believe that the answers to the first two questions in the second stanza are a hero, and
the last two sounds as if the answer is a coward. In my opinion you can feel this coming
through, and everyone would rather be a hero than a coward.
What I noticed from this poem was that the rhyme scheme stays the same all the way
through. This adds rhythm and creates a happy fun atmosphere. It sounds so much
like a nursery or marching rhyme, that I instead of thinking of the seriousness of the
war you get lost in the excitement .The poem is simply written, that it can appeal to a
wide audience, and get the attending message across so clearly that you don't have to
go into depth to realise the real issues.
The repetition in the poem of "Who's for the game?" Is just pushed into your mind that
in the end you get more and more enthusiastic to be saying yes to every thing Popes
ask you this.
In this poem Popes asks so many questions, that it's as if she is talking to you
personally, but I think it also makes you question yourself. I think Popes tries to come
across as if she knows you, like when she says, 'lads.' You feel as if you know her and
she is a friend.
The piece of writing is persuasive like when she says "Go!" I think she tries to persuade
people to go and fight.
In the poem Popes uses phrases like 'sit tight' 'seat in the stand 'lie low' to make the
reader sound as a coward, if they don't sign up to go to war.
The whole poem sounds like a calling to you, it is as if the poem is directly aimed at
you, I think this is because of the direct questions Popes asks.
I think the use of sarcasm in the poem, gives me the feeling that the men who read
this, whom she is aiming at feel like idiots if they decide not to sign up.
The question, "Who'll give his country a hand?" seems to sound as there is no doubt,
that you will have to sign up. I believe that this question, gives this idea of how being a
part of the war makes you some sort of hero, that persuades people to want to fight,
and question men, their place in society.
The part of the poem where Popes says "Who would rather come back with a crutch.
Than lie low and be out of the fun?" Make it seem as if you are hurt or die during war
it's 'no big deal.' I think the use of 'lie low' just again reminds you of being cowardly. I
think Popes creates that concept of war being fun, to manipulate people.
She tries to make it sound as if that there is nothing to war, it's your duty to go and
you're a hero if you do, who would rather not go and be known as a coward.
Pope tries to be sympathetic, so we feel we can trust her, she tries to say we know it's
not easy, but who's still going to have, a go and try 'shudder gun.'
It seems to be as if you have no choice in the matter of going, the part of the poem
where it says 'Job,' makes it sound as your duty.
The poem has the concept of playing and of watching; she portrays that being part of
the game is better than being not. The words she uses 'gripping,' 'tackling,' makes it
sound like a game of football, which you want to part of. She uses words like 'lads' to
come across friendly, and that were all in it together.
The way Popes personifies England to 'she' in the last stanza "Your country-calling for
you" makes England sound, like a damsel in distress so men feel obliged to help.
I think this is a really good poem, and this is very cleverly written with the metaphors
and personification. The words, Popes uses gives the right atmosphere I feel she wants
to achieve, and the attending message comes across the way she wants. I don't agree
with the moral issue of this poem, but I think the talent of the poet is excellent.
'Disabled' Wilfred Owen.
When I read the title of this poem, I didn't take much notice of the title but it isn't until I
read on that I realised it's more deeper than I thought it was.
Unlike Jessie Pope's 'Who's for the game?' Her use of regular stanzas, Owen uses even
stanzas. I think Owen does this, as it loses that essence of fun and rhythm, it comes
across much more deeper and serious.
I feel, in this poem Owen tries to get the reader's sympathy and I feel he does
succeed. The poem is written so skilfully written, as all he does is describe the situation
of the young man," He sat in a -waiting for dark."
I believe the end of the first stanza talks about the things he is envious of, it's what he
had 'before he threw away his legs,' I feel this sounds as if how his legs were thrown
away like nothing, like rubbish.
I think the way he uses comparisons of the young boy's life before the war and after,
has a big impact on you. This is because you learn how much he has lost, and how it
massively affected him, especially in stanza two. This is a normal young man and how
he misses his normal life, how he won't be able to do those normal things, have a
girlfriend, go out with his friends and take care about his appearance. The poem talks
about how girls only look at him out of pity, their eyes turn to 'Whole men,' it just
makes you feel for the boy.
I think that the poem comes across as if it is criticising society for the way that the boy
joined the army, it was for the wrong reasons, the encouragement of propaganda and
people, the peer pressure. The boy in the wants to impress others, like his girlfriend "to
please his Meg." All those fancy things, the pay, the uniform and the marching
What distresses me is, when he decides to join the army, and he lies about his age the
person who let him sign up, knew, and he still allowed him to sign up "Smiling they wrote
his lie;"
I also think how manipulated from propaganda; he must have been to lie about his age.
