This poem is being aimed at ordinary men who have not joined the army. ‘Come along, lads- but you’ll come on alright- for there’s only on course to purse, your country is up to her neck in a fight, and she’s looking and calling for you.’ They want men to join the war.
In this poem there is no mention of death, pain, suffering or any bad things at all, no injuries. War is described as glorious. The poet wants men to join up so he is not going to say anything bad. War is described as a game. ‘Who’s for the game, the biggest that’s played?’ He tries to make war sound fun. ‘Who wants a turn to himself in the show?’ even the title makes war sound like an adventure- ‘Who’s for the game?’
The title ‘who’s for the game?’ is talking directly to the reader; it’s a persuasive piece of text. The poet uses rhetorical questions to get the readers attention ‘who’ll grip and tackle the job unafraid? And who thinks he’d rather sit tight?’ The poet asks if you are brave or a coward ‘who would much rather come back with a crutch than lie low and be out of the fun?’
The poet describes England as a female so it appeals to men, it sounds like a woman is calling for help, and she is in distress. This woman is in trouble, she needs protecting. This appeals to men. ‘Your country is up to her neck in a fight, and she’s looking and calling for you.’
The poetry of Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owens poetry broke with previous traditions of war poetry. He tells the truth about war. In his poems he uses graphic detail to show what it was really like in battle, he uses realism.
Dulce et decorum est
This poem is about the suffering of the soldiers. This poem is in 3 sections,
- Soldiers marching
2. Panic- as the soldiers fit their gas masks
3.Suffering and slow death of one soldier who doesn’t fit his mask in time.
The impression we get of the soldiers is that they look like tramps, and are really tired. ‘Bent double like old beggars under sacks, knock kneed, coughing like hags. We cursed through sludge. ‘The coughing like hags’ is a sign of real tiredness. ‘Like old beggars’ suggests they look like tramps, which shocks you. ‘Bent double’ is a visual image, men can’t stand straight. They are hard working with little reward ‘and towards our distant rest began to trudge.’
In the second verse the pace of the poem speeds up, this gives the reader a sense that something is happening. ‘Gas! Gas! Quick boys! An ecstasy of fumbling fitting the clumsy helmets just in time.’ It speeds up because there is a race to put on their gas masks. The exclamation mark tells you someone is shouting in a hurry.
‘Flound’ring like a man in a fire or lime, dim, through the misty panes and thick green light as under the green sea, I saw him, drowning.’ This is the visual image we are given. ‘Fire or lime’ is the gas making the skin burn off. ‘Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light’ is what is seen through the gas masks of other soldiers, its misty. ‘As under water idea, sea and drowning, drowning in his own blood). These images are powerful because we get a feel of what it is like to be in a gas attack.
The tone is changed yet again in verse 3. The poem slows down as the attack has happened, and now the victims are suffering.
When the poet sees the young man dying he feels scared and angry, sad deadly disturbed. ‘He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.’ This has affected him so then he addresses people the lie that it is a great thing to die for your country.
The word ‘you’ in verse 4 is so effective because it is showing ‘you,’ it is aimed at Jessie Pope. ‘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 jolt the blood come gargling from the froth corrupted lungs, obscene as cancer, a bitter as the cud.’ This is how the soldier is described as dying; it would not be a pretty sight. To describe this, he has used words that sound like what is happening. In the graphic image of the soldier dying, the poet uses alliteration ‘And watch the white eyes writhing in his face.’
I think Wilfred Owen goes into so much detail because he wants to show what it is really like in battle. He hopes to achieve that people can see what really happens instead of believing the lies in poems like the charge of the light brigade. He tries to get you to think about how unpleasant it is.
The phrase innocent tongues suggests that the soldiers are just children-‘of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues.’ This is the lie told to the soldiers, they believe them.
