The three poems that I have chosen to analyse are 'Disabled' by Wilfred Owen, 'Stretcher Case' by Siegfried Sassoon and 'The Hero', also by Siegfried Sassoon.

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Laura Coles 10R

20th Century Poetry Coursework

Analysis of Three Poems from WWI

The three poems that I have chosen are ‘Disabled’ by Wilfred Owen, ‘Stretcher Case’ by Siegfried Sassoon and ‘The Hero’, also by Siegfried Sassoon. They have a common link in that they are all focusing on one man and his war experience, although this is approached in different ways.

In ‘Disabled’ Wilfred Owen uses one man to show how war was glorified and how this made men go to war without knowing what was going to happen. This is shown particularly in the fourth stanza when it says ‘he thought of jewelled hilts…smart salutes…leave…(and) Esprit de corps (soldierly spirit)’. The poem then goes on to explain that the man now lives in an institute after losing his limbs in the war and that he is now ignored instead of admired and has become but a shadow of his former self. Here focusing on one man makes the reader feel more emotionally involved as they know his whole story and so feel like they knew him. The poet talks about the death and suffering of millions using this one man who has been through so much and is not even honoured for it.

This poem, like the other two I have chosen, is written in the third person. This is quite an unusual form for poetry in general but seems quite common in wartime poetry. I think this is partly because the poet did not want to write as a dying person because they had not experienced it and also because the third person form allows the poet to make observations about the subject’s surroundings and other people as well as their thoughts and feelings. ‘Disabled’ also talks about before, during and after the war and so much of it is written in the past tense.

Unlike many other poems of this period, Wilfred Owen does not have a particular rhyming pattern that he persists with throughout the poem. Instead he uses rhymes and para-rhymes in a seemingly random way, often rhyming words in different stanzas.

The man in this poem seems ashamed of how he is because he is ‘waiting for dark’. Wilfred Owen seems to be blaming the whole concept of war as a whole and the higher powers instead of the man. He portrays the man as innocent and naïve, shown where it says he joined the war ‘to please his Meg’.

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The language used in the poem is quite simple with only a few language techniques used. For example, there are a few similes such as ‘saddening like a hymn’ but they are mostly towards the beginning of the poem as is the alliteration with ‘play and pleasure’ and ‘sewn short’. I think this is because the language techniques are useful at the beginning in helping the reader establish what is happening but nearer the end they feel more involved with the subject and so the techniques become unimportant.

Wilfred Owen ends the poem with a question. This leaves the reader ...

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