"With Specific focus on Wilfred Owen poems Disabled, Mental cases, Dulce et Decorum est, the send off and Anthem For Doomed Youth evaluate the methods Owen uses to bring across his convictions, feelings and ideas to you, the reader" (i have referred also

These metaphors used on the war’s effect on the mind are best captivated in Otto Dix’s painting, Schadel, 1924 where it shows a head rotting away, “Baring teeth that leer like skulls tongues wicked?” presenting to us the devastating effect of war, paintings like this proved to be a turn-off for fighting in the war and although shocking images like this were fashioned, soldiers were still not credited and it portrays the counterfeit perception of war, “Dawn breaks open like a wound that bleeds afresh.” It shows that there was no rest for the troops and they were unfairly treated as it seemed as if day was instantly followed after night, there was persistent pain, and even the splendor of dawn is not valued.

The images and meaning brought from “Mental cases” in the third stanza is also very well linked to Disabled which could mean mentally disabled thus being it appropriate to liken it to mental cases, as like most of Owens’s poems they depict soldiers in anguish in some way. It is a very emotional and tragic poem, as a young boy perhaps Wilfred Owen himself is mislead by the war as he ends up making sacrifices for a cause he did not really believe in and the sheer brutality of the cause. “ And no fears of fear came yet” the emotion, fear is being shown as an object because the war has brought much terror to the people, and it is as if a monster is coming to get him, this is a metaphor of the injustice surrounding the war as soldiers ended up dead or severely injured and traumatized. Owen shows how a man’s life and youth has been sacrificed for the alarm of war and that he has wasted part of his life on a pointless war. “He’s lost his colour very far from here, Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry,” Wilfred Owen implies that this man has lost part of himself, his emotions and characteristics have been made into objects and “poured” away as they have been lost during the war, and that war was a very straightforward way of losing part of life and yourself.

The Send- Off is a great example of this aspect of war. First of all the title already gives us an insight into the subject of the poem as it has a subtle double meaning behind it. The farewell to the soldiers and the hope of return and just simply sending them off to death. Showing Wilfred Owens’s personal experience of war and that it was a grim affair. “And lined with faces grimly gay” an oxymoron is used by Owen to show ‘the hoodwink’ that is war. Although the soldiers are happy they may not return back alive this is very satirical. It speculates to us the bad side of war; alliteration conceives irony and like disabled presents the apprehension of war against the primary anticipation of the send-off. The devastation and hollowness of war cannot be best portrayed other than in ‘over the top’ by Robert Nash. It is very appropriate as it shows dead bodies with no wounds, implying that they have died of the cold. The soldiers have arched backs and they look as if they are walking out the trenches through the snow with no real emergency, care or passion and not even resilience against the enemy, they were very unenthusiastic.  I think this painting best portrays Mental Cases, The Send-Off, Disabled and Anthem for Doomed Youth, as the consequences of war left people with no hope compared amongst the initial perceptions of war.

Dulce et Decorum Est is probably the most famous poem written by Wilfred Owen. Dulce et Decorum Est is a Latin Saying and it was said a lot before the First World War, it means “It is sweet and right” this coincides well with the ending of the poem which says, “Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori.” which translates as “it is right to die for your country.” Wilfred Owen is saying that to fight for your country is an enormous feat and honour and it is magnificent thing to do and should be the highest point of your life. This is quite ironic of him, and satirises what the war was really like as in the core of the poem he focuses on the devastating effects that war had on the people as he mocks the generals and commanders and in general the whole point and circumstances surrounding the war. Owen uses many words which are ugly in texture, drunk, sacks, hags, sludge, guttering, clumsy, cud, froth, gargling, vile, sores are just a few of these.  These words give us a grotesque image of life in the trenches and the unjust and disgusting deaths caused to many. Language like this makes the reader understand how horrific and revolting the war was and that Wilfred himself was not a great believer in fighting in wars.

