Compare and contrast the ways in which Owen and Sassoon present images of suffering and death in 'Exposure' and 'The Hero'.

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Compare and contrast the ways in which Owen and Sassoon present images of suffering and death in ‘Exposure’ and ‘The Hero’.

Owen and Sassoon are both famous poets, who wrote their poems during and about the First World War. Wilfred Owen was very descriptive poet, who wrote in great details about all that he saw, using much poetic and flowing language. Siegfried Sassoon however was very cynical about the people running the war, and could not see a point in all the death going on all around. However, they both fought in the war and since they should have many experiences of war in common, their poems should surely have very common themes and views, and those should be typical of the time. However, after examining the poems closely, one can determine that there are a great amount of differences between the two poems.

In ‘Exposure’, Owen uses much descriptive language to allow the reader to perfectly understand and almost feel the suffering that is going on in this war. He describes the wind as ‘iced’ and ‘knifing’, which in itself would be painful; he personifies the wind to a point, because it is stabbing him, and only humans can do that. The suffering and pain that is going on will not and cannot stop, since in the distance, ‘incessantly, the flickering gunnery rumbles’. Owen seems to convey a sense of misery and hopelessness upon the whole situation. He even makes the morning sound miserable, since normally dawn means a fresh start, new beginnings, new hope; whereas here, dawn is simply a bringer of ‘poignant misery’. This emotion is quite sharp, stinging and painful.

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Owen also manages to separate war from everyday life, because the soldiers no longer know what is happening elsewhere: “We only know war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds sag stormy.” The use of the word ‘sag’ seems to indicate gloominess and almost apathy, as if the clouds could no longer care to hold themselves in shape. Even the enemy (which in this case is the start of a new day which has been personified) is ‘melancholy’; everyone is suffering, there is no point to this war. If both sides are suffering, he seems to say, why should they both ...

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