Comparison of 'The Soldier' was written by Wilfred Owen and 'Dulce et Decorum est' was written by Rupert Brooke.
Choose two poems about war. Compare and contrast how each poem deals with the theme of war.
‘The Soldier’ was written by Wilfred Owen and ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ was written by Rupert Brooke. They were both written during World War 1, ‘The Great War’ between 1914 and 1918. World War 1 was a major defining event in Europe. This war was between England and Germany and it was mostly staged in the muddy battlefields of France and Belgium. The type of writing which both poets use was developed as a response to this war and it is known as ‘war poetry’. Both writers write with authority as Brooke was in the English Navy during the war and Owen was in the British Army. Sadly, Owen was killed just one week before the end of the war. A lot of the soldiers were not killed in battle, their own living conditions helped to kill them as diseases like ‘trench foot’ were very common in the harsh and grim trenches. Even though both poets write with differing opinions to war, they have one item in common, what it actually meant to be a soldier in World War 1.
Unlike Owen, Brooke thinks it is an honourable thing to die for your country. He feels that death in war is victorious and glorious. If he dies in the battle, he thinks that it will be triumphant and the piece of land on which he dies will be English and it will be an English achievement and a memorial of England. “For ever England”. The piece of land in some “foreign field” will be English territory and if he dies he thinks that he will go to heaven because he is fighting for what is right. He feels that God is a righteous Englishman. “English heaven”. He also uses repetition in the poem to illustrate how strongly he feels towards his country. He repeats the word “England” under different forms six times in the limits of the short poem.
This is an extremely patriotic and poem. Brooke is prepared to die for his country. He does not concentrate on the fact the English send out seventeen and eighteen year olds to the battlefields, he focuses on the beauty of England and why it should be preserved. He presents England as an ideal country with beautiful, rural scenery. “Her flowers to love, her ways to roam.” He presents it as a heavenly paradise and a place worth fighting for. He feels that this justifies all the deaths and tragedies of World War 1. Brooke thinks that England is better than any other country. There is a sense of jingoism in this poem as Brooke adores England and praises his country throughout his poem. “Forever England”. He doesn’t just think of England as a country, he feels that England is his mother. “A dust whom England bore,” England gave him his life and it made him into a man from particles of dust. He owes his life to England. He owes a debt of gratitude towards England and he wants to repay the favour. He says that he was “a dust” and he accepts the fact that he and the other soldiers are disposable. He has personified England from a country to a mother. Brooke is also exploiting our feelings of loyalty towards our mother and if she is in trouble, we should protect her. This is identical to what he feels about England and he has a very close and personal relationship with England just as everyone has with their mother. Brooke also says that the death of a soldier is not a waste of life. “That there’s some corner of a foreign field that is for ever England”. The body of the slain soldier will enrich the foreign soils of the land on which it falls. To Owen, this is a victory in itself. He also thinks that the death of the soldier is a victory over evil and the “good” England has won. “All evil shed away”. Even in the afterlife, the soldier will continue to give his life to England. “A pulse in the eternal mind.” Death is not the end of life.
