Of all the modern poetry that we were assigned to read, I would have to say that, like many others in the class, I found Giuseppe Ungaretti 's poems to be the most enjoyable of them all as I found his poems to be the most simple to understand and easiest to relate to. A common theme that seemed to persist throughout many of Ungaretti 's poems is that he seemed to be writing a lot about death and pain that constantly surrounded him in the environment, perhaps indicating that he was was a soldier who was writing these poems during a time of war. Evidence of this can be found in the poem Vigil, in which Ungaretti describes spending " a whole night crouched close to one of "[their] men butchered," presumably a fellow soldier who was brutally massacred during a battle (Ungaretti, p.1).
' Admittingly, initially, when I first read the poem, I was quite confused as to why Ungaretti would devote a whole poem to describe a seemingly meaningless star. However, after reading the poem a second time, I immediately began to realize that this poem, like many others of Ungarett 's poems, must have had a deep inner meaning to it. As such, it appears that the poem was most probably about a person that Ungaretti actually loved and that the 'star ' was merely a form of symbolism for his love, which seems to be the main theme in this poem. One of the main reasons Star was my favorite is partly because of all the question marks it leaves and the many different possible interpretations that one can take from it. For instance, while it appears to be clear that Ungaretti wrote this poem about someone he loves, who that person actually is is not so clear and is open to interpretation. It could be about a woman he is deeply in love with or perhaps even one of his family
Rossetti, Christina. The Poetical Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti. With Memoir and Notes &c. Ed. William Michael Rossetti. London; New York: Macmillan, 1904.
Similarly, Wilfred Owen’s poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” describes a soldier who witnesses the death of his comrade from poisonous gas. Using imagery and irony, Owen presents a blunt contrast between the propaganda practiced for recruitment and the truth behind the suffering endured by the soldiers. While presented in different formats, both literary works criticize the romanticism of war, arguing that there is no glory in the suffering and killing caused by conflict.
“...Put your pistol to your head and go to Fiddlers’ Green.” Throughout literary history, epic stories of heroes dying for their gods and their countries have called men to battle and romanticized death, but Langston Hughes approaches the subject in a different way. He addresses death as a concept throughout much of his work. From his allusions to the inevitability of death to his thoughts on the inherent injustice in death, the concept of human mortality is well addressed within his works. In Hughes’ classic work, “Poem to a Dead Soldier,” he describes death in quite unflattering terms as he profusely apologizes to a soldier sent to fight and die for his country.
The ghastly experiences on the front deeply traumatized young soldiers, many of whom already had some poetic endeavours, and as a result they began writing trench poetry. The best trench poets, like Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, and Siegfried Sassoon produced their best works only when they abandoned the conventional “Georgian” style of Rupert Brooke and instead wrote realistically about the war and the situation on the front (Clausson). Wilfred Owen, perhaps the most famous trench poet, criticizes the romantic ideal of sacrifice in his “gas poem” (Bloom) “Dulce et Decorum Est”, thus trying to destroy “the glamorized decency of war” (Bloom 15). In the first stanza young men are depicted as “old beggars” (Owen), who are in a trance-like state, lame, blind, drunk, and deaf, too tired to be afraid of the sound of rifle fire, of “outstripped Five-Nines” (Owen) behind them. They march towards some place where they could rest. Then, the gas attack shakes them up: “Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!” (Owen). Unfortunately, one man was did not manage to put h...
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.
I am going to compare and contrast the two poems ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen and ‘War Photographer’ by Carol Ann Duffy. They both give a view of war. Owen gives first hand experiences he witnessed whilst fighting in World War One and where he unfortunately died one week before the war came to an end. Carol Ann Duffy may be writing about the feelings of her personal friends who were war photographers, showing some of the horrors they witnessed.
A poem which I have recently read is: “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen. The main point Wilfred Owen tries to convey in this poem is the sheer horror of war. Owen uses many techniques to show his feelings, some of which I’ll be exploring.
I will discuss the similarities by which these poems explore themes of death and violence through the language, structure and imagery used. In some of the poems I will explore the characters’ motivation for targeting their anger and need to kill towards individuals they know personally whereas others take out their frustration on innocent strangers. On the other hand, the remaining poems I will consider view death in a completely different way by exploring the raw emotions that come with losing a loved one.
