‘Mental Cases’ and ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ are two outstanding pieces created by Owen, each using techniques such as hyperboles, personification and imagery that associate the two poems, giving us, the readers, a bigger picture of what is happening in the poets eyes. In the poem Mental Cases Owen expresses his perception that war is taking away a soldiers future, a life full of happiness. It illustrates the bloodshed and suffering of war, using a series of graphical description of young men who are treated for war-related illness’, such as shellshock. It was a heart-wrenching poem for Owen because he himself was a patient of shellshock. The repetition of question marks and dashes illustrate the confusion and frustration witnessing Owens fellow comrades, it is a demanding tone begging for explanation for the entrapment of victims.
In ‘The Manhunt’ the narrator’s compassion is for the mental anguish which the husband is obviously suffering. In ‘Nettles’ it is the father’s compassion for his son’s physical wounds. Both poets use unusual imagery to present the writer’s family member as needing protection. In ‘The Manhunt’ instead of the obvious representation of a solider as strong and powerful. Laura’s husband is likened to fine precious china, ‘delicate porcelain collar bone’.
Theme and language can be the basis of poetry that is capable of holding the attention of a nation over decades, and Henry Lawson was an Australian literary Icon who did exactly that. The term ‘Distinctly visual’ refers to the way composers use language to create particular pictures in the mind of the audience. These ‘snapshot’ images compel Australians to see themselves as stoic and strong people who respond to the harsh landscape with humour and mateship. ‘Distinctly visual’ is expressed through many of the Henry Lawson’s short stories including ‘The Drovers Wife’ and ‘the loaded dog’. It is also shown in the poem ‘The Mitchells’ by Les Murray.
How Does Duffy reveal her attitude to war and soldiers? In The Falling Soldier, Duffy takes the opportunity to use the photograph of the man’s ‘last breath’ to try and rewrite history, creating several different pleasant images of what the photo could of been representing, compared to the harsh reality. Duffy in both The Falling Soldier and Last Post shows the same theme of her trying to show what she wished, could have happened to the innocent soldiers. ‘If poetry could truly tell it backwards, then it would’ this is Duffy basically telling us that if she could rewrite history with her poems then she would. In the poem The Falling Soldier, which is in relation to the photograph by Robert Capa, Duffy begins the poem by using colloquial language such as ‘flop’ and ‘kip’ to create a very casual everyday image about how the photo could be interoperated.
“The Things They Carried” is a text that focuses on writing as a form of coping with trauma and discusses how exaggeration is sometimes needed in a story to convey the message that the story-teller is trying to get at. An example of this is when the author talks about how for Rat Kiley “facts were formed by sensation” (89). Kiley is described as telling his stories as though they are intended to be tragedies, even the funny parts. This is because there is an underlying sadness to every war story, even though humor can be found in them. Part of this may be attributed to the ‘education’ each soldier received when they first went off to the war.
Poetry is an art form where the author uses different poetic devices to convey feelings, emotions and ideas to get the reader emotionally involved. Australian author Bruce Dawe, who is an anti-war poet, expresses his poetic art form by showing the different aspects of the war, particularly the Vietnam War. He shows this through the title, structure and imagery by comparing the differences and similarities of his anti-war poems Homecoming and Weapons training. The title and theme of a poem is carefully selected by the author to explain or sum up the main topic or message of the poem. Although both Homecoming and Weapons Training are based on an anti-war theme, Dawe writes about the different aspects that involve war such as death, weapons, lives lost, soldier’s, families and disrespect.
In this essay I will analyze what caused him the disease? How bad was its effect on him? How writing cures him and saved his life? Throughout Notes of a Native Son essay, we can closely find two Baldwin’s identity; the affected or sick Baldwin and the writer Baldwin who is the remedy for the virus. I believe the writer Baldwin saved the young Baldwin from a real death.
Cross can be compared as a Christ-like figure not only on a superficial level, they share the same initials of JC, but also in the nature of his role as the lieutenant of the platoon. In The Things They Carried, Cross carries grief of lavenders death for the members of the Alpha Company. At the end of the story, he burns the letters from Martha so that he will no longer be distracted by her memory; this instance signifies the transformation from premature soldier to mature lieutenant. In each case, Cross makes a Christ-like sacrifice so that his fellow men—Norman Bowker and Kiowa, in this case—can carry on without being crippled by grief and
PARRA 2- homecoming In the Australian poem ‘Homecoming’ the author, Dawe uses vivid visual and aural poetic techniques to construct his ongoing attitudes of the war. The universal theme of moral outrage at the dehumanising aspects of the war can be seen by the repetition of particular words in the poem such as ‘them’ and ‘they’re’. Dawe chooses words which lack individuality ‘bagging’, ‘tagging’, ‘green plastic bag’ and categorises the dead soldiers into similar groups ‘curly heads’. This is done to provide a further insight into the journey by chronicling the repatriation of the Australian soldiers. Therefore journeys do not always involve an
Throughout this poem, these poets have really thought about their language choices. They use metaphors; some being “ancient heart” and the “keeper of the flame”, but also use assonance, “bowed down by iron chains”. They’ve also brought back Australian history by writing the lyrics; “I am Albert Namatjira, I paint the ghostly gums” and “I am Clancy on his horse; I’m Ned Kelly on the run”. For all who don’t know, Namatjira is perhaps Australia’s best-known Aboriginal painter, who sadly passed away in 1959. On the other hand, Kelly was an Irish Australian