Main ideas in War Poetry The main idea in war poetry, written during World War One – 1914-18, is the harsh reality of war. Poets such as Wilfred Owen use the language techniques of simile, rhyme, repetition and personification to help convey the main idea. Owen uses techniques to paint a grim picture of what war was like and how it affected people. Through this, we see that war is often glorified, thus Owen was able to counter the glorification of war. After reading war poems we are able to get a true idea of how horrific war was and learn of its negative consequences.
Stephen Touma Wilfred Owens poetry is driven by a passionate exploration of humanity at its worst. Refer to 2 poems Poetry written by Owen is directed by an intense examination of the human condition and society at its most negative state. Owen doesn’t merely search or subliminally display these experiences he heatedly exposes humanity at its absolute worst. Owen illustrates these experiences through his explanation of the exhaustion of soldiers and their movement between the battlefield, and the sacrifices of war. This can be seen in his two poems ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ and ‘Parable of the Old man and the Young’.
“Dulce et Decorum Est” By Wilfred Owen Critical essay – Callum Kaczynski “Dulce et Decorum Est” is a truly inspiring poem written by Wilfred Owen. As a former soldier, Owen’s poetic exploration conveys the shocking reality of war, and his anger towards the destruction and devastation it causes. The physical state of the soldiers after war creates a pitiful sense of despair. “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks.” This simile shows that they may be seeking desperate help, rest, peace and shelter. At one point they were young, fit men, and now they are worn and weak.
Unlike other authors, Owen’s purpose was to reveal the awful truths of war and let us see past what was said to be glorious. His poems ‘Dulce et Decorum est ‘ and ‘Disabled’ tell of his personal experiences of battle and how war continues to inflict pain upon returned soldiers. Similes and metaphors are two language features Owen used that helped me understand the important idea of the true horrors of war, which is worth learning about today. In ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ one language feature used was similes, displaying the awful scene of physically drained men and a gruesome gas attack which depicted the important idea of the true horrors of war. The poem begins with the vivid simile “bent double, like old beggars under sacks”.
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.
War is not depicted as glorious or patriotic but rather as the destroyer of young lives as the realities of the hardships faced are exposed. The unnamed soldier in Disabled is key, as Owen refers to the soldier as “he” we never truly get the sense of whom he is talking about. The anonymity of the soldier suggests that he is representative of all soldiers. The soldier initially a footballer now finds himself in a wheelchair. In the beginning of the poem the soldier starts to reminisce about his past.
Mental Cases was written to demonstrate the mental consequences of war on participating soldiers in World War I. The subjects of this poem are the inmates in a military hospital. The poem displays a part of the war that to some civilians can be considered worse than losing your life, losing your mind due to shellshock. Owen describes how they are now forced to re-live the terrible acts that they have witnessed on the battlefield. The mood of the poem is one of fury, this is shown throughout the poem with the use of imagery.
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.
Conflict in any form can prove to be rather distressful and brutal towards an individual. This is evident in the poem Disabled by Wilfred Owen “And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey, Legless, sewn short at elbow “, as it displays the emotions and the brutal physical changes of a soldier who has been disabled by battle. Tragically the soldier is very much aware of what he has lost and of what he is never going to have in the future due to his injury “now he will never feel again how slim Girls waists are “. The poem also enforces that it is not only the ones who have died in the battle that pay the price for their participation in the war but also the large amount of those that returned after the war with abhorrent injuries. The two main senses of which we as humans rely most on, seeing and hearing where what mainly drove young youths in undertaking horrific actions towards themselves as individuals.
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.