War Poems 'Dulce Et Decorum Est And Disabled'

A comparison of the ways in which Owen expresses anger at the war

‘Dulce et Decorum Est’, ‘Disabled’. ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ and ‘Futility’ are central to the way in which Wilfred Owen expresses anger at war. This anger is formed through the first-hand experience that Owen underwent, therefore his poems explore his personal emotions, specifically concerned with themes relating to the idea that the soldiers should not have had to endure that experience. Owen’s poems are overall imbued with a sense of reality as they display the cold hard truth of war, a perspective not commonly encountered by one. No details are spared as in each poem one is presented with a memory displaying the magnitude of war’s short and long-term effects. This hatred is expressed through the use of

Jessie Pope was a typical civilian who supported the war from the relative safety of the home front, writing poems influencing young men into believing the lie ‘Dulce et decorum Est, pro patria mori’ despite not understanding the truth of the situation. It was similar propaganda to this that meant that young men injudiciously signed up to fight despite their lack of education about the consequences. The direct attack against the reader in ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ in the fourth stanza is most probably against her and is crucial as it verifies how war is a notion that the ignorance in society can accept at a distance, while to the people who suffer its wrath it is an overwhelming sense of dehumanisation. In comparison, ‘Disabled’ authenticates this theme of unpreparedness going into the battlefield as the tone of the poem reflects regret from this disabled man, as he wonders how he sanely made such an incomprehensible decision- ‘Poured it down shell holes’, the use of ‘poured’ proving that he was in