Compare and contrast the styles and techniques of two of the Wilfred
Owen poems you have studied to demonstrate the poet's attitude to war
Wilfred Owen was a war poet from the First World War; he was born in
1893 and died in 1918, whilst fighting in the "Great War". He wrote
his poetry while sitting as an injured soldier on a hospital bed, and
many say this is where he developed his flair for writing. In this
essay, I have decided to analyse two poems; "Dulce et Decorum est" and
"Anthem for Doomed Youth". In my opinion both of these poems portray
Owen's anger towards the war, but do so in very different ways. I am
going to compare and contrast the two poems, so that I get a better
idea of Owen's attitude to war.
Themes are important to any poem because it is what they are about.
The main theme in "Dulce et Decorum est" is that it is not a glorious
thing to fight for one's country; it is actually a horrific and
traumatising experience. This is ironic because the name of the poem
translates to "It is a glorious and honorable thing to fight for one’s
country". I think Owen has done this so that he can lead up to the
last line where he is urging people back at home to cease telling
their children the "old lie" and to me this is effective. Stanza three
is writing about the tragedy of war; it says "Obscene as cancer", and
I think this is a useful simile because it is something that people
back at home, reading the poetry, could relate to. Another theme of
this poem is death; there are many occasions in which Owen talks about
death. I have chosen "guttering, choking, drowning" as an example
because it portrays an image of a horrific and painful way of dying.
Another example of death is “white eyes writhing in his face, his
hanging face” this is effective to me because the use of repetition
emphasises the state in which the soldier is in, and draws a vivid
images in the readers mind. I think these themes show that Owen has a
bitter attitude towards war because he seems to only mention a bad
side of war as if there is no glorious part.
The main theme in stanza one of "Anthem for Doomed Youth" however is
the lack of a funeral for people dying in the war. An example of this
is "choirs of wailing shells"; this means that the only choir they
have when they die is the sound the shells make as they move through
Wilfred Owen and Bruce Dawe both experienced war, however they were involved in two different conflicts. Owen was an English soldier and anti-war poet who died a hero in conflict one week before World War I ended. This demonstrates success for the country itself and the veterans being seen as heroes. Contrastingly, Dawe was a university educated anti-war poet from Australia who joined the air force during the Vietnam War. This was controversial for both soldiers and people from the country being conflicted about their involvement in the war.
Whilst in France he decided to enlist in the army; he is quoted to have said “I have enlisted to help the boys as best I could.” This poem was written in Craiglockart Military Hospital in Scotland under the guidance of Siegfried Sassoon. At first glance, this poem may seem vehemently anti-war – but it actually directs most of its bitterness at the people who rally around the troops without ever understanding exactly what they're sending those troops off to do. Owen spent years on the battlefields. The poem itself wasn’t published until after the war, where Sassoon made sure that it was published. In dissimilarity to this, Mary Shelley was of the aristocratic background and was born in Somers Town, London, England on the 30th August 1797 She did a grand tour around Europe including Greece, Italy, and Rome studying culture, arts...
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.
Wilfred was very much against the war, as can be shown in his poem because he uses his language to show the reader that the war is not a gam
Owen, Wilfred. "Dulce et Decorum Est." The Faber Book of War Poetry. Ed. Kenneth Baker. London: Faber, 1997. 3-4.
“When the rich wage war it’s the poor who die”, Jean-Paul Sartre, a prominent Marxist literary critic, existentialist philosopher and author stated in his 1951 drama, The Devil and the Good Lord. Wilfred Owen’s poetry is a profound protest at this fact. Owens poetry was shaped by the horrors of the first world war, he enlisted as a naïve young man with dreams of heroic deeds and “desperate glory” only to be exposed to the realities of what war really entailed. War opened his eyes to the “truth” of the world if looked at through a Marxist lens. He abhorred the patriotic poetry that gave a warped view of the war and wrote many poems depicting the horror and helplessness, he aimed to capture the pity of war in his poetry. Through this we can
To draw into the poet’s world, the poet must draw relations between them, including the reader, making them feel what the poet feels, thinking what the poet thinks. Wilfred Owen does this very creatively and very effectively, in both of his poems, Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori and Anthem of Doomed Youth, who is seen as an idol to many people today, as a great war poet, who expresses his ideas that makes the reader feel involved in the moment, feeling everything that he does. His poems describe the horror of war, and the consequences of it, which is not beneficial for either side. He feels sorrow and anger towards the war and its victims, making the reader also feel the same.
The deafening sound of shelling and the rattling of gun fire seeing your fellow brother fall before your feet the grim life to live during World War One. Wilfred Owens, another man thrown into a war in the nation’s time of need. Many would clam up and keep to themselves after the war, but not Wilfred. He was a renounced poet, and while he was bunkered down from gunfire or shelling, he found time to write his experiences and the poetry everyone has to come to know. He wrote much of his poetry on the stance of the war and the horrors of being in the middle of it. He has written many plays and poems, many of which were in the trenches bunkering down and in a hospital. His journal full of his work of war was also filled with nature and life itself within the pages of poetry. His poetry, being mostly from the time he was at war, is not the only pieces he had written in his lifetime.
Owen's poems the irony between the truth of what happens at war and the lie that was
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
Wilfred Owen was born in Shropshire on 18th March 1893. He was the son of a railway worker and was educated at schools in Shrewsbury and Liverpool. Wilfred was encouraged to write poetry from an early age by his devoted mother. He couldn't afford university education, so decided to go abroad to teach English in France. Owen then volunteered for the Army in 1914 when the First World War was in action. After training he became an officer and was sent to France at the end of 1916, seeing services. The following year, Owen took part in the attacks on the German Hindenburg. When a huge shell burst near him, he was shell-shocked and sent back to England.
Owen was born in Oswestry, Shropshire and was the eldest son of a minor railroad official. A thoughtful, imaginative youth, he was greatly influenced by his Calvinist mother and developed an early interest in Romantic poets and poetry, especially in John Keats, whose influence can be seen in many of Owen's poems. Owen was a serious student, attending schools in Birkenhead and Shrews-bury. After failing to win a university scholarship in 1911, he became a lay assistant to the Vicar of Dunsden in Oxfordshire. Failing again to win a scholarship in 1913, Owen accepted a position teaching English at the Berlitz School in Bordeaux, France. There he met the Symbolist poet and pacifist Laurent Tailhade, who encouraged Owen to become a poet. In 1915, a year after the beginning of the Great War, Owen returned to England and enlisted in the Artist's Rifles. While training in London, he frequented Harold Monro's Poetry Bookshop, where he became acquainted with Monro and regularly at...
How Wilfred Owen Uses Language and Imagery in His Poetry to Communicate his Attitudes of War
Wilfred Owen joined the war at the age of twenty-two. During the war, he saw the worst of the battlefield and often wrote poetry to document his perspective on the war. In 1917, he was affected by an explosion and after he healed, he returned to service and died in battle in 1918. His biographical context is important to understand Owen’s point of view for this poem.