Reality of War in Attack by Siegfried Sasson and Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen In my opinion both poems express effectively how terrible it was to be a soldier in the First World War. However, I believe 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' is more effective than 'attack' because of the amount of emotive language used. Looking first of all at the way the two poems convey the setting of their poems. 'Attack' opens with a highly visual image of the battlefield, 'At dawn the ridge emerges massed and dun'. This approach to the setting is deliberate. The poet intends to form an image in your mind because it helps to put across the hostility of war. By contrast 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' does not reveal it's setting until the second line. This allows the poet to give the image of a massed slaughter, he then tells us where the slaughter is, the battlefield. Later the poet changes the setting his chosen setting for the sestet is the home front. I believe this makes 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' a more effective description of the setting because it has already given of a very dramatic statement already. Both poems clearly share similarities of intention. It is to tell people of the horrors of war and the inevitability of the most brutal of deaths. This is shown in lines 'Men jostle and climb to meet the bristling fire.' And 'lines of gray muttering faces, masked with fear' in the poem 'Attack' and yet again in the poem 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' the lines 'What passing bells for those who die as cattle?' and 'What candles may be held to speed them all?' show the power of the poets vision which he wishes to communicate to the reader. But there is second intention in 'Anthem for Doomed Youth'. That is the impact on the people at home. This difference as I see it makes 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' more effective because of its double value. Another area of difference is the form of the poems. Owen has chosen a
The three narratives “Home Soil” by Irene Zabytko, “Song of Napalm” by Bruce Weigl, and “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen all have the same feelings of war and memory, although not everyone experiences the same war. Zabytko, Weigl, and Owen used shifting beats, dramatic descriptions, and intense, painful images, to convince us that the horror of war far outweighs the devoted awareness of those who fantasize war and the memories that support it.
The poet Wilfred Owen was one of many poets who were against war. He reflected this idea of anti-war in his poems, one of his poems called “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, mirrors most aspects of war all put together in this short still deep poem. An example of that would be when the speaker stated,” What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?”(1) The speaker asks is there any sound that marks our soldier’s death other than the sounds of church bell’s which are mostly rung to represent somebody’s absence? Clearly, the speaker sets anger as the tone of the poem through this question to show that soldier’s death is unremarkable.. The speaker compares the soldiers to a “cattle” which illustrates that soldiers are treated more like animals with no feelings and also shows how they are killed indiscriminately in war. Finally the line ironically contains an iambic pentameter which is a natural rhythm for such dark, grim, dull subject. The two novels, The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, and All Quiet on The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, both present a similar idea of how soldiers are killed out there in the front comprehensively and the dehumanization of war towards its soldiers. The first novel is set during the Civil War, and it focuses on the psychological aspects of one soldier named Henry Fleming and how his naive thoughts about war constantly change through the course of the novel. The second novel presents the life of a soldier named Paul Baumer and his friends who were faced with the terribleness of war and how severely it affected their lives. The Red badge of Courage and All Quiet on The Western Front are similar in the way of how the main characters develop through the novel to change from naïve and innocent men ...
Many war pieces express a distinct sense of truth, hatred, and anger that can be found in the style, tone, and imagery they possess. Incredible images are created in ones mind as war writings are read and heard. Works written by such writers as Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, and Tim OBrien really reach out to the audience by way of the authors choice of words and images that they use in their writing. These talented writers create very touching and heart-felt images as they write about the true occurrences, problems, feelings and emotions that soldiers encountered throughout times of war. It is by way of these writers words that the bloody truth of war is heard, rather than the glorified victories heard which overlook the pain that soldiers went through.
