The results of war are shown both similarly and differently in the two poems. The contexts also differ due to the poet’s experiences of war. Wilfred Owen died fighting in World War One whereas Alfred Tennyson learned about the battle second hand therefore they have different perspectives. In ‘Futility’, Owen uses metaphors that could represent the feelings of the soldiers but Alfred Tennyson tells the story of the battle. In ‘Futility’, Owen utilizes personifications such as ‘The kind old sun will know’ and ‘Woke once the clays of a cold star’ to create a sense of desperation on the part of the soldiers.
English 124-Literary Essay October 19, 2011 “Dulce et Decorum Est” and “The Soldier” Although the poems “Dulce et Decorum Est “by Wilfred Owen, and “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke, share the elements of writer passion and subjectivity, they differ with regards to tone, theme and literary devices. The lyrical poem, “The Soldier” was written during the period before the World War, and thus presents an unrealistic viewpoint of war. The speaker is simply regurgitating ideas and concepts about war instilled in him by his country England. The phrases, “England bore, shaped, made aware” and “the thoughts by England given” solidify this theory. It is evident that he has not physically engaged in warfare, nor has he observed the explicit nature of the battlefield because his focus remains on England, rather than the war itself.
Critics thought of him and his work as a good poet and an even better writer who made a major difference in the Harlem renaissance. Harold Bloom thought that “Thomas hardy, with his acute sense of life’s ironies, might have admired Sterling Brown’s Rain Which Precedes Robert Penn Warren in reviving Hardy’s Sprit” (5). Blyden Jackson a critic of the time likes Sterling Brown because he is a great poet and how Brown uses dialect with precision. David Littlejohn said that “Brown Attempted to do for the south what Langston Hughes did for the north” (Bloom 19). People thought that Brown’s irony was sharp, his ideas were exciting, and he was not only and protestor of his time but one of the first times.
The narrator, Ruri, is frightened throughout the story and it shows that through the tone of the story. The poem, ”I, Too”, shows America as a place where people don’t always choose to do the right thing but that doesn’t mean people are necessarily evil. The narrator is proud that one-day people will respect him more. Finally in the poem, “Chinese Hot Pot” America
Both “The Soldier” and “Dulce et Decorum Est” are poems written by soldiers in World War I about the war. “The Soldier” comes from the beginning of World War I in 1914, while “Dulce et Decorum Est” comes from the end of the war in 1917. “The Soldier” portrays death in the war as bittersweet, explaining that even if the narrator dies his burial place will always have the essence of England, his home country. In contrast, “Dulce et Decorum Est” portrays the war realistically, portraying the fear and raggedness of the soldiers when trying to survive in the trenches. Both poems have many common elements but are very different.
Notably, Harrison also had a few change in pronouns which complimented his rhyme scheme and used repetition of the phase 'let me'. In contrast even though both the poems seem to have a slight similarity in terms of how the imagery was conveyed. There seems to be a significant difference in the intent of the imagery. A fine example is the final stanza of Long Distance where there was a change in pronoun from 'I' to 'you', which Harrison used to show how the son was still trying to connect with his father by somehow creating a bond. This clearly creates a sad image that the only connection that Harrison has left with his father are the
Owen depicts the human cost of war and the social and religious ritual’s inability to commemorate properly the dead. In the following essay we will be discussing, four literary devices that support the thesis statement, first, the irony in the tone, second, the use of personification, third, the use of metaphors and similes and finally the significance of the title. Paragraph 1 The ironic tone of the poem indicates Owen's intention to oppose two ideas: the honor in religious and social rituals that commemorate war casualties and the actual dishonor of dying in combat. To begin, the Shakespearean sonnet is usually about love, on the other hand, Owen's poem is filled with hatred. Youngsters should be spending their lives free, instead they are confined to the trenches away from their loved ones, for those who survive, must live with the burden of war and its different psychological and physical scars.
Friends, Classmates, Fellow literary critics… Today, I am here to stress my knowledge on how the composer’s Siegfried Sassoon and Rupert Brooke have effectively conveyed their thoughts and feelings on war using themes, issues and techniques. Siegfried Sassoon chose to convey the theme of the outcomes war has had in those who survived (hence the name survivors) and how the process of war has aged them prematurely and darkened there spirits. The poem ‘survivors’ is a clever and well structured poem, Sassoon incorporates many techniques to emphasise and illuminate his main theme . Siegfried Sassoon uses primarily literal language; he rarely speaks metaphorically or figuratively thus the reason why we don’t see a frequency in metaphors, similes or imagery throughout the poem. He evokes a very bitter outraged mood in the reader, he’s thoughts and feelings produce anger and spite.
However, in any event, the power of Wordsworth's poetry is undeniable and the feelings that he brings forth are remarkable. As Matthew Sneider, a professor at Chapman University says, "Poems like this evoke the speaker's peculiarly mingled feelings of grief and awe be leaving out the narrative details one would expect to encounter in conventional elegies and laments. Who is Lucy? Why did she die?" (Sneider 25).
This positive representation of conflict could be linked to Tennyson’s role of Poet Laureate under Queen Victoria’s reign. On the other hand Futility could be considered as an elegy for the unnamed solider and opens with a tender and sad tone shifting to pointlessness in the second stanza. The use of the pronoun him in the opening line suggests this could be any soldier from World War one demonstrating the number of men who would remain unnamed and unclaimed during this conflict and how bad it was that so many people died, and even the most patriotic soldiers would still die, unnamed in the end. The Charge of the light Brigade comprises of six stanzas, of varying in length from six to twelve lines and goes in chronological order. This could offer the reader the sense of riding in to the battle with the soldiers.