World War 1 Poetry Analysis

Owen explores the experiences of soldiers on the Western Front during WW1 through his own suffering and horrors that he has perceived firsthand. His traumatic expositions depict the devastation of war and the disillusions of both the soldiers and himself. His times in the trenches and involvement in gas warfare has lead him to describe his experiences through poetry. He saw this as a way to “exorcise” the horror of WW1 and to illustrate his pain both physically, mentally and spiritually. He persuades the reader to believe that there is nothing worse than being involved in war. He leads the reader to a different world, broadening their understanding of the soldiers’ experiences of suffering and the impact of human cruelty. Owen prevents the

The nature in Futility can be seen as nurturing and peaceful, and at times can also represent death and turmoil which the soldiers endure. Owen depicts nature as powerful which can determine the life and death of the soldiers’, just like how God can also. This is examined through the use of personification, and adjectives in the quote, “kind old sun will know” portraying the sun as a caring element or a higher power like God who will determine whether the soldier will live or not. It also sounds like a friendly tone that is comforting to the solider during WW1. The sun is depicted as warm and as a source of life whilst in contrast with the snow described earlier in the same stanza as cold and associated with death. Owen further illustrates the effect of nature on the soldiers through the use of alliteration and imagery in the quote, “the clays of a cold star” embodying the brutality of the cold environment on the Western Front and the contrast in the atmosphere from the first stanza. This quote includes biblical imagery as clay is represented as what God used to create man on the cold star which is earth. Through this quote, Owen questions the existence of mankind and his religious beliefs, as to why God would create people, to then leading them being killed in such a vain way. This emphasises the nature of WW1 and the experiences of

Owen describes them coping with an impossible situation, causing them to lose their humanity. The terrors and horrors of war have psychologically dispositioned them from their normal state to a point where they have almost become “immune” to death. This is exemplified through the use of personification in the quote, “Happy are men who yet before are killed can let their veins run cold”. Owen in this quote introduces us to the idea that the soldiers are content about their deaths, as there is nothing left in them physically, emotionally and spiritually. The emotions and feelings of the soldiers is further depicted through the use of metaphor and strong imagery in the quote, “Blood over all our soul”, depicting the soldiers’ spirits as dead and their conscience being marked with the killing of innocent men, showing how dark their guilt is both inside and outside of them. This illuminates the emotions and feelings of the soldiers on the Western Front and how much terror they have endured, making the reader feel empathetic and to think about their own views of