Owen uses the structure of a sonnet which is of two sections to contrast with the theme of death and war. He juxtaposes the sounds of heavy gun battles with the harmonious sound of church choirs and bells. In the opening stanza of the poem Owen is trying to question how it can be pleasantly appropriate to die for your country if no one knows about your death. Another important suggestion the poet makes is to compare the dead soldiers to cattle,
“What passing bells for those who die as cattle?”
This brutal image gives us the feeling that the soldiers have been slaughtered and that they were up for this since the day they were born. Owen then personifies the weapons to enhance our understanding of the atmosphere while the dead body of the soldier is passing by. The personification and alliteration of weaponry further emphasizes the cruelty of their deaths,
“Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle”
Owen captures the noise and violence of the war through his use of onomatopoeia in the above verse by giving us a sense of the lack of commemoration given to the soldiers during there burial or funeral. In the rest of the stanza Owen is keen to highlight the deficiency of a funeral and its common symbols of a typical procession for the dead.
“No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;”
Here the poet emphasizes on the No to demonstrate to the reader that soldiers had no one to remember them and they were just left to be buried with out a memorial or prayer in the hope that they rest peacefully in there graves. Instead the soldiers are only commemorated by the weapons that were used to fight and this is indicated by the personification of the "wailing shells".
Whilst the first stanza concentrates on the sounds of the battlefield, stanza two goes into more detail about the expected, normal reactions to the frequent deaths and focuses on people's reactions at home rather than death in the trenches. The tension of the first stanza has been replaced by a calmer more reflective mood.
Instead of turning to sounds Owen uses imagery in the last stanza to get across his views for example in the first line he uses a rhetorical question to the reader to suggest that there will be no one to light candles and say prayers for them. Further references to funerals are used such as the terms of flowers or palls.
“The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall"
This indicates that the dead soldiers do not have a cloth over there coffin apart from the depressed faces of their loved ones back home. The concluding verse focuses on the suffering and grief which will be with the families for a long time as they get over the so called expected death of there loved ones. The word dusk in the last couplet symbolizes an image of respect for when a soldier was killed at war as the families of the soldier would draw there blinds as a mark of respect. The general impression from this poem is that there was a great absence of religion as the war went on as many families knew that there prayers weren’t answered and death for the soldiers was unavoidable.
The next poem I will look at is called “Dulce et Decorum Est” which also portrays Owens anguish at war and is known as one of his most famous poems. The poem is written from a first person narrative and is written in an alternate line rhyming pattern. In the first stanza Wilfred Owen describes the appearances of the soldier to the reader and doesn’t hold back in describing them as crippled and left for dead.
“Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through the sludge,"
The poet portrays the dreadful conditions of soldiers on the frontline and what they went through to fight for there country with no idea of the consequences they would have on there loved ones back home. The poem also shows that Owen had a very good understanding of the scene by the use of words that are associated with war as he himself was a soldier in the world war. This knowledge is backed up when he describes the gas attack on his division.
“Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time”
Owen here makes the poem sound extremely realistic as he uses the repetition of word gas giving the reader a sense of panic amongst the soldiers.
The way Owen describes a comrade watching as a lone soldier is struggling to get his mask fastened awakens the minds of the readers to see the psychological effect that this had on the soldiers. Through this Owen accordingly gets his message across that war is cruel and unjust.
Again the realism is shown in the following stanza when he reveals the anguish of the soldier as he sinks towards his death.
“He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.”
This description of the young soldier dying in Owens hands awakens the reader into believing Wilfred Owen in that reality of war is a terrifying way for young people to die
and that the idea of nationalism and privilege is the cause of such dreadful circumstances.
Wilfred Owen thoroughly criticizes the idea of war being a sweet and glorious way to
die for one’s country. It is presented through a series of images which are intended to defeat the idea of war being patriotic. His graphic details reveal war as the hideous thing it is.
“Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer,”
Just by reading this stanza I myself feel physically sick and this is what Owen has intended for the audience to suggest that war is not about pretty flowers and clear skies but rather more concerning the harsh conditions and the burdens of war faced by the innocent young soldiers who have arrived in the trenches with the attention of making there loved ones proud. This poem is extremely effective as an anti-war poem, making war seem absolutely absurd and disturbing just as Wilfred Owen wanted it to.
Owen uses the idea of irony in war in both of these poems as he saw suffering, devastation and wanted people to be more aware of the cruelty of war and the consequences of going to war.
