There are some authentic points in the text even though they are understated, such as; “It won’t be a picnic, not much,” and “Come back with a crutch,” this is very much true. Going to war would not be a picnic; the word picnic trivialises the whole aspect of how bad things really were. The tone and atmosphere Jessie Pope created, was a tone of joy and happiness. Personification is used to encourage responsibility among the readers, “Your country is up to her neck in a fight,” a deceitful way to make the readers feel responsible to take part, after all it is their country.
Wendy Cartlidge
“Dulce Et Decorum Est”
“Dulce et Decorum est” written by Wilfred Owen, is a poem of reality. Owen was a proud educated man who fought and died for his country. The poem explains the truly horrific events of trench warfare and the effects of Owen’s real experiences.
In the first stanza Owen uses visual imagery, he explains how the soldiers marched back from the trenches. He uses a simile to express the effects of the war and suffering of the young men, “like old beggars under sacks, coughing like hags.” The tone in the 1st stanza reads a morose and slow rhythm, an excellent way to engage the reader to value the true and grotesque reality the war really was. Characteristically, Owen makes an effective use of alliteration, “ stuttering rifles rapid rattle,” this aural imagery helps the reader to hear the sounds of the gunfire. In the 1st stanza line seven Owen describes how the “men marched asleep,” the poem then goes on to say “ But limped on, blood-shod,” because the soldiers were so tired that their feet were bleeding. Owen uses the metaphor “ Drunk with fatigue,” to convey the men staggering through tiredness.
The second stanza gives a tone of panic, “Gas! Gas!” This illustrates another side of warfare, the confusion and panic when the soldiers lives are in danger. The pace of this verse is much quicker in order to demonstrate the true horrifying panic the soldiers were experiencing. The second stanza fourth line “ And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime,” sums up the groping desperate movements of the men as they become enveloped in this deadly gas. The word drowning in this area of the poem depicts the struggle for air.
“ In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, he plunges at me, guttering choking, drowning,” these lines are important, it is a personal insight into the mind of the narrator who is telling the story. The words “ I saw him drowning,” gives a true feeling of reality, it helps to emphasis the true images Wilfred Owen witnessed. The simile used “like a devil’s sick of sin” describes the horrifying expression on the man's face. The word “gargling,” is linked to the use of the word “flound’ring,” onomatopoeic of the desperate fight for air the soldier was holding.
The last five lines of the fourth stanza describe negative, disgusting images of war, which is totally opposite to the incidents Jessie Pope, writes about her poem. Line nine, fourth stanza actually includes the first explicit reference to Jessie Pope, “My Friend, you would not tell with such high zest.” This line is directed at Jessie Pope, saying that she would not tell of the war with enthusiasm if she had experienced it first hand or had witnessed such loathsome episodes.
The final lines are, “The old lie,” this is also connected to how Owen, views Jessie Pope’s, impression of the war, which is captured in the Latin expression, meaning, “it’s sweet and glorious to die for your country.” The poem leaves a touching and invidious thought that war really wasn’t as glorious as they had been told.
Wendy Cartlidge
Anthem for Doomed Youth
This poem starts off at a quick pace and then continues to decelerate throughout the poem, drawing to a slow, solemn and sombre close. Throughout this poem the traditional feel of an elaborate ceremonial of a Victorian style funeral is constantly compared and contrasted to the ways in which men died in the war. The tone, which pervades the poem, is of sadness and sorrow, written in the third person and addressed to the families, friends and comrades of the First World War.
The title “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” with anthems usually being associated with love and passion, is very deliberately ironic. It is a way in which Owen shows how ridiculous he really thought the war was. “Anthem,” is a song that is sung in churches by choirs or could mean a celebration. The word “Doomed” is used to suggest that the soldiers are alive but have an inevitable death. Additionally, it symbolises death and conjures up the image that the soldiers are on their journey to hell. The word “Youth” is used to remind the reader that these soldiers were only young men, with their whole lives ahead of them, but this has now been ruined pointlessly.
The opening line “What passing bells for these who die as cattle?” uses simile to conjure up the image of a slaughterhouse. It creates the image of horrendous mass burials as the “cattle” are being slaughtered mercilessly. This opening line is an example of how Owen asks questions of the reader in order to make them think more about the poem. “Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle can patter out their hasty orisons,” are two very effective lines. “stuttering” is an onomatopoeia to add the sounds into the image that is formed in the readers mind. Alliteration is used on the “r” sounds to emphasis the sounds of destruction that were occurring. “No mockeries, no prayers nor passing bells, nor choirs,” is the opening of the second quatrain and illustrates the horrific way in which the soldiers depart from this world. Instead these soldiers who have died fighting for their country received “The Shrill demented choirs of wailing shells and bugles.”
The next stanza begins “What candles may be held to speed them all?” The response is “not in the hands of boys but in their eyes,” implying that as opposed to a candle that would be lit at a traditional funeral to symbolise everlasting life, these soldiers received tears in the eyes of boys. “The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall,” compares the elaborate cloth that would cover the coffin in a Victorian style funeral. The final comparison is that of dusk, to the drawing down of blinds in a house in mourning. “And each slow dusk a drawing down of blinds,” creating the image that dusk is like a blind that is being lowered. The funeral is over and rhetorical question that Owen asked at the beginning of the first stanza has been answered and the noise has vanished. All is now quiet. The long, heav ‘d’ sounds really drag the ending on and draw the poem to a deliberate close.
In conclusion, I feel that both poets are effective, but they both present such different pictures of war. Owen’s poems are excellent examples of poetry portraying the realism of war, whereas Pope’s poem is an excellent example of the unfortunate attitude cultivated on the home front. The contrast between the two allows the reader to see the reality of the First World War from two immensely different perspectives.
Wendy Cartlidge