Although the only reason that Henry is talking so graciously to his soldiers is to rally their spirits for war and to bring victory to his beloved England. One must refer to the poet being none other than William Shakespeare, grant him being a great writer he has never seen first hand the horrors of the battlefield and witnessed the loss of precious life. And it is reasonable for the reader to understand that he will therefore have a more narrow minded opinion about war and the ‘patriotism’ of which he writes so convincingly about.
Wilfred Owen, the writer of ‘The send off’ has a very contrasting style of writing to Shakespeare. ‘So secretly like wrongs hushed-up they went.’ Owen is emphasising how Britain disowns their soldiers and dually how war has lost its novelty. ‘Dull porters watched them, and a casual tramp’ – Owen is also showing that no on cares about these soldiers in the grand scheme of things they are simply a statistic, or better yet pawns on a chess board send to war to sacrifice their lives for the king.
The direct parallel which, the authors have to each other is that Shakespeare has never encountered war and speaks so highly of the patriotism which soldiers have for their country. Owen who spent four months of his life fighting for his native England, shares totally different opinions and portrays the soldiers lack of emotion for their country, he also criticises those who think that war is easy, such as Shakespeare.
With time comes understanding and knowledge, just in the same way that kids have not yet learnt the difference between rights and wrongs, so has it taken civilisation many years to comprehend the evilness of war.
“Dulce et Decorum Est” perfectly shows the reader the evil nature of war, specifically modern day war making references to such things as gas attacks. It is a very confrontational piece of prose and really guides your senses to what the individual soldiers are going through. ‘Bent double, like old beggars under sacks.’ Owen throughout emphasises the pain and suffering that the soldiers are currently enduring and here is describing their bodies and the state which they find themselves in.
Owens poem ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ can be compared to the sonnet labelled ‘the soldier’ written by Rupert Brooke. Sonnets are often used for love poems and follow a structure of eight lines followed by six.
It is very intriguing that one be used when talking about war but not so for Brooke. In fact his poem is a love story not for war or a person but rather for England. ‘the soldier’ incorporates a number of different ideologies the major ones including his undying duty to defend England and his foreseen courageous death at the hands of the merciful enemy. ‘that there’s some corner of a foreign field that is forever England.’ Brooke thinks that if his body should be buried in a foreign country his ‘English’ flesh will enrich the soil.
I wish to emphasise again that Brooke never went to war although he was on his way to the front line in Turkey. He wrote this poem without any thought of the downside of war the horrific scenes of blood and loss of innocent life. The fact that he has never seen battle before is reflected in his poem because he does not mention any details of battle.
To conclude the points have made have proven my line of argument and it is very easily noticeable that the poet of the poems had a much more direct effect on there style and principles than the time period in which they were written at.
