In “Dulce et Decorum est” one particular man is severely suffering from an awful gas attack. The gas is entering his lungs and drowning them, the rest of his friends have to merely watch as he is “Guttering and choking”. This would be a traumatic scene to experience as well as to witness; it would probably mentally scar the soldiers. At one point the Soldier dying directly asks the narrator for help, this is a very prominent part of the poem and emphasises the pure desperation. Also, similarly to “The Send Off” Owen continuously uses sarcastic and rude comments towards the government.
Quick, boys!” this achieves the sense of haste the writer was trying to achieve by using short sentences and exclamation marks to grab the attention of the reader, also this contrasts with the first verse describing the sense of exhaustion to one of extreme panic and danger. However, we are reminded of the soldier’s unawareness by the writers using words like “fumbling”, “stumbling” and
This creates the image that the bullets are humans that are hurting humans which represents war. 'The patroitic tear that had brimmed in his eye Sweating like molten-iron from the contre of his chest,-' One of the most hard hitting and cinematic lines in this poem and really shows this image of a patriotic tear that has brought him here now has no place in the battlefield as it has sweated and evaporated. The Ideas and Themes The main idea in this poem I think is to translate the experience of every new soldier and there realisation of war. The fact that the poem doesn't name a soldier personally is poignant as it shows that it happens to many soldiers. Also the poem concentrates and the negativeness of patriotism as it is what has brought these soldiers here but as soon as it has it, in essence, drops
Owen sympathizes with the vain young men who have no idea of the horrors of war, who are 'seduced' by others (Jessie Pope) and the recruiting posters. The detail in Owen's poetry puts forward his scenes horrifically and memorably. His poems are suffused with the horror of battle. Many of Owen's poems bring across disturbing themes and images, which stay in the mind long after readers have read them. His aim is not poetry, but to describe the full horrors of war.
Wilfred Owen’s poem ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ describes a particular scene in the lives of WWI soldiers. Owen opens the poem with a description of the soldiers who are ‘Bent double, like old beggars’ (line 1). The soldiers are tired, fatigued, their feet are bleeding; they are marching from the battlefield towards their camp for some rest. They are then attacked by poisonous gas, effects of which are similar to drowning. One of the soldiers fails to fit the gas mask in time, and Owen masterfully describes himself witnessing the soldier’s gruesome death.
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.
This tale seems too bizarre and melodramatic which creates a fictional sense, and so, contradicts the narrator‘s main point. The opening story of the unanswered letter is able to catch the reader off guard when it takes an unsuspected turn in the end. In the beginning, I predicted that the heartfelt letter from Rat Kiley was going to sway Curt Lemon’s sister into his arms. The nightmarish ending gives the reader a bitter hearty taste of what a true war story is all about. Also, the smooth transition between hilarity and sorrow in his letter was heartbreaking, which I thought could be anything but
ASP Cause and Effect Essay 11/1611 Prompt: Speculate as to why Leper breaks down. Fragile Minded In the book A Separate Peace, John Knowles justifies the occurrence of Leper’s breakdown through a series of reasons; the prime being his personality. Leper is very philosophical and he tends to put deep thought into the simplicities of life. This trait leads Leper to enlist in World War II on impulse because he has a false pretense about what to expect from engaging in warfare. He automatically assumes war is a perfect fit for him and that he might as well get it over and done with.
GAS! Quick, boys!’ places a confronting reality amongst the literature. In addition, polysyllabic verbs such as ‘fumbling’, ‘stumbling’ and ‘floundering’ force you, the reader to place emphasis on these depictive words which create visuals and mirror those moments of sheer desperation. It is through the controlling techniques of pace and imagery in my poetry that I hoped to depict the violence and utter vulnerability of life at war. However, the horror does not stop there, the dehumanisation is unrelenting.
He evokes a very bitter outraged mood in the reader, he’s thoughts and feelings produce anger and spite. Because of his negative outlook on war, Sassoon purposely creates a tone that is very synical, sarcastic, satiric and contumely. He makes it quite clear when he wants the tone to be slow by using polysyllabic syllables and when he wants it to read fast paced by using monosyllabic syllables. The effect of this is to accentuate and lengthen certain words for example the use of the word longing in the phrase “longing to go out again” because of the long ‘l’ consonant and long ‘o’ vowel the word is extended. Sassoon has used the rhyming of similar vowels that have different consonants.