Describe the conditions on the battlefield in of World War One as conveyed through the poems “Dulce et Decorum est”, “Anthem for Doomed Youth” both by Wilfred Owen and “from: Counter-Attack by Siegried Sassoon.

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Describe the conditions on the battlefield in of World War One as conveyed through the poems “Dulce et Decorum est”, “Anthem for Doomed Youth” both by Wilfred Owen and “from: Counter-Attack by Siegried Sassoon.  

In this essay I will look at three poems “Dulce et Decorum est” by Wilfred Owen, “Anthem for Doomed Youth” also by Wilfred Owen and “from: Counter-Attack” by Siegfried Sassoon. In the above poems I will try to find different conditions that soldiers in the First World War had to suffer through on the battlefield as they fought for their beloved country.

 The first condition I will look at is death in “Dulce et Decorum est” the words used to depict death are “guttering, choking, drowning” The effect of this is the contrast between the battlefield and water the soldiers are not near any water, but are drowning. However the effect of a gas attack would cause the soldiers to drown internally on their own blood so this is why these hard sounding words have been used. The words are very effective conveying the conditions on the battlefield as they show the true grim and horrific results of a gas attack.

Death is featured further down the poem in the fourth stanza “His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;” The method used here s irony; in the quote the devil is sick of sin. However the devil is supposed to cause sin. This quote is of great importance as it implies the frightful conditions soldiers are enduring as they fight and then die on the battlefield. In “Anthem for Doomed Youth” death is written in a different light it is showing the soldiers families mourning for their deaths. The first line in the poem “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?” is using a simile to convey the conditions on the battlefield. The men are referred to as cattle being rounded up ready to fight and then be brutally killed with no concern given to any individual man. Having soldiers compared to cattle is a very good choice of language as cattle obey every command they are given, as the soldiers would have done without a second thought as they were sent to fight.

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from: Counter-attack” has death shown in its true horror “The place was rotten with dead”, Imagery is used here to give the image of masses of men slowly decomposing in the trenches and on the battlefield. The lines sound like they should say the place was rotting with dead but ”The place was rotten with dead” gives the effect that the soldiers must have been lying in the trenches for some time to have rotten. Nevertheless the length of the war and terrible conditions like disease and vermin would have made the soldiers rot quicker.

Disease is found in “Dulce ...

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