The description of war has been given the imagery of hell. The poem “Strange Meeting” by Wilfred Owen was written during the time of war. Wilfred Owen was a British poet that wrote and based his writings on events in World War I. Wilfred Owen was a British Poet that wrote and based on events in World War I. “Strange Meeting” was written in 1918 and then later published after his passing. Majority of his poems was written in a little over a year, from 1917 to 1918, while only five of his poems were published. Wilfred Owen died in action at the age of twenty-five, he died one week before the Armistice, which ended the First World War. Through pararhyme couplet, onomatopoeic words and imagery, Owen describes the similarities of war and hell in order to signify war’s psychological effects on a soldier coming home.
The narrator is a soldier who seemingly has escaped battle, now follows a path into a long, old tunnel by which had granite walls or formations. The soldier is walking and hears groaning of either sleeping soldiers, deep in thought or dead. Owens use many poetic devices such as in line three and four in which he uses pararhyme for groined and groaned. This use of pararhyme has a distinct similarity of consonants by which the second rhyme is lower toned like groaned. Owens uses another pararhyme with hall and hell and with the use of a second tone, which is in a lower pitch than the first. In lines nine and ten, “And by his smile, I knew that sullen hall-/By his dead smile I knew we stood in hell.”(9-10).
By the smile of the dead soldier, the speaker knows he is in hell and that he had died on the battlefield, which was described in line one when the speaker says it “seemed” that out of the battle I escaped. Pararhyme coupl...
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...g was, I re-read it and understood where Owen was reaching to the audience. I enjoyed reading the poem because of a personal connection to it, having had family die in war before.
Bibliography
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"Wilfred Owen: Poems Summary and Analysis." Wilfred Owen: Poems Study Guide : Summary and Analysis of "Strange Meeting" N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
Mays, Kelly J. "Section 16." The Norton Introduction to Literature. 11th ed. New York: W W Norton &, 2014. 841-42. Print.
In a poem titled "Dulce et Decorum Est", life in the trenches is graphically detailed to paint a vivid picture of World War I fighting techniques for the reader. Many others wrote about the injustices and cruelties of war at this time, but only one, Wilfred Owen, did so in such a permanent and meaningful way. Owen is known as one of the most infamous WWI poets, and has undoubtedly had more impact on the public conscience of the tragedy of war than any other writer of his generation.
Hardships from hostile experiences can lead to the degradation of one's mental and physical state, breaking down their humanity. Wilfred Owen's struggles with the Great War has led to his detailed insights on the state of war, conveying his first-hand experiences as a front-line soldier. 'Dulce et Decorum Est' and 'Insensibility' displays these ideas and exposes the harsh and inhumane reality of war. From the imagery and metaphors, Owen's ideas about the deterioration of human nature resonates with the reader of the repercussions of war.
*Abrams, M.H., ed., et al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition. Vol.I. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1993.
The poem has been written as four uneven stanzas this has been done purposefully to express how unpredictable war is. With the varying lengths of stanzas the breaks become unexpected in the poem; the reader is given the impression of how erratic war is, only given short moments of respite, with no predictability throughout the years on the frontline. Owen begins his work with a strong use of imagery to portray the conditions and the state of the soldiers. By using similes such as “like old beggars under sacks” and “coughing like hags” the reader is able to clearly visualize the state of the soldiers. This is also how Owen describes the state of the condition in which they were fighting in “we cursed through sludge”. These lines provide the reader with a very distinct vision of what was occurring. After this the poem describes a gas attack and the fear that the men felt. “Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumb...
It is evident that the socio-cultural context in which Wilfred Owen operated had a powerful impact upon his poetic motivation and the messages he conveyed through his work. Before exploring Wilfred Owen’s work we first must understand the society that Wilfred Owen lived in, to be able to really understand appreciate his poems and their impact on society. At the time in which he operated, Britain’s public opinion on warfare and conflicts were astonishingly positive, especially in the early stages of WW1. These false perception on war led the vast majority of male citizens to perceive war recruitment as an opportunity to set off on ‘terrific adventures’ and earn immense amounts of honour for their families and nation. Government propaganda meant that soldiers believed that they were gathering fame and fortune in the name of Great Britain. This cruel and false perception of warfare which in turn led to a steady rate of volunteers for the war and included Wilfred Owen himself. The men who did not go and fight for their nations were perceived by society as cowards as
Human conflict is a violent confrontation between groups of people due to differences in values and beliefs. During World War I, poet and soldier, Wilfred Owen, faced the harsh realities of human conflict, dying at a young age of 25, only six days before the war ended. Owen’s personal encounters during war had a profound influence on his life as reflected in the poems and letters he wrote before his passing. In using a variety of poetic devices to write about the suffering and brutality of war, vividly captured in his poems ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ and ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, Owen effectively conveys his own perspective about human conflict. ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ depicts the horrific scenes on the battlefield and a grotesque death from drowning
What is Wilfred Owen’s attitude towards Worlds War 1 and how is this shown through his poetry?
How Wilfred Owen Uses Language and Imagery in His Poetry to Communicate his Attitudes of War
Owen uses very vivid imagery throughout the poem to describe how horrible the war was to the speaker and his fellow soldiers. He starts by describing how worn and tired he and his fellow soldiers are as they start “towards our distant rest” (Owen 695) which can be interpreted as them simply just walking back to their barracks to sleep or, in a darker sense, to their deaths. He describes how they marched asleep and how they were too tired to even hear the sounds of the gas shells dropping behind them. “Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!” (Owen 695) someone yells when they finally realize what it happening. All of the soldiers scramble to put on their gas masks but at least one man near the speaker can’t make it to his mask in time; “But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime...” (Owen 695).
World War One had an inevitable effect on the lives of many young and naive individuals, including Wilfred Owen, who, like many others, joined the military effort with the belief that he would find honour, wealth and adventure. The optimism which Owen initially had toward the conflict is emphasised in the excerpt, in which he is described as “a young poet…with a romantic view of war common among the young” (narrator), a view which rapidly changed upon reaching the front. Owen presents responders with an overwhelming exploration of human cruelty on other individuals through acts of war and the clash of individual’s opposed feelings influenced by the experiences of human cruelty. This is presented through the horrific nature of war which the
Abrams, M.H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 1993.
Wilfred Owen was an officer in World War I, who was sent to a hospital because he suffered from "shellshock". There, he met poet Siegfried Sassoon, who played a part in influencing him to write poetry about war and the suffering of soldiers. He later returned to the war, where he was killed. ' '
The two poems about World War 1, ‘The Soldier’ by Rupert Brooke, and ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ by Wilfred Owen, each present their views in different ways. World War one started in 1914 and ended after four years. There are two main responses from soldiers. The two approaches have been written each in these poems. Both have similarities and differences. They are conveyed in different ways that affect the reader more at some points and less than others.
Owen’s poem uses symbolism to bring home the harsh reality of war the speaker has experienced and forces the reader to think about the reality presented in romanticized poetry that treats war gently. He utilizes language that imparts the speakers experiences, as well as what he, his companions, and the dying man feels. People really die and suffer and live through nightmares during a war; Owen forcefully demonstrates this in “Dulce et Decorum Est”. He examines the horrific quality of World War I and transports the reader into the intense imagery of the emotion and experience of the speaker.
Abrams, M. & Greenblatt, S. 2000. The Norton Anthology of English Literature 7th ed. Vol. 2. London: Norton.