You get a real sense of Owen’s tiredness of the war in this stanza. His personification of the enemy bombs is a really effective way of giving the enemy, unseen in this poem, a face. And that face is fearful and never-ending, but also, like Owen, weary of the war. The rhyming scheme in this stanza is also significant, giving a sense of slow marching, of dreariness, however due to the more formal structure a sense of purpose and organisation is also felt. To the reader it appears to be a formal and proper poem, this confirms my idea that this poem was written to Owen’s educated peers.
‘Mental Cases’ and ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ are two outstanding pieces created by Owen, each using techniques such as hyperboles, personification and imagery that associate the two poems, giving us, the readers, a bigger picture of what is happening in the poets eyes. In the poem Mental Cases Owen expresses his perception that war is taking away a soldiers future, a life full of happiness. It illustrates the bloodshed and suffering of war, using a series of graphical description of young men who are treated for war-related illness’, such as shellshock. It was a heart-wrenching poem for Owen because he himself was a patient of shellshock. The repetition of question marks and dashes illustrate the confusion and frustration witnessing Owens fellow comrades, it is a demanding tone begging for explanation for the entrapment of victims.
On the other hand, Tennyson depreciates the soldiers, making them seem idiotic with phrases such as ‘Some one had blunder’d’. This causes the reader to feel sympathy for them, as it mentions their death at the end of the stanza, so it gives the impression that they know no better. Another difference is cause by repetition. In ‘Futility’, the poet refers to the image of being awoken using the words ‘woke’, ‘awoke’, and ‘rouse’. This gives the impression that there is still hope for the soldiers which induces a sense of optimism within the many feelings of the reader; which could also be motivation to read the rest of the poem.
Dulce et decorum est is a poem by Wilfred Owen written during world war I, while he was in the trenches. The title is the first part of a quotation by Horace’s Odes: “Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori” that means “It’s sweet and honourable to die for your country” but the whole poem aims at contradicting the title. His style is experimental in fact he uses the free verse. In the first stanza Owen describes the subject, that are the soldiers, through similies such as “Old beggars” and “Hags” because he wants to show us anti-heroic figures, going against the propaganda that encourages young men to go fighting and dying for their country preaching the ideals of nationalism, glory and courage. Owen describes us horrible and degraded scenes of the real life in war and he adds emphasis using allitterations: of the b in the first line Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, of the kn in the second, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, of the m in the fifth, Men marched asleep.
All Quiet on the Western Front A soldier in World War I tries to escape death, but death is all around him. In the anti-war novel, All Quiet on the Western Front by the German author Erich Maria Remarque, Paul Baumer is cast as the main protagonist as he tells his accounts of how it is being a soldier in World War I. As the war becomes a strong part of Paul Baumer life’s and defines who he is, Paul becomes physically and mentally affected as he may leave the war, but the war will never leave him. The war leaves Paul Baumer physically scarred. As they are engaging in war against the enemy, Paul describes his comrades and himself as he proclaims: “We have become wild beasts.
Yet by the end of the novel, he matures and decides to redefine what he believes courage is because of the traumatic and courage-demanding scenes that tell the story in the Red Badge of Courage. Henry really shows off his immaturity when the story reads, “...at times he regarded the wounded soldiers in an envious way. He conceived persons with torn bodies to be particularly happy. He wishes that he, too had a wound, a red badge of courage.” (100) This shows how simple-mindedly Henry perceives the war and that he is still caught up in his goal of becoming wounded or worse so that he can call himself “courageous”. This evidence also displays that he is fearful about actually going out onto the battlefield, and that he is striving to just gain respect from the other soldiers.
The structure of the poem also takes us through the poet's responses to death. The two-stanza structure reflects the poem's change in tone, from hope and confidence to despair. The two stanzas represent the different stages of grief: the first is denial of the death (the soldier is hopeful that the sun will stir life in his dead comrade) “Move him into the sun”. The sun is used to suggest something that gives life in stanza one (it is "the kind old sun"); and the second stanza shows realisation, despair and anger, the soldier then questions the point of life and existence. “Was it for this the clay grew tall?” Mametz wood is set years after the war where several decaying bodies have just been discovered, empty of life and soul, with terror etched onto the remains of their faces.
Dulce et Decorum Est – Wilfred Owen Written in 1917 and first published two years after the conclusion of the first word war in 1920, “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen states the stark reality of the war rather than the supposed glory fighting for one’s country is said to provide. Ironically, Owen’s life tragically ended in 1918 on the warfront. The unusually structured poem speaks with a mixed persona, going from using “we” to “I” to “you”. This enforces the poems theme that war provides nothing but further corruption and inner turmoil within oneself, it also may be referring to the “shell-shock” the author is known to have suffered from January to April in 1917 which today would now be recognized as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The poem uses several poetic conventions to help in the conveyance of its message, such as, similes, sibilance, alliteration, oxymoron and the vivid and horrific imagery used throughout.
A poem we have recently studied in class is Dulce Et Decorum Est. It was written by a highly acclaimed poet called, Wilfred Owen. Wilfred Owen is a poet that writes about the horrors the soldiers faced and witnessed as he fought on the front line and experienced it first-hand. He named his poem, Dulce Et Decorum Est which means it is sweet and right. The title of the poem, Dulce Et Decorum Est is a contradiction of what the poem is about.
In “Dulce et Decorum Est” the poet described exhausted soldiers returning from a battle. They became the victims of a gas attack and the poet described what followed. The tone of the poem was serious but effective. The language used created a vivid picture of the events. It was easy to imagine the exhausted soldiers “bent double, like old beggars under sacks” and “drunk with fatigue.” The suddenness of the gas attack and the urgent voices were mimicked by the capital letters in “Gas!