There are only two types of people in a time of war and crisis, those who survive and those who die. Elie Wiesel’s novel, Night, shows how Elie, himself, faces difficult problems and struggles to survive World War II. Wilfred Owen’s poem, “Dulce et Decorum Est”, tells a story about a young soldier thinking of himself before others during World War I. The poem “Mary Hamilton” shows how a mother killed her child
The Attitude to War in The Charge of the Light Brigade By Alfred Lord Tennyson and Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
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
Tanks, powerful bombs that could rip a man to shreds, poison gas, and other gruesome innovations characterized the First World War. The war left a whole generation of people dubbed “The Lost Generation,” as the war left so many of those who fought in it “shell-shocked,” disillusioned, and full of years of memories of endless bombardments and bloody clashes. These scenes of trench warfare especially bring to mind the trenches of the Western Front. One British soldier who fought in these trenches, Siegfried Sassoon, was as disillusioned as the rest of his generation that experienced the horrors of war and expressed this sentiment through poetry. Through his poem “Attack,” written in the end times of the war, he unflinchingly depicts the horror
told he was out of action for six months. It was here that he first
As a poet, Wilfred Owens wants to show the effects of warfare from the viewpoint of a soldier during a War. Owens uses his own experience as a fighter to capture the reader’s attention and get across his point. He often uses graphic imagery and words to depict his thoughts about war. Wilfred Owens, poems, “Dulce et Decorum est” and “Anthem for doomed youth” talk blatantly about the effects of warfare on the soldiers, their loved ones, and those who make an ultimate sacrifice by making a statement about the efficacy of war.
Since the war broke out, World War I has been a topic of major controversy. Not only were millions of lives lost, but the war led to new laws against specific types of unethical warfare. During the war, Siegfried Sassoon was one of many that wrote with hopes to bring an end to the entire conflict. In his poem “’They,’” Sassoon uses satire to effectively express his frustrations with the aimless deaths in the wars.
Considered the leading English poet of the First World War, Owen is remembered for realistic poems depicting the horrors of war, which were inspired by his experiences at the Western Front in 1916 and 1917. Owen considered the true subject of his poems to be "the pity of war," and attempted to present the true horror and realities of battle and its effects on the human spirit. His unique voice, which is less passionate and idealistic than those of other war poets, is complemented by his unusual and experimental style of writing. He is recognized as the first English poet to successfully use pararhyme, in which the rhyme is made through altered vowel sounds. Owen’s distinct way of both writing and reading poems led to influence other poets in the 1920s and 1930s.
World War one and two. Both these wars stole many young men’s lives from them. Stole sons from their mothers. Stole brothers from their sister but also stole many innocent lives in the process. An estimated 60 million lives lost and for what? For land, for power, wealth. War is brutal, gruesome, costly and pointless. What good could possibly come from a war? The truth is without these wars, the world of literature wouldn’t be the same. These wars bought rise to names such as Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen, and Edward Thomas. Among all that death, destruction, and calamity; somehow great poets were born.
'Attack ', by Siegfried Sassoon, written on the First World War, is a poem considered by many to make a lasting impression of the brutality and chaos of war. Sassoon was a strong opposer of the war; after its completion, he went on to lecture on pacifism, and to become involved in the politics linked to that topic. Writing at a time when much of the poetry being written of the war was heavily romanticised, his poetry was criticised by some as "unpatriotic" or found his graphic depictions of war too extreme. His work still sold well, despite this. These graphic depictions are one of the many things that make this poem have such an impact; the imagery is extremely vivid throughout, and everything, down to the structure of the poem itself create
He may have used this technique to make war seem if it had made men
Richard Lovelace and Wilfred Owens were both poets that expressed their own perceptions of what war is. The poems,"To Lucasta, Going to the War" by Lovelace, and "Dulce et Decorum Est" by Owens, use tone, point of view, and imagery to describe war. The tone of "To Lucasta, Going to the War" is earnest, while the tone of "Dulce et Decorum Est" is bitter. Using opposite emotions the authors illustrate the war. The speaker in "To Lucasta, Going to the War" says, "To war and arms I fly," (Lovelace 4), demonstrating his excitement to go to war.