Owen is driven more by betrayal than the actual horror of war. Do you agree? Wilfred Owen composed his collection of poetry entitled ‘The War Poems’ during his horrific experiences on the battlefront of World War One. He was compelled to write them because of the deception and dishonesty he felt was being spread about what war was like. Owen used his poems to deliver the truth about war and change the views of society at that time.
Haig only intention was to breakthrough to get the German trenches and defeat the army once and for all. The battle took more than 1,000,000 lives and as it was the bloodiest battle throughout the history, it is said that more than 20,000 soldiers died in the first hour and more than 60,000 casualties on the first day. The soldiers that took part in this insidious war were as young as 14 and had no training and they did not know that they’ll die so young. The Somme ended in bloodshed and the human cost was very high, 420,000 British soldiers and 200,000 French soldiers had died for their country, almost as many as the Germans added together. This insidious war The Somme was the most tragic moment for Britain and British history.
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.
Between 1915 and 1917, Italian troops only got 10 miles inside Austrian territory. But in October 1917 came the disaster of Caporetto. In this battle, in fact a series of battles, the Italians had to fight the whole Austrian Army and 7 divisions of German troops. The Italian Army lost 300,000 men. Though the Italians had a victory at Vittorio Veneto in 1918, the psychological impact of Caporetto was huge.
It claimed 100,000 German casualties, killed wounded or captured, 81,000 American casualties, including 23,554 captured and 19,000 killed, 1,400 British casualties and 200 killed. This was a massive amount of people to be killed in one horrible battle in the world's history. The Germans led by Hitler went westward, they captured 120 American GI's near Malmedy, they herded the prisoners into a field and shot them with machine guns and pistols. (Danzer et. al.
Typically, when one thinks of Great War, they think of extensive fighting in Europe but in reality the Great War had numerous battles in the colonized states where there were clashes between Triple Alliance and the Allies. Particularly, in Africa and in Ottoman empire where the clashes would lead to hundreds and thousands of fatal deaths and injuries. The Great War brought devastation and thousands of losses to both Ottomans and the Africans and caused a severe decline in economies but the Great War brought an end to Ottoman empire however Africa would still remain colonized. Furthermore, Since thousands of lives were constantly being lost so their was shortage of men so Great Britain and France brought soldiers from their colonies in Africa to fight for them in Europe. In addition, the war caused severe damage to economy since their were less men to work for in the fields and more Raw material was needed for the War.
How does Owen portray the horrors of war in Dulce et Decorum Est? “Sweet and honourable it is, to die for one’s country” World War I was an abominable ordeal that shocked the world, caused over 16 million people to lose their lives and millions more to suffer for years. Wilfred Owen has described so horrifically the horrors of war, each one seems to grow in significance until everything blurs together into a foul and futile torment that will haunt the dreams of every man for all their lives. Throughout the poem Owen attempts to eliminate the misconception that it is “sweet and honourable... to die for one’s country”, as the title of the poem suggests, through his use of vivid imagery, descriptive language and first person narrative. In the first stanza, Owen presents the idea that the personal struggles faced every moment on the front line are extremely underestimated, immeasurably terrifying and “obscene”.
What things would a soldier experience to totally change him? In Harrison’s novel Generals Die in Bed, the horror of war is a basic theme and has been described through many of the challenges the narrator faces in the novel. The horror of war has been described through the novel of the things such as having a constant fear of the unknown, inhumanity, and the most important thing is: death. | | First of all, unknown is a big problem in the war. Not knowing what’s around the soldiers and the narrator makes them feel terrible.
But after abit of time the death of people began to increase rapidly. Wars and massacres is an impact also experienced by Indians in North America. The most tragic war of the Indians was the battle of the Wounded Knee. In this massacre there was a place in the Sioux community which was a very dangerous place for the Sioux people so big foot the Sioux chief decided to move to a safer place. One of the US soldiers orders the Sioux people to go back to their place HOWEVER one Sioux soldier didn’t want to go back and people started to fight back in a result 300 men including women and children were killed.
‘Apologia Pro Poemate Meo’ – Wilfred Owen ‘Apologia Pro Poemate Meo’ deals with the atrocities of World War I. The poem conveys the battle between good and evil, both within the soldiers themselves and war as a whole. This poem gives insight into Owen’s intent to criticise the people who persuade the soldiers to sign up. By starting the poem with ‘I’, Owen indicates this is a personal poem similar to ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ and ‘The Dead Beat’ but unlike these poems, it is not inspired by personal events. Yet like ‘The Send Off’ and ‘Spring Offensive’ , this poem encapsulates a note of prophecy and appears to have an exolted tone as through all the horrors of the war, the soldiers managed to ‘give their laughs more glee than shakes a child.’ This pure love and pure horror expressed in this poem is mutually exclusive.