With his effective use of imagery, diction and irony, Wellford Owens strips away the glory of war and reveals the horror of what it was really like to fight in WWI. Imagery is one of the powerful devise Owen uses to show the realities of war in his poem. Owen uses descriptive words and graphic imagery to provoke feeling and deep emotions within the reader as a way of driving home his anti-war message. For instance, he writes of “froth-corrupted lungs,’’(22)”sores on innocent tongues” (24)and even describes the dying man’s face as a “devil’s sick of sin“(20). As a reader one cannot help but get a mental picture of the terrible war condition as well as feel deep compassion for the soldier.
The title and structure of the poem contrasts with the content of the poem, helping to convey Owen’s anger at those who advocated war. The title, which translates to “sweet and right it is,” suggests that the poem is about something positive and glorious – the Great War. This is emphasised by the structure of the poem, which is very rigid as it is written in iambic pentameter and has an ABAB rhyme scheme. The title, coupled with the rigidity of the structure represents the powerful left right march commonly associated with soldiers. It also represents the strength and power the public associated with the British army during WW1.
* The poem refutes the “old lie” with depiction of anguish and agony that shatter any illusion that war is glorious * The famous Latin tag means “It is sweet and decorous(honourable/noble) to die for one’s country. Sweet and decorous!” = Owen rejects this making it clear through detailing the repulsive conditions and human tragedy that this is a myth, an “old lie”. * Owen shows that war is at the least “decorous”, by describing decrepit men staggering through the mud and the gruesome death of a victim of gas poisoning, which he can’t erase from his memory. * It focuses on the exhaustion of soldiers on the Front and their movement between battlefields and trenches * Lines 1-8 =the description of the exhausted soldiers make a striking contrast with the images of men marching to battle * Line 8 = Five Nines are 5.9 calibre explosive shells * LL9 = Gas = mustard gas, one of the first forms of chemical warfare. It burns the membranes of the throat and lungs * LL 10-11 = Gas masks supplied but they were heavy and cumbersome, one man has failed to fit his quickly enough * LL 12= lime-white, caustic earth used as fertilizer * LL 13-14= the gas masks had
Owen wrote this poem to express his feelings about war and ‘the pity of war’, which he speaks about in the preface to his collection of poems published posthumously in 1920. When Owen says ‘the pity of war’ he is trying to address to the reader the horrors of the war and sympathise with the victims of war. Owen conveys ‘the pity of war’ throughout all of his poems by making them gloomy and adverse, often decorating his poems with horrific imagery and condemnation, which in turn made them unfavorable to the patriotic British person. ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ is dramatic monologue while also being an elegiacal poem, a poem meant to reflect on the lives lost at the western front during the first world war and impugn the conditions that the soldiers had to brave through everyday. Owen makes this piece an elegy by portraying the battlefield as hell ‘like a man in fire or lime’ or terrible enough to make the devil feel sick ‘like a devils sick of sin’ in order to make people realise that war will only achieve loss and sadness and convey the sadness and fear the soldiers had to face every day.
Isabelle Moran English Speech Wilfred Owen “Texts have the power to shape our perception of the world” This statement is demonstrated in Wilfred Owens poem’s Mental Case and Disabled. Through these poems’ Owen exposes and explores the reality of war by using his own terrifying experiences on the battle field to influence individuals perspectives on war. Owen’s poem mental case, a powerful poem, captures the damage to mens’ minds due to war. Owen utilises language and form to shock and describe in detail the appalling physical symptoms of mental torment. Through the title Owen displays men that were in their prime turn into wrecks.
Poetry throughout the war captured the passionate expression of outrage and the brutal horrors, immense dedication, and courage it took to fight for a country. In “Dulce et Decorum Est”, poet Wilfred Owen conveys the hardships and terrors of war and uncovers the hidden truths of the twentieth century. The poem explores significant imagery and usage of effective language and poetic techniques. Additionally, Owen uses specific terminology and different techniques throughout the poem to create a detailed purpose in every sentence. Finally, Owen creates shocking descriptions that thoroughly describe and make the reader feel as though they were there during the horrific wartime events.
Depictions of warfare and accumulated images of death in the second stanza answer the rhetorical questions in the first stanza about the origin of these creatures. “Death” has been personified to emphasise that the memories of the surviving soldiers are tainted with “sloughs of flesh” of past soldiers whose “multitudinous murders they once witnessed.” The juxtaposition of “treading blood from lungs that had loved laughter” highlight that these ‘mental cases’ were once people who had human value too. The transformation of these soldiers has been due to the effects of war as Owen continues to accumulate images of death in the battlefield through onomatopoeia of “batter of guns and shatter of flying muscles.” The third stanza underlines the significance of shock and trauma in the battlefield for soldiers as they cannot face the reality of countless casualties. The alliteration of “sunlight seems a blood-smear” conveys the image of
The poems “Dulce et Decorum est”, “Anthem for Doomed Youth” and “Futility”, all written by Wilfred Owen, have a central theme of the pity of war. This idea, which is woven through the poems with the careful use of literal and figurative imagery, caused a strong reaction in the audience because of the revealing nature of the idea, as the true identity of war is explored. The poem “Dulce et Decorum est” contains strong literal images that reveal the true nature of war. Owen draws on his own personal experience as a soldier in World War One, describing the death of a soldier through gas. “Floundering like a man in fire or lime” The literal images depict the horror of death in war, abolishing the romantic notions of war set up previously by jingoistic poets of the time, such as Jesse Pope.
He then goes on to describe the horrific and deadly gas attack that takes the soldiers by surprise. Owen then uses strong and direct language to tell us of his disturbing dream of the man dying right in front of him whic was caused by the gas attack. In the opening stanza, Owen quickly grabs the readers attention by trying to add up to that thee war is gruesome but also it can’t be won. “Bent Double like old geggers” evokes that the soldiers are losing so much, they are willing to beg for help but also for mercy. Owen comments on how the soldiers are living in trench life.
Alliteration and onomatopoeia join with and literal images of war to produce a sense of despair "Bent beggars", "knock-kneed", cough and "curse" like "hags" through "sludge." All these descriptions compressed into two line produces a clear image that the soldiers were unhealthy to fight, missing vital equipment that they needed to succeed in the battle. Owen shows this through the “beggar” imagery to some extent portrays an image of the soldiers curled and looking helpless. Owen represents the soldiers as zombie like people. In some way psychologically dead, possibly seen stuff far worse as a soldier so this has no emotional effect on them, they are described as not realising or aware of what they are doing, the quote “men marched asleep” supports that and I found this contradicted itself, marched is an energetic walk and asleep is the complete opposite.