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In The Soldier Brooke promotes the glory of war and portrays death so a natural process. He sees it as a natural process because he believes that thoughts that fight for their country and die in war are honourable and are patriots to their country. He believes that where an English man dies while fighting for his country will fall and where they fall means that, that part of land is English.
While Brooke mentions nothing of the pain and of death and the unpleasant ways soldiers die in war, in Dulce et Decorum Est, Owen shows the horrific consequences of war. Owen seems to show the misery of war by setting the scene effectively he does this by saying, “In all my dreams before my helpless sight He plunges at me, guttering, choking, and drowning.” This can show how horrific the soldiers could have died and how it isn’t as patriotic as Brooke says. Owen also shows how the men feel and how they look. Take for example when Owen is describing in the final stanza the man which died from the earlier gas attack,” Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin, If you could hear, at every dolt, the blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs. Bitter as the cud. Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues.”
In Brook’s poem of The Soldier he uses his language softly to show the people at home that the war is good and that if people die there for their country they are looked upon as an honourable person. But in Owen’s poem of Dulce et Decorum Est, it uses language harshly by using similes and metaphors to emphasise the misery he witnessed and the violence of war. Here are some examples,” Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots of gas-shells dropping softly behind.”, “His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin.”, “My friend, you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory, the old Lie: Duke et decorum est Pro parr/a man”
The Soldier suggests death is something to be welcomed and is simply a step towards an even better after-life. However, Owes makes no reference to what follows death and this suggests that for him death is the end. The Soldier offers romantic view of death as natural sad peaceful and would be a comfort to people at home whereas. Dulce et Decorum Est would be upsetting as Owen exposes the truth of war.
In Brooke’s poem it is clearly patriotic and shows what the Government was saying at the time which was governmental propaganda. At the time the government was saying that it was noble for men to go to war and die for one’s country but in contrast to Owen tells the reader that this is a lie and there is nothing glorious in dying for your country.
In this essay I have shown that The Soldier and Dulce et Decorum Est portray war and death from different perspectives. Brooke’s poem clearly reflects that people at home at time of war are ignorant and are optimistic at the begging of war which stews from England’ success in previous wars. At the begging of war ever one was very optimistic that we would win the war quickly and efficiently. Brooke’s poem also gives the people at home the feeling that if one of their men dies it is not the end. In contrast Owen’s poem attacks the idealistic and romantic view put forward by Brooke. He argues against the ideals of heroism and self-sacrifice. He is more concerned with all the men going into war thinking that it is heroic and glorious when actually it is horrible and that millions of men die every day.
The poem which I prefer between Rupert Brooke’s The Soldier and Wilfred Owen’s Dulce Et Decorum Est is Wilfred Owen’s Dulce Et Decorum because it describes the war as I believe it is and it is very descriptive on how the gas attack happened and how all the men felt. So I like Wilfred Owen’s Dulce Et Decorum overall
Martin Spears 9p