The theme of death in the poems “War Photographer”, “Remember”, and “Mother in a Refugee Camp” were all portrayed in different forms to explore death and the suffering it brings. The variations of death in the three poems create a diverse image of death, which some people can relate to through the different situations of loss. “Remember” by Christina Rossetti fashions an image of death because the speaker wanted her husband to remember all the memories they had shared during her life. Rossetti found it necessary to portray death as a spiritual place rather than a physical state of decomposition so that she can finally escape to a place of silence to avoid all the darkness in her life. “War Photographer” by Carol Ann Duffy is about a man who takes photographs of death in vivid, dark and disturbing images of conflict, which Duffy conveys thoroughly throughout the poem to powerfully showcase his grief and disheartening on the situation. “A Mother in a Refugee camp” by Chinua Achebe, displays the struggles of a mother desperately trying to support and save her child while writhing in her caressing arms at death’s doors. These are the poems that represent the theme of death.
In both the poems he shows and discusses death in warfare and its effects, which are far reaching. In “Dulce et Decorum est” the point of death is shown in a real light, Owens uses strong imagery to connect us to these soldiers and their plight for survival in World War I. I think the line that shows the reader this aspect is, “He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning” (16). Owens paints the graphic scene of a dying soldier during a gas raid. Owens deliberately makes the scene graphic in order to gain the reader’s attention, and keep them reading. In “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” Owens never brings up the word war or the name of any country in particular; he does this so that every war can be applicable to the poem. Owens also does this so that the topic that all wars are horrible comes into play. He personally takes the stance, that we as humans have not done anything to change the fate of the dying soldiers and he expounds upon it. “No mockeries now for them, no prayers nor bells; / Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, – / The shrill demented choirs of wailing shells.” (5-7) In this line Owens talks about how these boys/men have no proper ceremony for their death. Shells from bombs and guns replace t...
Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the more well known and well respected American authors to this day. Hawthorne was born and raised in Salem, Massachusetts to a Puritan family which had a long New England history. Although Hawthorne was not extremely interested in the idea of higher education he did attended and graduated from Bowdoin college. In 1842 Hawthorne was married to Sophia Peabody and they had three children together until Nathaniels untimely death in 1862 at the age of 59. His short stories are just one of the many reasons for his popularity. Hawthorne like most writers has his own method with which he writes. The term which is most often used when discussing a writer's method of writing is called style. Nathaniel Hawthorne writes with a style which is unique to him and that is what makes his writing so special. In the short stories The Ministers Black Veil, Young Goodman Brown, and The Birthmark patterns in Hawthorne's style become evident. In his writing Hawthorne uses a formal tone, long descriptive sentences which are full of complex vocabulary, a very dark/gothic tone, his characters are often victims of alienation and scrutiny, and lastly it can be noted that Hawthorne inserts autobiographical elements into each of his characters.
In the poems “Dulce et Decorum Est” written by Wilfred Owen and “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” written by Randall Jarrell, which both touch on the issues of war. In these two poems the Speaker uses imagery, diction, and sorrow to show how brutal the war was. They both convey the horror and futility of dying for a state. “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” (Randall Jarrell 1945) and “Dulce et Decorum Est” (Wilfred Owen 1920) examine the impact war has on the soldiers who fight them.
Today I’m focusing on Wilfred Owen who is also recognized as the greatest English poet of the First World War. Owen volunteered to fight on 21 October 1915. Like many young men, propaganda had gotten the best of him, but he would soon experience first handedly the true horrors of war. Owen wrote of the disillusionment he, like others, felt at the time. He wrote out of his intense personal experience as a soldier and wrote with unrivalled power about the physical, moral and psychological trauma of the First World War. Nothing could have prepared Owens for the shock of war: for life in the trenches, sickness, death.
Wilfred Owen is most famous for his anti-war poem in which he is able to portray gruesome images of the Great War. He also uses caesura in order to further emphasize his point of view through his poems. Through his use of enjamed lines he successfully foreshadows what is to come next in his poems. He is still considered by most critics “the best” of the English poets of the “great war” (Hoffpauir 41). Owen was recognized for his courage and rewarded with the Military cross (Encyclopedia Britannica). In Wilfred Owen’s poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” the writer uses imagery to portray his theme that if the gruesome truth behind war was acknowledged it wouldn’t be praised and honored.
In Alexander Pope’s poem “Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady,” Pope uses a great amount of war-like imagery to enhance his vision of the suicide described. He creates allies and enemies, weapons and invasions, as well as the gruesome death that only seems to come from war. These pieces add to the overall meaning of the work and the vision of the event that has occurred, giving the reader an image of a battle occurring.