War Poetry - 'Dulce et Decorum est' and 'Anthem forDoomed Youth'

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War Poetry - 'Dulce et Decorum est’ and ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’

War Poetry

Wilfred Owen was born in Shropshire on 18th March 1983. He was the son of a railway worker and was educated at schools in Shrewsbury and Liverpool. Owen was encouraged to write poetry from an early age by his devoted mother. He couldn’t afford university education, so decided to go abroad to teach English in France. Owen volunteered for the Army in 1914 when the First World War broke out. After training he became an officer and was sent to France at the end of 1916, seeing service first in the Somme sector. The following year, Owen took part in the attacks on the German Hindenburg Line near St Quentin. When a huge shell burst near him, he was shell-shocked and sent back to England.

The horrors of battle quickly transformed Owen and the way he thought about life. He was treated in Craig Lockhart hospital in Edinburgh. Doctors there specialized in shell shock and it was a terrible experience for Owen, who spent hours surrounded by other distressed patients. Patients were encouraged to return to their pre-war interests, so Owen decided to look over his old poems and begin writing new ones. Owen was very impressed with Sassoon’s poetry, and when Sassoon arrived at the hospital in August 1917, Wilfred Owen decided to meet him. Sassoon encouraged Owen in his poetry, telling him to ‘Sweat your guts out writing poetry.’ Sassoon offered help and guidance when Owen began to write new poems based around his war experiences. It was under the influence of Sassoon that Owen began capturing his vivid visions of the war in the form of poetry.

A number of Owen’s poems are now very famous and Owen has done a lot to prevent the reading public from being persuaded that death in battle is ‘sweet and decourus.’

In this essay I have firstly decided to analyse two poems by the war poet Wilfred Owen, taken from his writings on the First World War. Both ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ and ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ portray Owen’s bitter angst towards the war, but do so in different ways. Then I will analyse a very different poem ‘Who’s for the Game?’ written by Jessie Pope, and finally contrast this with the poems by Owen.

Arguably his most famous poem, ‘Dulce est Decorum est’ is an example of a poem written through his own eyes, based on his own experiences and views of the war. He uses vivid and graphic imagery to give the reader the exact feeling that he wanted. Exact diction emphasises his point, showing that war is terrible and devastating. Consequently, this poem conveys a strong meaning and persuasive argument. This poem uses four stanzas and an alternate rhyming line scheme.

‘Dulce est decorum est pro patria mori’ is a quotation from the Latin poet Horace, meaning ‘It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.’ During the First World War, countries made use of chemical warfare: mustard gas reacted with the water in the breather’s lungs and effectively dissolved them. The effect of the use of these gasses was horrific. In this poem Owen discusses an incident in which a soldier dies because of gas.

In the first stanza the pace is very slow and a painstaking rhythm is established through Owen’s use of heavy, long words. This illustrates how painstaking and slow the war was.

The first clause ‘Bent double,’ is a hyperbole which creates the impression of extreme exhaustion and the image that is conveyed is that the soldiers have no energy left and are in excruciating agony. Additionally it suggests that the men are struggling with the extreme weight of their bags. It highlights the point that they are very hunched over as they are so physically fatigued. ‘Like beggars under sacks’ is a simile that illustrates that the men have no dignity left. It conjures the image of very dirty, disgustingly vile tramps, who have a nauseating stench. The way that Owen captures the appearance of the soldiers as cripples makes them seem distant to us, and the disjointed, monotonous way they are seen echoes this group of men, their disorderly fashion and their dull, repetitive journey.

The terrible physical condition that faces these men is illustrated with the line ‘Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through the sludge.’ The alliterative ‘Knock-kneed’ slows and dulls down the tempo greatly. The simile compares the soldiers’ physical condition to that of witches. The image created is of very old, wrinkled women slowly stumbling through the thick mud. It highlights the revolting, phlegmy cough that the soldiers have as they are so critically ill. By using ‘cursed’, the image created is that the soldiers were struggling, desperately unhappy and exhausted.

The word ‘trudge’ is an onomatopoeia used to emphasise the fact that the pace is tremendously slow, creating the impression that the men have little strength or stamina left. Additionally, it portrays the image that it takes a lot of effort for them to move.

‘Men marched asleep, many had lost their boots,’ uses both alliteration and a hyperbole to illustrate how immensely exhausted they were as they probably had not slept for months. Furthermore, it suggests that they are in a horrific condition and are facing extreme and excruciating pain.

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‘But limped on,’ is a phrase that conveys the image that it is very slow moving and the reader gains the image that the men must be injured from previous traumatising experiences so are suffering pain. However, the soldiers do still have a small amount of energy left and determination is shown because they do not give up.

‘Drunk with fatigue,’ is an expression that uses a metaphor to suggest that the men are mentally vacant and are staggering along. To be ‘Drunk with fatigue,’ these men must be so tired that they are no longer sane and can barely ...

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