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.
“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.
Ones who died from these toxic gases were in a painful and miserable death. The ones that survived will never forget these images they saw and horrific experiences they had went through. Through Wilfred Owen’s imagery and Irony’s in his poem we can detect the tone, “Dulce et Decorum Est” is a horrific battle scene from World War I. The strong use of figurative language helps to interpret the real meaning of war. In the first line, "Bent double, like old beggars under sacks”, shows us that the troops are so tired that they look like old beggars, slouching from being so drowsy.
There is no doubt that his personal experiences and observations enabled him to express the ugliness of the war to those who may have no idea otherwise. In his poem, “Dulce et Decorum Est”, Owen depicts an event during the war through his eyes. The poem allows readers to grasp the horror that took place, but also provides insight into Owen’s mind. No poet has ever captured the ills of war in such chilling truth before Owen had. He opened the door to what few people imagined could be depicted by tapping into his horrific memories, but questions of his allegiance to his country arise when taking a deeper look into the life and works of Owen.
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.
This can be seen in his two poems ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ and ‘Parable of the Old man and the Young’. Through these poems, Owen is motivated by a powerful examination of people during a highly negative state. Focusing on the exhaustion of soldiers and their movement throughout the battlefield is one of Owens key techniques throughout his poetry. When it comes to Owens poetry, the impact war has on the soldiers is clear, this is evident in his poem, ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’. Soldiers who go off to war are meant to be healthy and strong, however, this poem portrays the soldiers as old and unhealthy people.
“Mental Cases” is about the men who went crazy due to the events of World War I. it helps explain how these men looked with the use of half-rhymes, metaphors and similes “ drooping tongues from jaws that slob their relish, Baring teeth that leer like skullls teeth wicked?” This talks about what the men looked like after going crazy. The poem explains that these men can only see and think blood and have become living resemblances of the dead from the war. “ Sunlight seems a blood-smear, night comes blood-black; dawn breaks open like a wound that bleeds afresh. Thus their heads wear this hilarious, hideous, awful falseness of set-smiling
In the novel, ‘Regeneration’ by Pat Barker, the themes of horror and futility are significantly explored. As a result of the horrific events in the war, many soldiers developed psychological problems such as shell shock. In effect, many soldiers such as Siegfried Sassoon reacted against the war and the fact that it was futile, as the motives turned from ‘a war of defence and liberation to a war of aggression and conquest’. In his war poetry, Siegfried Sassoon shows the horrors of war through vivid imagery, and the futility of war, as non combatants such as civilians and generals do not understand what the soldiers experience at the front. In many ways, Barker’s ‘Regeneration’ contrasts with Sassoon’s poetry, due to the fact that the novel is written in the 20th Century, where the characters recount their horrors of war in the safety of Craiglockhart Hospital.
Gas! Quick, boys! “ and as the fumble to put their gas mask, one is not quick enough, owen graphically describes his death “gargling”,”choking” and “froth-corrupted lungs” to shick the reader about some of the horrible experiences of war. Anthem for Doomed Youth before even been read it already conveys the attitude on war. “the shrill demented choirs of wailing shells; and burgles
So I imagine in my mind a man looking down from heaven watching his body die. I think the writer is referring to himself as being beyond being saved, but he is still crying for help. When I read, “I was much farther out than you thought.” I think that the person he refers to as you, would be the person that he drank his alcohol with, and he is saying, I was a lot father gone than you thought I was. Then it goes on to say for the first time, “Not waving but drowning.” Which to me, it is said sarcastically, in a sense that he is crying out for help, “Poor chap, he always loved larking and now he’s dead… they said.” but no one believes him. The poem uses imagery about his death as drowning.