What Is Owen's View of War in 1914?

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What is Owens view of war in ‘1914’? In the first line of the poem, Owen begins with ‘War broke:’, which suggests his view of war as being something that is fragile and causes destruction. Owen uses a colon to emphasise how war is the cause and this ‘winter’ is the effect of it. Winters are harsh and bleak, suggesting how Owen sees the war as inhospitable and a big struggle for the world or it could be a connotation of death. This links with the line ‘perishing great darkness’ portraying how this ‘darkness’ of the war is taking lives as it spreads, and it can’t be escaped. ‘Darkness closes in.’ also portrays this suffocation that the soldiers could have felt at the time, and the end-stop could be Owen emphasising how it has come and cannot be stopped. This links with the last two lines of the poem as Owen repeats the subject of this ‘wild winter’, however he addresses it differently from the beginning as there is a slight volta in his emotions. This is shown through ‘the need of sowings for new Spring’ which perhaps portrays how Owen is more optimistic about escaping this ‘winter’ as in the beginning the words ‘perishing’ and ‘closes’ portrayed a pessimistic outlook to the war. ‘Blood for seed’ could suggest how Owen is quite a patriotic and heroic figure with blood representing this death for his country and dying would bring upon this ‘new spring’ for Britain or the world. It suggests how Owen sees something good in the end through the devastation of the war, and perhaps the way to escape it is through dying as a hero. This contradicts with ‘Rending the sails of progress’ as this suggests that any peace or progress can not be achieved, but at the end of the poem Owen perhaps sees that dying as a hero is how peace can be achieved. This patriotism is also shown through ‘The foul tornado, centred at Berlin’ showing how he sees Germany as the enemy and is the blame

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