The two poems I have decided to contrast and compare are Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen; and Vultures by Chinua Achebe. Both these poems are about the horror of war and the effect it has on man.

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Poetry Assignment

From the selected poems which you have studied on the theme of war, select at least two, one of which must be from a different culture, and/or tradition. Contrast how the poets portray the horror of war, making reference to how poets express their intentions through thoughts and feelings and their love of language.

The two poems I have decided to contrast and compare are "Dulce Et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen; and "Vultures" by Chinua Achebe. Both these poems are about the horror of war and the effect it has on man.

Dulce et Decorum Est (written in 1917 and published posthumously in 1921) is a poem written by the English poet and World War I soldier Wilfred Owen. The work's horrifying imagery has made it one of the most popular condemnations of war ever written. The 28-line poem, written loosely in iambic pentameter, is told from the first-person.

It begins with a description of war-weary soldiers marching "through sludge," "blood-shod" and "drunk with fatigue". As gas shells begin to fall, the soldiers scramble to put their gas masks on. In the rush, one man clumsily drops his mask, and the narrator sees the man "yelling out and stumbling / and flound'ring like a man in fire or lime".
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The image of the man "guttering, choking, drowning" permeates Owen's thoughts and dreams, forcing him to relive the nightmare again and again.

In the final stanza, Owen writes that if readers could see the body-the "eyes writhing", the "face hanging", the "vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues"-they would cease to send young men to war while instilling visions of glory in their heads. No longer would they tell their children the "Old lie," so long ago told by the Roman poet Horace: "Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori" ("Sweet and honourable it is, to die ...

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