Wilfred Owen Essay

1195 Words5 Pages
“Owen makes remarkable poetry out of the greatest human tragedy of the twentieth century.” Discuss the ideas Owen conveys in these poems and the techniques he uses to explore them. Through a first-hand experience of the horrific events during World War One, Owen had the experience to witness human tragedy and the horror of war, thus having an impact of his idea of war based upon what he had seen for himself. These ideas of the twentieth century enhance Owen’s capability to write such remarkable poems out of the greatest human tragedy expressed throughout war. Two poems in particular that express this are “Dulce Et Decorum Est” and “Disabled”. These poems show many figurative methods and techniques which convey the feeling of human tragedy and the pity and horror of war. Specifically, irony, visual imagery, emotive and descriptive terms are used to convey the pain and suffering throughout the poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est”, whilst visual imagery, tone, contrast and repetition are used throughout “Disabled” to distil an image of the effects war plays upon its players and how much tragedy it causes to their lives. This is especially important in conveying the horror of war and the way human tragedy is experienced extensively through the war, which is Owen’s main goal, to convey tragedy and suffering as experienced throughout the war. “Dulce et Decorum est” is a true and powerful poem by Wilfred Owen which specifically conveys the strong sense of human tragedy as experienced through the war. This is conveyed through irony, especially within the title “Dulce et Decorum est” which in Latin translates to “it is sweet and decorous to die for one’s country.” Owen indicates a complete rejection of this phrase, and so explains war as something which is definitely not something remarkable or worthy to die for and so strongly provokes the way in which war greatly

More about Wilfred Owen Essay

Open Document