Painful realities

Painful realities

Poetry creates awareness of painful realities. This can be appreciated

in particular to war poetry where generally it is the aim of the poet

to educate people on the horrific events that take place during the

bleak years on the battlefields. The painful realities are expressed

through metaphors, similes, specific tone of language and mood.

Furthermore, poets use tempo, reflections and questions in their

writing in order to express their feelings and what war is essentially

about.

In order to study at how poetry creates awareness, four poems will be

considered. These are

War, Chick Martin

Dulce et Decorum Est, Wilfred Owen

Grenade, Francis Scarfe

Bombardment, D H Lawrence

In the first poem, it is evident that painful realities are created

through the author’s use of descriptive language and his ability to

describe the scenes on the battle fields and the impacts later.

There is no regular structure to the poem although there is a

reoccurring line at the conclusion of each stanza; War is war, nothing

more. This is the basis to the poem, explaining to readers that war is

as it appears. It is as the gruesome scenes of violence, death and

pain. There are ?????

The erratic shorter versus increase the intensity

Dulce et Decorum Est creates the realities through careful structure.

After describing how the soldiers, trudged through the mud, “blood

shod and drunk with fatigue,” it then describes the gas bombs. With

clever use of metaphor, the green gas becomes a misty sea where

soldiers drown as their lungs are burnt. Owen then concludes his poem,

questioning the government, questioning Jessie Pope and questioning

the world that so ruthlessly lied to young men, forcing them to

enlist. He questions the old adage, ‘dulce et decorum est pro patria

mori,’ (it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.)

The realities are so well depicted in this poem by Owen through the

choice of punctuation and use of reflection. Exclamation marks are

employed, exemplifying the intensity of the cries of the soldiers and

how they tried to warn each other of the green sea. Owen is able to