How Does Owen Use Nature To Convey His Feelings About War?

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How Does Owen Use Nature To Convey His Feelings About War?

Wilfred Owen uses nature to convey his feelings in his poems, using many different techniques. In both the poems that I am examining, Exposure, and Spring Offensive, he's uses nature to show pain and suffering. For example, in exposure, he uses brambles to convey pain;

“Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire,

Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles.”

This quote gives the soldiers the painful reminder that men have been killed easily by the barbed wire, and natures way of portraying barbed wire, is through brambles.

The brambles symbolise pain, because brambles are obviously painful. This gives the reader  a knowledge of what the soldiers are thinking of. Also this shows that by getting caught in the wire, that they are being held back from fighting, and this gives the soldiers a feeling that they have lost the war.

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Another thing that nature portrays is love and protection. Not all nature was used to portray pain. In Spring offensive, he uses several terms to portray love and protection;

“And though the summer oozed into their veins

Like an injected drug for their bodies’ pains,”

This quote shows that that nature can be used to benefit the soldiers, by giving them strength to go on and fight. Nature can also benefit the soldiers, by giving them camouflage, and to protect them from harm, so that the German soldiers cannot see them.

Another method that Owen uses ...

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*** 3 STARS Some good detailed analysis shows writer has understood poems. Remains focused on question throughout. At times analysis is simplistic, closer analysis of language would lead to deeper exploration of nature in Owen's poems.