The thing which I think is so troubling, is that because he has lost all his limbs all he can
do is sit there think and feel regretful. All he could do is think about, how his life was
before the war? What he has lost and what he misses? The treatment he receives
from others.
The last stanza where it talks about him living "a few sick years in an institution," it
makes you sad that a boy of nineteen being treated as if he is an elderly. It is as if his
life is simple, 'sitting in the park,' his clothes are simple 'ghastly suit grey' it's as if his life
has literally past away, in a blink of an eye.
The use of repetition of "Why don't they come?" Is such an influence the reader as I
feel he wants to escape. I feel that he would rather be dead, he has no passion or
control over his life, at least if he was dead he would be able to live in peace. I think
that when it comes across that someone would rather be dead than alive, you start to
think how bad their life must be.
I believe this poem makes people realise, even if you didn't come back dead from the
war your life still wouldn't be the same again.
I think that even though this poem was written in the third person, you still get a lot of
emotion through.
'Dulce et Decorum est' Wilfred Owen.
this poem is describing some ones death at war, so the use of uneven stanzas creates
that tone of moodiness and sadness
In this poem the use of words makes a big impression on you, as the poem is about
creating that imagery of sympathy and shock.
Owen uses words like 'hags' 'wrecked' 'smelly' 'dirty to make you feel sympathetic and
appalled by the conditions. I feel as in this poem Owen tries to make the reader
understand what it is like for people at war. The way he describes the men 'men
marched asleep,' ' drunk with fatigue,' you can just imagine the tiredness, and the
disorderly movements. That image of someone who is drunk, drunk from just
tiredness, you are all over the place and how exhausted you must be, to appear like
that. The word 'trudge,' reflects the effort, of just walking with that slow energy.
There is no smartness of how war is perceived in propaganda, it seems, as if the men
as slobs, without boots, 'limping,' not marching and the pain they must have gone
through to be limping.
The word 'bloodshed' creates this strong imagery of pain and hurt, I think it is so
powerful that it sums it all up perfectly.
The second stanza, there is a complete change in pace as Owen tries to capture the
event of a gas attack "Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!"
"An ecstasy of fumbling" just makes you feel, how every one must have been
struggling for their lives, to keep safe, to find a gas mask.
When you think, what people had gone through you can just imagine that closeness
and between people, comrades, which you usually don't associate with men. To watch
your friends dying, thinking how you may well be next , and the ways of the death, the
torture of the deaths in war were really brutal.
The repetition in the poem is used to empathise, the death of one of the soldiers. You
can just visualise someone drowning.
'Behind the wagon that we flung him,' it's just so sad, it's as if he meant nothing, he
was just rubbish. I don't think it was attended that the soldiers didn't feel for him, it was
just the way they had to carry on and it deeply sadness you. I felt this line was really
powerful, as it makes you, think how realistic you had to be.
When you read the bit, where someone is dreaming of that dying man it so sad how
when sleeping he is haunted by it. Where would they go to escape?
Where could you go to be peaceful? It sounds so painful, that the word to describe
him dreaming is smothering; it's as if he suffocating in his dreams.
When Owen uses the word 'writhing' to describe the man's eyes who is dead, it has this
impact on you. Writhing is a word, that is used to show the movement of your body
when it is in agony, and just imagining the movement of his eyes in that agony. It really
touches you, and made me shiver.
In the last stanza where "If you could hear-froth corrupted lungs," gives you this sickly
this auditory and usual image.
In this poem, Owen criticises people like Jessie Popes, that if they could see the reality
and suffering of war, they wouldn't hold the views they do.
At the end you get this bitterness "The old lie," "Dulce et et decorum est Pro patria
mori," meaning 'it is fitting and sweet way to die for your country.'
I think that Owen makes this poem, moving the imagery and use of words. When you
concentrate on the words, it makes you realise how truly sad it war was.
To be honest, when I read this the first couple of times, I didn't really feel or think
anything. When I concentrated on the words, I took my time on it, as I would stop and
think about them. It really makes you sad and sympathetic towards the people who
went out and fought, I feel this poem really gets you thinking, as you really can't
escape the words Owen uses.
I think Wilfred Owen's two poems, give a more realistic idea of war. Wilfred Owen
himself was part of the army. Even after Wilfred Owen came back during the war
because he was injured, he returned back to fight again.
In Owen's two poems, it comes across he criticises people who held the same types, of
views as Jessie popes.
