Comparing 'Fall in' and 'dulce et decorum est'

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Compare the poems ‘Fall in’ and ‘Dulce et decorum est’

During WW1 war poetry changed dramatically. At the beginning of the war, in 1914, propaganda poems were a popular technique to encourage men to join the army to fight for England. Harold Begbie’s ‘Fall In’ was a typical highly patriotic poem that persuaded men to enlist. However, poetry changed at around 1916, after the Battle of Somme, when thousands of men were killed. Soldiers like Wilfred Owen’s wrote poems showing the real terrors they faced in war. Both poems are war poems and both poets use different language techniques to provoke the reader’s feelings.

This essay will compare ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ and ‘Fall in’ by looking at the language, structure used and the poets’ attitude towards war.

Begbie uses many techniques to make men want to enlist to fight for their freedom in ‘Fall In’. This poem was published as a ‘call to war’ in newspapers and magazines. Highly patriotic poems are also known as jingoistic poems and were very popular at the beginning of the war, as they persuaded men to enlist. We see an example of a patriotic phrase in stanza two; ‘In the war that kept men free?’ This implies that England was free before the war and by joining the war the men are helping to keep England free forever. This is patriotic, as it is saying how good England was and how everyone had there freedom. Men liked their freedom and so enlisted. Also; ‘And Right is smashed by Wrong?’ supports the idea of patriotism, as the word ‘Right’ describes England and ‘Wrong’ describing Germans.

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Meanwhile, Owen’s poem is based on his own war experience, and his poems convey the pain, and suffering the soldiers encountered by using a range of similes, metaphors and onomatopoeias; A simile; ‘Coughing like hags’ illustrates how weak and ill the soldiers are. The metaphor ‘Knock kneed’ emphasizes how tired the men are as if they are about to collapse as their knees cannot support them anymore. The onomatopoeia in stanza three presents the poem in a more realistic way; ‘Come gurgling from his froth corrupted lungs’ uses the onomatopoeia ‘gurgling’. The reader can almost hear the painful sounds of ...

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