The poet is saying that people should not talk about war as enthusiastically as it gives the impression that war is glorious. Furthermore, he says that the idea that ’it is sweet and right’ to die for your country is entirely untrue. Through this, we are able to form the opinion that war is not okay because it is a serious thing that carries many negative consequences. In Wilfred Owen’s poem Dolce et Decorum est, the use of similes conveys the harsh reality of war on soldiers as it changes them dramatically and kills the majority of them. In the first two lines of the poem, Owen uses the similes “Bent double like old beggars under sacks, knocked kneed, coughing like hags” to paint a grim picture in readers minds of how the soldiers were.
The British government in particular, heavily censored the material that most posted by the journalists and then even before it went to print. This was because of experiences from wars prior to the Great War as “unrestricted newspaper reporting was an unacceptable security risk” (www.bbc.co.uk). For the few reporters that were sent out to the Western Front, they were subject to many layers of censorship both at HQ in France and back in Britain, and at no time were they permitted to criticise the military operations taking place at any time. As Stephen Badsey stated, “Whatever their own opinions, like most soldiers they were minor players trapped in a complicated hierarchical structure”. Both photography and
Gas! Quick, boys! “ and as the fumble to put their gas mask, one is not quick enough, owen graphically describes his death “gargling”,”choking” and “froth-corrupted lungs” to shick the reader about some of the horrible experiences of war. Anthem for Doomed Youth before even been read it already conveys the attitude on war. “the shrill demented choirs of wailing shells; and burgles
Wilfred Owen uses contrast in this poem to help show the major changes for example “ There was an artist silly for his face, For it was younger than his youth, last year. Now, he is old; his back will never brace” This talks about before the war he would have people wanting his picture. But now no-one wants to see him, he looks old even though he is still young and his back will not support him. Many soldiers lost their limbs in battle and this poem helps people realise the pain the soldiers went through both physical and mental. “Mental Cases” is about the men who went crazy due to the events of World War I. it helps explain how these men looked with the use of half-rhymes, metaphors and similes “ drooping tongues from jaws that slob their relish, Baring teeth that leer like skullls teeth wicked?” This talks about what the men looked like after going crazy.
“Dulce et decorum est” and “Who’s for the game?” In comparing the two war poems by Jessie Pope and Wilfred Owen I have analysed the ways they have presented war. The poems have very different opinions on the Great War, “Dulce et decorum est “is against the war and the injustice of it all whereas “Who’s for the game”, is a recruitment poem. At the time Jessie wrote ‘Who’s for the game’ she couldn’t do any research on the war, due to the media and propaganda, also with being a women with no experience in the war it was hard for her to know the harsh reality. ‘Who’s for the game’ was written with the intent of trying to enlist more men for the war as Pope believed that all men should stand up and fight for their country. However ‘Dulce et decorum est’ has a different view on war, it was written in response to ‘Who’s for the game’ and it was written to show Jessie Pope and the rest of the public that war isn’t at all glorious and it’s not patriotic to fight for their country, both poems have used metaphors and pronouns to portray these ideas.
At the outbreak of World War 1 hundreds of thousands of young men enlisted in the Army. This was fuelled by the jingoistic glorification of war and associated propaganda. This included posters of strong fit and brave young men wearing smart uniforms believing ‘Dulce et Decorum Est. (it is honourable to die for one’s country) Siegfried Sassoon, and to a lesser degree Wilfred Owen believed this propaganda and both enlisted in 1915. In this essay I will explore the emotions and moods portrayed in two poems, ‘Suicide in the Trenches’ by Siegfried Sassoon and ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen.
Compare and Contrast the four poems ‘For the Fallen’, ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’, ‘The Soldier’ and ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ All of these four poems are war poems but are written from different perspectives. ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ and ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ are both written by Wilfred Owen, a soldier on the front line. ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ portrays, using metaphors, how the soldiers’ deaths go without a funeral fit for such heroes. ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ is literally about a gas attack on some English soldiers , but metaphorically it is an ironic poem which pokes fun at the phrase ‘It is right and proper to die for one’s country.’ ‘For the Fallen’ is written by Laurence Binyon, a man too old to fight for his country. The subject of ‘For the Fallen’ is an elegy reminding us how many men died so that we may live.
‘Dulce et Decorum est’ by Wifred Owen Katriona Downie Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” is a magnificent, and horrific, description of a gas attack suffered by a group of soldiers in France in World War 1. One of his friends in his group is unable to get his helmet on in time and suffers horribly that Owen had to witness. This was an image he found extremely difficult to get out his head and kept coming back to him in his reoccurring nightmares. He writes this poem from the trenches while serving in war. Through his rhythms, dramatic description, and raw images, Owen seeks to convince that the horror of war far outweighs the patriotic clichés of those who glamorize war and increases my understanding of war and the horrors that come with it.
Identify what you consider to be the authors main purpose in producing each of the texts you have studied and explore, in depth, one or two main techniques used to achieve this purpose. The poems ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ by Wilfred Owen and ‘Suicide in the trenches’ by Siegfried Sassoon used the techniques of personal pronouns and irony to convey the poets feelings towards war. Before Owen and Sassoon all war poetry had been patriotic and was used to encourage recruitment of young men. However both Owen and Sassoon had witnessed the horrors of trench warfare first hand and their poetry was therefore realistic about the harsh realities of war. Owen commented on his poetry that ‘my subject is war, and the pity of it… all a poet can do is warn.’ Owen and Sassoon were both trying to warn young men against war and inform the public on how brutal and disgusting war actually is In both poems, after describing the obscene conditions of war and the impact that these conditions had on the soldiers, the poets dedicated a stanza to condemning the reader on any encouragement they may have had towards young men going to war.
Wilfred Owen was an active soldier during WWI, who used his horrific experiences during the war to write his poems. His poems stemmed from his views on war, as he believed that although war was sometimes necessary, it was futile and evil. Two of his poems, ‘Exposure’ and ‘Disabled’ both reveal the price paid by soldiers during WWI. ‘Exposure’ examines the more psychological effects on the soldiers and is written from the view of the soldiers on the front line, ‘Disabled’ shows the aftermath and repercussion of fighting in WWI and the physical damage it caused. The first word in ‘Exposure’ is ‘our’ and is written in first person plural, showing the reader that Owen wanted to convey the plight of the universal soldier and how they all suffered the same fate, no matter their side.