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. And as a result, it encourages the reader to consider the impact the war had on both, the soldiers who survived, and those who didn’t. Dulce et Decorum Est brings to reality that war is not what people say it is. Given by its very title, ‘It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country’. Although, it only an illusion reinforced throughout the poem, along with its irony and sarcasm that is ‘The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori’, it is not sweet and fitting to die for ones country.
The image of this poor beast’s face became more eternal in my mind with every mutilating shot from Rat Kiley’s gun, sending it into a state of motionless misery. Kiley’s actions were a reflection of his angst and therefore, this story illustrates the ugliness of war. While I do favor the story’s passion, I find this story would be difficult for the majority of its readers to label as true, just as the narrator explains, “You can tell a true war story by the questions you ask….You’d feel cheated if it never happened. Without the grounding reality, it’s just a trite bit of puffery, pure Hollywood” (O’Brien 956). This tale seems too bizarre and melodramatic which creates a fictional sense, and so, contradicts the narrator‘s main point.
Through this detailed description, Gurganus adds to his argument, making the war sound even more horrific. He is trying to get people to see his perspective, and to make all the glory of war seem meaningless. We send these men over to live in terrible conditions and they don’t even know why they are there
“I hate that drum's discordant sound” is the source of his tension and fear at the war; the use of the word “discordant” mirrors his own inner conflict at the war and how he feels about it. Significantly, Scott, like Carson, uses strong imagery to convey feeling of conflict and tension in his poem “The Drum” The imagery is one of horror and death. “And when Ambition's voice commands,” The word “Ambition’s” is like the recruiting officer for an army. It is personifying “Ambition” and showing that the men who want to fight are pushed into it by an officer that makes it sound very enticing. The word commands talks of how the men really don’t have a choice in joining the fight or not as if they are already in the army.
Larkin`s pessimistic view of the world is so deep, that it is almost impossible to find a single positive line in his dreary poems. Pessimistic poems usually have a ray of hope in the end. This is clearly not the case when it comes to Philip Larkin. In his poem, “This be the Verse”, he starts with one of the most depressing lines I have ever read: “They fuck you up, your mum and dad. “ He generalizes his own view of bad parenting and wants to convince you that this happens with every child.
Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold: and so by degrees – very gradually – I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” The Narrator again proves his madness through his apparent lack of solid intent coupled with his explanation of the rage within him. He proves his malice and forethought into the manner and admits it was a murder of the first degree to stop his chills brought upon by an old man’s diseased eye. Through his madness, the Narrator seals his doom by being tempted into taking the life of an old man. After the deed is done and the Narrator had chosen to commit a
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
The poet emphasised the cruel and horrible side to war by realistically describing the dead soldier, “the white eyes writhing in his face.” As the wagon he was “flung” into jolted, his blood “came gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs.” The poet conveyed the theme of his poem very successfully. He was angered by “the old lie.” “Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori” – it is a good and fitting thing to die for ones country. He wanted people to realise that war was a senseless waste of lives and he managed that through describing the horrors in vivid detail. Roger McGough shared this view but expressed it differently in his poem “Why Patriots Are a Bit Nuts in
By personifying the sobs as “strangled”, the author is describing the magnitude of the sobs and screams. Humbaba was screaming as loud as he could, and pleading for his life. But the pity we feel doesn’t last long because Ekidu tells Gilgamesh Humbaba is deceiving him, and he has to die. Also the Cyclops from The Odyssey is depicted with certain human aspects to him. “When all these chores were done, he poked the fire” (195).
There is nothing a person can do about death - it happens to us all. Because the novel's main focal point is the chaos caused by the allied bombing of Dresden, Vonnegut is obviously trying to make the point that war is bloody awful, but also inevitable. When he tells a friend that he's writing an anti-war novel at the very beginning, he's told he might as well write an anti-glacier book. In other words, war will happen; people will die. So it goes.