Write a comparison of the ways Wilfred Owen and John Scott present ideas about slaughter and sacrifice, how far do you agree with the view that Scott's poem is more effective than Owens in communicating its message?

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Write a comparison of the ways Wilfred Owen and John Scott present ideas about slaughter and sacrifice, how far do you agree with the view that Scott’s poem is more effective than Owens in communicating its message?

The Send Off and The Drum both explore the truths about war outlining the horrors and effects of war through language and poetic techniques. Owen attacks the understanding between those at home who promote war as a romantic, glorious and heroic exercise and dying for one’s country as an act of nobility and with this who fight and die in war and who know the true horror of the battlefield.  Scott explores the desperations caused by battle. He also makes clear that he does not consider war as a fight of honour; more as a gruesome game to see who can be more stubborn to admit what they are doing is wrong. Both poets show similar thoughts about war and how it is betrayed to a glorious act of heroicness.  

        In the opening stanzas of the drum the poets mention the sounds and tones which follow the soldiers. In The drums case it is the ‘drums discordant sound’. This instrument is used for the historical march of the soldiers. Which in this case is confusing to the men. As they are ‘parading round, and round’. This gives a sense of never ending war. Each day the men follow the same routine until it is there turn to face the enemy in battle. Owen immediately challenges the positive connotation of the send off in the first line. Our first image is of “close darkening lanes”. This has two meanings; the first meaning is the lanes fatefully enclose the soldiers in their closeness, they cannot turn back, the second meaning is that “darkening” is emphasized as a metaphor of the soldier’s dark destiny to which their farewell is sending them and that is to be killed in war.

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        John Scott talks about the pathetic reasons which people go to war. He explains how the young are almost excited by the surrender of the opposition. ‘To sell their liberty for charms’. This line suggests that people would rather sell there independence for money. Regarding how it would affect their country.

The alliteration used in the phrase “grimly gay” in the send off alerts the readers the forced gaiety of the men and ambiguity of their supposed adventure isn’t everything that is thought to be at first. “Grimly Gay” also contradicts the concepts of grimness and gaiety, which captures ...

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