It is in this poem that he realises that the soldiers were treated harshly and were treated merely as objects and not as human beings, “If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in.” Many soldiers thought that going to war would be an honour as they had dreamt about being heroes, just like in The Send-Off where there was unfair treatment by the government and leaders of the troops, “So, secretly, like wrongs hushed-up, they went.” The departure is secret because of the true nature of what is happening in the war to the soldiers is being concealed. “Nor there if they yet mock what women meant who gave them flowers.” The introduction of flowers to the poem has a double meaning very much like the title, the flowers are coloured for celebration, they are white for mourning. They are used to mock the war, women thought that they were expressing support but were actually supporting them for death.

Dulce et Decorum Est was also written in retaliation to Jesse Pope’s propaganda poem, “who’s for the game.” In which he overtly criticises her work, as she encouraged people to join the war effort and that it was good to fight for your country, she made it seem as if you had to. “For there’s only one course to pursue, Your country is up to her neck in a fight.” As Wilfred Owen had first hand experience of the war, he was very angry at Jesse Pope whom had no experience of the war, and thus she was telling a lie.

In war protests, Gassed by John Sergeant was painted, it was probably drawn away from the war, it shows the troops more dead than alive and a sense of unity amongst the soldiers as they are all blind folded and helping each other to walk, they are also surrounded by dead bodies which is appropriate as very few soldiers returned home alive. It scoffs at idealised versions of patriotism at war, just as is the theme of Owens’s Dulce et Decorum Est and Anthem for Doomed Youth.

An important technique and feature used in most of Wilfred Owens’s poems is the use of a rhetorical question to show his resentment of war. It is mostly used in Mental cases, the opening line is, “Who are these? Why sit they here in twilight?” On first inspection, the poem seems to be an extremely deep question, many soldiers became mentally out of control, the question is used at the beginning to confuse the reader and show the madness of the soldiers. In Anthem for Doomed Youth, “what passing- bells for those who die as cattle?” Owen uses a rhetorical question his own frustration of the war as he metamorphoses the death of soldiers in the war to cattle being slaughtered in a field as he feels in necessary to show his frustration at the beginning rather than the end, which sets the tone for the rest of the poem. Again, the use of a rhetorical question appears in The Send-off.  “Shall they return to beatings of great bells In wild trainloads?” The rhetorical question shows uncertainty as Owen saw death as soon as they got on the train, showing that fate was unknown to many. Overall the rhetorical question was a very significant technique used in Wilfred Owens’s work as it best showed his emotions and how much he was frustrated by the misconceptions of war.

Another famous poet from Wilfred Owens’s time during the war was Siegfried Sassoon, he was infract Wilfred Owens’s somewhat idol and heavily influenced his war poetry. It was the meeting of the two that made Wilfred Owen write his poetry on the war. You can see the distinct similarities between his own works in Suicide in the Trenches and many of Wilfred Owens’s poems. His poem focuses on how horrible fighting in the trenches was and how ignorant the people were at home, who had no idea what was going on at war. He talks about a young boy, who wants to get away from war, so decides to kill himself, “The hell where youth and laughter go.” The people at home away from the war are unaware of the glory and young people sacrificing their lives for them. It is pretty obvious that such poems as Dulce et Decorum Est and Anthem for Doomed Youth have been based upon poems such as this. When Owen died in 1918, there was a role reversal in that the admiration that Owen had for Sassoon had swapped around and it was after his death that Sassoon greatly admired his poetry and published his poems. We can almost assume that without the meeting of the pair, Wilfred Owen would not be recognised today as a war hero.

In conclusion, Wilfred Owens uses a lot pf poetic techniques especially the use of verbs and rhetorical questions to create imagery, which allows the audience to get a picture of the world war. These images have been aided by many paintings painted during or after the war, several of which portrayed Owens’s views of the war. Many of his personal experiences and emotions he felt during the war were incorporated into his poems, not directly but through a specific subject and aspect of the war. He uses the poetic techniques to get his point across. He was against the war and was angered very much by the people who had no experience of war who said that going to war was a good thing, he uses his poems to openly attack those who did this.