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Essay the impact of war on literature and society
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War Poems Analysis The term war is a known word amongst all civilians, and of course has some controversy depicting what is right and wrong. To begin with we were given two poems to read and we were assigned to analyze them both. With this in mind, in the poem "Who's for the Game" by Jessie Pope the speaker ends it with "You're country is up to her neck in a fight, and she's looking and calling for you". Furthermore, Jessie Pope encourages a positive spin on war and what it consists of. Then in the "Dulce Et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen he ends his poem with "The old lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori", which translates to It is sweet and right to die for your country. So we can already visually see that "Who's for the Game" and "Dulce et Decorum Est" both have vastly different perspectives of war. …show more content…
In the first poem, titled "Dulce et Decorum Est", a negative reflection of war is shown through this creative rhyme.
As an example, the author warns us that in a certain section of the poem, war can be horrific, "His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin". Moreover this line of the poem points out difficulties that the men face throughout battle. Equally important, in "Dulce et Decorum Est" it states that, "Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, but limped on, blood-shed". Although some may think it's important to fight for your country Wilfred Owen, the author of this poem, believes that men should not be forced to fight for their country. On the contrary, in the poem titled "Who's for the Game" by Jessie Pope he has a positive perspective on war and what it consists
of. Opposite to the poem "Dulce et Decorum Est", "Who's for the Game" is a positive perspective that agrees with the duties of war. For instance in "Who's for the Game" there are two lines that significantly challenge the civilians of the country by asking "Who'll grip and tackle the job unafraid? And who thinks he'd rather sit tight?". Correspondingly, this quote impacts and rather challenges the minds of the readers to hopefully get us to be encouraged by war. Compared to disagreeing with war Jessie Pope also includes another positive perspective, "Who knows it won't be a picnic — not much— Yet eagerly shoulders a gun?". Overall, in the author's mind, war is not always fun, but our soldiers should be brave and willing to fight for our country. In conclusion, both the "Dulce et Decorum Est" and "Who's for the Game" have vastly different perspectives on war. The poem titled "Who's for the Game" persuades the reader to go to war and participate as a soldier to protect their country with bravery. Whereas "Dulce et Decorum Est" has more of a negative perspective of war and experiences that the soldiers face. For example in "Dulce et Decorum Est" the speaker mentions how terrifying it is to be a soldier, "In all my dreams before my helpless sight. He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning." As opposed to "Who's for the Game" that states how great it is to defend our country, "Who's for the game, the biggest that's played, The red crashing game of a fight? Who'll grip and tackle the job unafraid?". One important thing to note about these few sentences is how "Who's for the Game" is gripping the readers emotions on being brave and joining the war. Both "Dulce et Decorum Est" and "Who's for the Game" have widely different perspectives on war, but rather the speakers are sharing their personal stories about the topic.
Comparing Jessie Owens's Who's for the Game and Wilfred Owens Dulce Est Decorum Est In Jessie Pope's 'Who's for the Game?' the presentation of war is quite different to what you might expect. This poem is a recruiting poem with the aim of encouraging men to volunteer to join the forces. It was written at the beginning of the First World War and therefore the true disastrous effects of the war had not been experienced.
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.
Both Stephen Crane's "Do Not Weep, Maiden, For War Is Kind" and Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est" use vivid images, diction rich with connotation, similes, and metaphors to portray the irony between the idealized glory of war and the lurid reality of war. However, by looking at the different ways these elements are used in each poem, it is clear that the speakers in the two poems are soldiers who come from opposite ends of the spectrum of military ranks. One speaker is an officer and the other is a foot soldier. Each of the speakers/soldiers is dealing with the repercussions from his own realities of the horror of war based on his duty during the battle.
In conclusion, the two poems, 'Who's for the game?' and 'Dulce et decorum est' treat the war very differently. This is mostly because of the different purposes both poets had for writing them. Jessie Pope was enrolled by the government to write poems for newspapers as part of the propaganda trying to make young men sign up for the army. Whereas Wilfred Owen was a soldier who fought in the war himself, and he wrote 'Dulce et decorum est' as a response to Jessie Pope, because he saw her as a typical unfeeling civilian who was supporting the war from the relative safety of the Home Front. Jessie Pope had a limited viewpoint, never having been on the battlefield herself, whereas Wilfred Owen wrote about his first hand experience in the trenches.
They had lost their lives to the lost cause of war, which also killed their innocence and youth. They were no longer boys, but callous men. Wilfred Owen's poem "Dulce et Decorum Est", Pat Barker's novel Regeneration, and Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, all portray the irony between the delusive glory of war and the gruesome reality of it, but whereas Owen and Sassoon treat the theme from a British point of view, Remarque allows us to look at it from the enemy's perspective. The poem "Dulce et Decorum Est", an anti-war poem by Wilfred Owen who was an English footsoldier, states that it is not sweet and fitting to die a hero's death for a country. Right off in the first line, Owen describes the troops as being "like old beggars under sacks" (1).
The Poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” attempts to make war seem as repulsive as possible. The author’s goal is to discourage people from joining the war or any future conflicts by shattering the romantic image people have of the fighting. The setting of this poem helps
The two poems have a strongly anti war message in both the victims. of war are the young men who’s lives are wasted. ‘Dulce et decorum Est’ uses the description of a gas attack to show how horrific the attack was. reality of war is. Owen describes the victim as "a sham."
Through reading this poem several times, I decided that the message from the poem is that war is full of horror and there is little or no glory. Methods which I found most effective were full rhyme and metaphor. Overall Wilfred Owen shows that there is no triumph in war, he does this by using the dying soldier as an example. His main point is that the old saying “Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori” is a lie.
The poem "Dulce et Decorum est" was written by Wilfred Owen during World War One, and is probably the most popular war-poem ever written.The title is part of the Latin phrase 'Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori' which means 'It is sweet and right to die for your country'. Wilfred Owen saw the war first-hand and this poem is about a gas attack that he witnessed. Throughout this poem Owen gives the sense of anger and injustice through the use of many different poetic techniques.
The simple definition of war is a state of armed competition, conflict, or hostility between different nations or groups; however war differs drastically in the eyes of naive children or experienced soldiers. Whether one is a young boy or a soldier, war is never as easy to understand as the definition. comprehend. There will inevitably be an event or circumstance where one is befuddled by the horror of war. For a young boy, it may occur when war first breaks out in his country, such as in “Song of Becoming.” Yet, in “Dulce et Decorum Est” it took a man dying in front of a soldier's face for the soldier to realize how awful war truly is. Both “Song of Becoming” and “Dulce et Decorum Est” are poems about people experiencing the monstrosity of war for the first time. One is told from the perspective of young boys who were stripped of their joyful innocence and forced to experience war first hand. The other is from the perspective of a soldier, reflecting on the death of one of his fellow soldiers and realizing that there is nothing he can do to save him. While “Song of Becoming” and “Dulce et Decorum Est” both focus on the theme of the loss of innocence, “Song of Becoming” illustrates how war affects the lives of young boys, whereas “Dulce et Decorum Est” depicts the affect on an experienced soldier.
Owen as a young soldier held the same romantic view on war as majority of the other naive soldiers who thought that war would be an exciting adventure. The documentary extract illustrates how markedly Owen’s perspective of the war changed, as noted in a letter to his mother while he was still in the front lines: “But extra for me, there is the universal perversion of ugliness, the distortion of the dead ... that is what saps the soldierly spirit.” In ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’, Owen’s change of heart is evident through the irony of the poem title and the ending line “The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est, Pro patria mori.”, an allusion to the Roman axiom made famous by Horace, which translates to “The old Lie; It is sweet and right to die for your country.”. The line depicts Owen’s realisation that the horrific nature of war through human conflict is not sweet and right at all, rather, it is appalling and “bitter as the cud” as death is always present on the battlefield. Additionally, Owen indirectly responds to Jessie Pope’s poetry, a pro-war poetess, through the reference “My friend, you would not tell with such high zest… The old lie…”, further highlighting his changed perspective towards the war which has been influenced
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’s poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” makes the reader acutely aware of the impact of war. The speaker’s experiences with war are vivid and terrible. Through the themes of the poem, his language choices, and contrasting the pleasant title preceding the disturbing content of the poem, he brings attention to his views on war while during the midst of one himself. Owen uses symbolism in form and language to illustrate the horrors the speaker and his comrades go through; and the way he describes the soldiers, as though they are distorted and damaged, parallels how the speaker’s mind is violated and haunted by war.
In Wilfred Owen’s poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” the speaker’s argument against whether there is true honor in dieing for ones country in World War I contradicts the old Latin saying, Dulce et Decorum Est, which translated means, “it is sweet and honorable to die for the fatherland”; which is exemplified through Owen’s use of title, diction, metaphor and simile, imagery, and structure throughout the entirety of the poem.
Dulce et Decorum Est Wilfred Owen Owen's poem Dulce et Decorum Est is a passionate expression of outrage at the horrors of war and of pity for the young soldiers sacrificed in it. From the title of this poem people back home would have expected an understanding poem, helping to overcome their grief at the loss of a loved one, instead what they got was a poem expressing outrage at the lies surrounding the ‘Great’ War. The quote by Horace translates as ‘It is sweet and right to die for ones’ country’, but the poem is about proving to people at home that this isn’t a sweet and honourable way to die (if there is any).