'Owen makes remarkable poetry out of the greatest human tragedy of the twentieth century'. Discuss 3 or 4 of Owen's poems in the light of this statement, concentrating equally on theme and technique.

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Year 12 – PES English

Poetry Essay Question – Wilfred Owen

‘Owen makes remarkable poetry out of the greatest human tragedy of the twentieth century’. Discuss 3 or 4 of Owen’s poems in the light of this statement, concentrating equally on theme and technique.

Wilfred Owen is able to emphatically depict the devastation of World War One as the greatest human tragedy of the twentieth century. Owen, through his poems was able to effortlessly prompt deep emotion in the reader through his individual style and his use of eloquent themes. In the poems ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’, ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ and ‘The Send Off’ Owen reinforces the main theme of the tragedy of war. Owen achieves this by the utilization of techniques that recreate the potent and disturbing scenes of the arena of battle. Owen, writing as a primary source, witnessed the deadly battles and had experienced the true destruction of war. As a result of this, his poetry is most remarkable as he writes with an honesty that other poets could not achieve. The use of powerful imagery and language, similes, rhyme, alliteration and personification assist in making Owen’s poetry truly outstanding and poignant, as a direct result of the horrors and realism that came from an extremely shocking event, World War One.

Wilfred Owen expressed his poetry as a means of presenting a protest and exposing the true brutality and realism of war. This theme is ever-present in the poem ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ Owen is able to influence and persuade the reader that war is a great human tragedy and should never be looked upon as glorified lie, as the title and last lines indicate, dulce et decorum est Pro Patria Mori’, It is a sweet and fitting thing to die for one’s native land. At the beginning of the poem we are immediately introduced to the soldiers as they are described to be ‘Bent double, like old beggars’ and ‘coughing hags’. Owen’s use of harsh words and similes creates strong and forceful imagery in our minds. The soldiers are really young men but Owen compares their appearance to that of old women and beggars. The reader is made to empathize with the soldiers as ‘Many had lost their boots, but limped on’, ‘drunk with fatigue’. These simple words reveal the ultimate suffering that the soldiers had to endure but they are able to draw the reader’s attention and incite meaningful thought.

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Owen continually alters his tone throughout the poem as in the second stanza the shocking nature of war is reinforced again by the changing situation. ‘Gas!, Gas! Quick Boys!’ The reader is made to fear for the soldiers, as the anxiety and alarm of the situation is shown through the use and arrangement of the capital letters and the forcefulness of the line. The repeated word, ‘Gas!’ helps to represent the urgency of the situation. Owen’s poetry adjusts from thought provoking to tragedy as a soldier is ‘stumbling’ to find a gas mask to protect himself. Owen again employs the use of brilliant ...

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