Comparing War Poems

Comparing War Poems

Died of Wounds and Suicide in the Trenches are two poems, which I will

be comparing the similarities and differences, which were written by

the same author. Both these poems were written by a person called

Siegfried Sasson, who wrote most of his poems during the World War

One, which outlined how bad the war was to those at home after

suffering from being Shell Shocked. I will be comparing the language

it uses, ideas it contains and the way it is structured between both

poems, which Siegfried Sasson uses to demonstrate that war is evil,

and should be stopped.

The theme in Died of Wounds is that soldiers become shell-shocked and

go insane. They also suffer from mental and emotional scars, long

after the battle, and the pain and death are unknown and unimportant

to those who support the war. The theme in Suicide in the Trenches is

that Siegfried Sasson wanted to show the people at home what life is

in the trenches and that young lads can't cope with it. This shows

that there is a similarity between both poems, which is war is evil

and those who support the war did not take the hardship of the

soldiers into account. Also that the war was extended unnecessarily.

The weather in Died of Wounds is that it was dull and gloomy because

it always used to rain, which is on the eighth line. This gives the

idea that the trenches always used to be muddy due to the rain. But

the weather in Suicide in the Trenches is different from Died of

Wounds because on the start of the fifth line it says "In Winter

trenches", which give us the idea that the weather in this poem was

cold and blisteringly freezing.

The language used i...

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...imilarity, where the enjambment is on the first, ninth and the

eleventh line. Enjambment is when a line in a poem continues to the

next line without any pause. Caesura on the other hand is the opposite

of enjambment where there are pauses in between sentences. In Died of

Wounds there is caesura on the lines: forth, fifth, eighth, ninth and

the eleventh, whereas in Suicide in the Trenches there is only one

pause, which is on the fifth line.

In this essay I have given the differences and the similarities of

Died of Wounds and Suicide in the Trenches. Died of Wounds is mainly

about the pains and the agony a dying soldier is going through whereas

Suicide in the Trenches is mainly about a young lad who used to be a

happy and cheerful but after he went to war, he lost his abilities to

live any longer, so he killed himself.