In the last few lines, Owen is addressing it straight at Jessie Pope. ‘My friend, you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory, the old lie: dulce et decorum est propatria mori.’ He calls Jessie Pope ‘My friend.’ In these few lines he says if you didn’t think of war with such high zest people would not be so desperate for glory. ‘Dulce et decorum est propatria mori’ means it is good and an honourable thing to die for your country and Owen refers to it as ‘the old lie.’ He destroys the old lie by telling the truth.
Dulce et decorum est is different to charge of the light brigade and who’s for the game because they both are describing war as a game.
Disabled
This poem is about a man who is a victim of war. Wilfred Owen imagines the thoughts of a very young and severely wounded soldier. He has lost all of his limbs and now sits helplessly in a wheelchair, thinking sadly and bitterly of the past.
The subject of the poem is a man, he has been crippled physically-‘Legless, sew, short at elbow.’ ‘Town used to swing so gay’-this is psychological.
In the first verse the poet (Wilfred Owen) shows the soldier is isolated and is almost a corpse ‘he sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark. And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey.’ He uses the colour grey to show he is isolated, it is alliteration ‘ghastly suit of grey.’ This use of graphic detail is similar to dulce et decorum est because it makes the reader feel pity for the soldiers.
The poet uses contrast between the past and present to show irony in
Poem. In the first verse it is dull because he is talking about the
Present, then in the second verse when he is remembering how he used
to be, it turns it happy and fun. ‘About this time town used to swing so gay.’ The second verse is colourful ‘when glow lamps budded in the light blue trees. The first verse has dull colours ‘and shivered in his ghastly suit of grey.’ This technique makes the reader feel sorry for the man who has been crippled.
Owen shows that war is a pointless sacrifice. He does this by saying ‘and half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race.’ This suggests he has sacrificed his life by fighting in the war. Another quote suggests there was needless sacrifice –‘In the old times before he threw away his knees.’
The poem suggests these young men were innocent because they joined up after they got drunk and thought they would look good in a uniform and hadn’t thought about the Germans and had no fear of war. ‘It was after football when he’d drunk a peg, he thought he’d better join- he wonders why, someone had said he’d look god in kilts.’ This is similar to Owens comment in dulce et decorum est as the young men were innocent.
The message in this poem is how bad war actually is. It gets you to think about the effects instead of all the glory.
This poem breaks tradition because it tells you the true effects of war, and how innocent men ended up badly injured and unable to look after themselves. ‘Now, he will spend a few sick years in institutes.’
Anthem for Doomed Youth
Anthem for doomed youth is talking about the tragedy of war. In this
sonnet Owen voices his opinion about the young soldiers, many of them still in their teens, who are slaughtered in battle. This is different to other poems because it is about the burial of deaths.
The title of this poem is striking because ‘Doomed youth’ means men have no hope, Owen is saying these men are going to die.
He uses comparisons in the first verse by saying the young soldiers are like cattle and comparing the way they die and are buried to other people have a proper funeral. ‘What passing bells for those who die as cattle.’ The point he is making is that people who join the army to go to war are treated badly especially the way they die and their funerals.
The alliteration makes words stand out, onomatopoeia ‘rifles rapid rattle’ creates the image of constant firing guns, you can almost hear them.
The word hasty is similar to Owens comment in dulce et decorum est ‘Gas! Gas! Quick boys!’ because it is saying everything needs to be done in a hurry. Owen is making a point that they had no time to think of the dangers they had to follow orders.
Verse two is different to the first verse because it is calmer. It is talking about how the soldiers will be remembered after death. Verse one is about the fighting and the noises of war.
Owen shows these men will be remembered. He does this by saying they will be forgotten, as no candles will be lit for them. ‘And each slow dusk a drawing down of blinds.’
The first verse is loud with its references to the noises of war, but the second verse is quiet and softer.
The message in this poem is similar to his other poems because it is saying that war is pointless and the young soldiers are doomed to die.
Owens poems were specifically targeted at Jessie Pope and people who thought that war was good. His poems broke with tradition because he didn’t glorify war. He told the truth and how the young men would pointlessly give up their lives.
