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.
I am going to do this by indicating what methods and techniques they use to affect the reader and make them feel emotion towards the soldiers. Owen uses irony with the title Dulce et decorum est because it translates to it is a “Sweet and right thing”. This is irony because the poem is trying to say that war is bad and not a sweet and right thing. Owen also uses these words to hit out to Jessie Pope, who was a propaganda poet and Owen disliked her. Pope thinks that war was good and it was Ok to die during it but Owen strongly disagreed with that.
Introduction Paragraph 1 In his poem, Strange Meeting, Owen recreates the horror of war through his shocking and realistic account of the experiences faced by soldiers on the battlefields during World War One. “And by his smile, I knew that sullen hall, - By his dead smile I knew we stood in hell”. Owen has used first person and a pararhyme to reinforce the brutality and horrors of war. Owen came to the realisation, by talking to this man, that no one there was truly alive, breathing or not breathing. What mattered was the truth of war and what he felt he must share and let people know.
Anthem For Doomed Youth is a sonnet written by Wilfred Owen about the realities of war. Wilfred Owen was a soldier during WW1 and therefore understands fully the true experiences of war. He was against war and was appalled by the effects of war on people and their families. The purpose of the poem is to inform the public of the true realities of war and how young men where dying needlessly. This was because during war times the media would tell the public that the war going great and that the men where doing just fine, but this obviously just wasn’t true.
Wilfred Owen was an active soldier during WWI, who used his horrific experiences during the war to write his poems. His poems stemmed from his views on war, as he believed that although war was sometimes necessary, it was futile and evil. Two of his poems, ‘Exposure’ and ‘Disabled’ both reveal the price paid by soldiers during WWI. ‘Exposure’ examines the more psychological effects on the soldiers and is written from the view of the soldiers on the front line, ‘Disabled’ shows the aftermath and repercussion of fighting in WWI and the physical damage it caused. The first word in ‘Exposure’ is ‘our’ and is written in first person plural, showing the reader that Owen wanted to convey the plight of the universal soldier and how they all suffered the same fate, no matter their side.
Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen were both soldier poets during World War I, and wrote about the horrific events of the Great War. In Sassoon’s poem “They” and Owen’s famous poem “Dulce et Decorum Est”, the respective authors deconstruct and critique the glorification of war by the Catholic Church and society through the use of vivid imagery of battle and its effect on soldiers. Sassoon’s “They” attacks the Catholic Church and its beliefs that war is not only righteous, but endorsed by God. This contrast in beliefs is made very clear by the caesura and the line break between the two speakers: the Bishop and the soldiers. The Bishop is convinced that the soldiers fighting the war are combating evil in the name of God.
“A good poem may lead to sadness, joyful or simply wandering, but it always leads us to think more deeply about life” Discuss this statement with reference to at least two Sassoon’s poems. A good poem may lead to sadness, joyful or simply wandering, but it always leads us to think more deeply about life. A War poem is a poem that is written on the subject of war. It is applied especially to those in military service. The nature of war poem is to show how horrible and disgusting war is.
Compare and contrast the poems “Charge of the light brigade” and “Dulce et Decorum Est” What does each poem tell us about attitudes to war? In this essay I am going to compare and contrast two different poems and tell you what each poem tells us about the attitudes to war. The two poems that I’m going to look at are “Charge of the light brigade” and “Dulce et decorum est”. I don’t think war is necessary anymore, I think that the government are just sending young lads out for the sake of it, and taking young lad’s lives away for no proper reason. It’s like the government don’t care about the soldiers that are going out in rough ears of the world putting their lives in danger for the safety of others.
Owen commented on his poetry that ‘my subject is war, and the pity of it… all a poet can do is warn.’ Owen and Sassoon were both trying to warn young men against war and inform the public on how brutal and disgusting war actually is In both poems, after describing the obscene conditions of war and the impact that these conditions had on the soldiers, the poets dedicated a stanza to condemning the reader on any encouragement they may have had towards young men going to war. They did this through the use of personal pronouns. In ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ Owen condemns the use of the saying “Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori” (It is sweet and fitting to die for your country) by using personal pronouns to involve the reader in the reality of war “If you could hear at every jolt/ the blood come gargling from the froth corrupted lungs… my friend you would not tell with such high zest… the old lie: Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori.” In ‘Suicide in the trenches’ personal pronouns are also used to disapprove of the encouragement of war “You smug faced crowds… who cheer when soldier lads march by/ sneak home and pray you’ll never know/ the hell where youth and laughter go.” Personal pronouns are used in order to involve the
Anthem for doomed youth In Wilfrid Owen’s poem “anthem for doomed youth” a strong anti-war message is conveyed through the strong views, harsh imagery and sarcastic irony. Looking at the title alone of the poem: anthem for doomed youth the bluntest aspect for me was the spiteful use of sarcasm and irony in the title. The use of the word ‘anthem’ evokes a sense of national pride and strength however the feeling is distorted by Owen when he implies that the youth of Britain are being lead blindly into certain death, tricked into fighting the inhumane war by their own countries. In the very first line of the poem Owen questions the morality of the generals and politicians sending the young men to their inevitable deaths, asking the generals and politicians how much these brave young men are worth. Are they people, sons of mothers waiting back home anxiously for their return, or just another statistic in the folder on the desk of their cushy offices well away from the hell on earth that was the first world war in the quote: “What passing bells for those who die as cattle?” Owen asks: who cares when these valiant young men who march forward unto their deaths, what passing bells?