyme scheme of “ababcdcdeffegg” to show the strong division between the lines. The choice of a sonnet allows Owen to convey his message effectively and remain emotional to keep the readers interested.

Dulce et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen and ‘The Soldier’ by Rupert Brooke are both poems commentating on the effects of war, yet both have two drastically different viewpoints. Both poems are examples of the authors’ perceptions of war; Owen’s being about its gruesome and harsh reality during his experience and Brooke’s about the glory of dying for one’s country. The poets express their sentimental emotions on the subject matter in terms of figurative language, tone, diction and imagery. The tone is exhibited through the use of unyielding and vivid imagery, primarily by the use of compelling metaphors and similes. Both poets swirl around the idea of death in the name of ones country, in this case England in the World War 1 era, but this example serves different purposes in the two poems.

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. Owen’s poem ‘Strange Meeting’ shows the horrors of war through dramatic and memorable imagery that allow us to feel deep pity for the young soldiers, whether it’s physical or the soldier’s inner mental pain. For example, “They will be swift with swiftness of the tigress” (line 29) is a metaphor describing the violent attacks during the war. Meanwhile, “With a thousand fears that vision's face was grained” (line 11) gives a clear picture of what the dead soldier’s face was like, bringing pity to the reader. These images are used to show the immense harm and the brutality of war and its effect on men.

The story takes place during a gas-attack on a British company during World War I (Moran). The use of past and present verb tenses explains the impact of the events on the narrator and the tone of the poem. The past tense is used in describing the war scene and situation, but the present tense, used to describe the dreams of the narrator, exemplifies the unforgettable nature of the events. The tone of desperation, bitterness, and irony reflects the speaker’s motivation. The first stanza of this poem immediately immerses the reader in the experience of battle, and it depicts the desperate and dilapidated nature of the soldiers.

‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ delivers a strong message. The theme of this poem is war. The poem gives us the impression that war is glorious and noble. The poem consists of phrases such as ‘When can their glory fade?’ ‘Honour the charge they made’, ‘The noble six hundred’. This shows that in Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s eye, it is noble and glorious to fight and die for your country.

The speaker describes these soldiers as ‘shadows’ which rock in the twighlight. As described from the first 2 lines. Though the severity is amplified in the rest of the stanza. With description such as ‘Drooping tongues from jaws’, shows how demented these soldiers have become with the trauma they have experienced. Further effects of witnessing of the horrors of war are also sensed in the sixth line, ‘Gouged these chasms around the... ... middle of paper ... ... decorum est Pro patria mori, It is sweet and proper to die for one’s country.

He would attempt to fix the scenery of the war firmly in the mind of the reader and in this way more expressively stress the tremendous suffering that constitutes 'the pity of war'. There was no glory in war for Owen. One of his poems is the great anti-patriotic verse Dulce Et Decorum Est. Arguably it is a fine example of his narrative, first person poems, written through his own eyes and based on his own experiences and views of the war. In this poem we are shown the disapproving side of war.

In ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ Wilfred Owen intends to instigate strong emotions in the reader to convey how the WW1 was like hell. This differentiates with other poets like, Jessie Pope. As this poem is written aggressively against the war. In the poem, Wilfred Owen had written three stanzas in where; stanza one he had described the sorrow of the soldiers that had to endure the unpleasant experience of warfare. This is best shown when Owen describes the men as ‘Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sledge,’.

John Hughes’ critical essay “Owen’s ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’” supports the idea of the horrors of the war because he believes that soldiers in World War I were often dehumanized by the effects of the war. He states, “At the same time, this reading, in my view, adds a new resonance to the poem 's specification of the horror and the cost of war. My reading will center on the two-line stanza in the middle of the poem where Owen describes the death of his maskless comrade in the gas attack” (Hughes 1). This quote about Hughes’ analysis gives the readers an insight that war is a haunting experience in the mind and the body of the soldiers who have never faced the psychological effects of war. The image of Owen’s dreams about the soldier who suffocated and died in the gas demonstrates a traumatizing