Explore the Portrayal OF War in the Poetry of William Shakespeare and Wilfred Owen

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Coursework: GCSE War Poetry

Explore the Portrayal OF War in the Poetry of William Shakespeare and Wilfred Owen

 This essay will look at two poems; one pre-1914 (‘Before Agincourt’) and one post-1914 poem (‘Dulce et Decorum Est’). This essay will look at the poet’s attitudes towards war, whether the poems show the myth or reality of war, and how they achieved these by their use of language and structure.

 ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is a very graphic poem describing the true events of World War 1, focusing particularly on the death of a soldier from a gas attack. Wilfred Owen wrote this poem to inform people about the realities of War. At the time, people were lead to believe that if you didn’t join the war effort, then you’d be missing out on a major opportunity, but Wilfred soon discovers the real truth when he is sent to war and shows this through his poetry.

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  In lines 1-8, Wilfred describes how the soldiers are going back to camp for some rest. These lines tell us a lot about the mental and physical conditions of the soldiers and also the conditions that the men had to live in. By using punctuation, he creates a slow rhythm to imitate how tired and miserable the soldiers are. He also uses metaphors like ‘drunk with fatigue’ to show how tired the men are. This leads the reader to think that the men are so tired that they are unaware to the death and destruction that is around them. ...

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