Although much of the language in “The Show” creates repulsive imagery, many of the words themselves seem to be very understated, for example “curl, lift and flatten”. These words are usually very normal and everyday words to describe movement – they are not exaggerated or extreme. As a result of this, the reader again feels that Owen is somewhat trivialising everything in the poem, and making it less significant. A specific example of how he does this is when he uses the phrase “bitten backs” to describe the potentially fatal injuries that the soldiers have obtained on the battlefields. To the reader, this feels almost insulting to the soldiers to have their suffering changed into something so inconsequential, as a bite (especially an insect bite) is such a small mark. I think this is one of Owen’s most effective techniques in communicating his feelings as we realise that this is how Owen himself might well feel about the war because it links it with much of what we may have thought about his feelings from other points in the poem (in that it implies he was angry about attitudes during the war). It also makes the poem feel somewhat sinister, because the way that the language is understated in a poem with such a horrific meaning gives it an eerie edge also, which unnerves the reader to an extent. The use of onomatopoeia in “The Show” also adds to the disgust of the imagery – the use of words in the poem such as “ramped” and “writhed”. These words add to the effect because it makes the imagery easier to imagine for the reader and more vivid, because of how similar the words are to the action described. I believe this technique is used by Owen because it means he can easily shock the reader and gain the desired response from them.
The poem “Mental Cases”, although similar in many other aspects to “The Show”, is much more contrasting here as the specific words Owen uses there to create the imagery are very different. “Mental Cases” uses much more extreme words to create impact – for example “shatter”, “gouged” and “carnage incomparable”. The reader would probably feel that these words and phrases are much more suitable to the dramatic subject matter of the poem and so although we would expect “Mental Cases” to affect us more, I believe that the subtlety of “The Show” is actually more effective in communicating what Owen feels. This is because “Mental Cases” appears to be a lot more straightforward, and although it is disgusting, it is not disturbing. Although both communicate the bitterness and anger well, “The Show” is more understated which I believe is a key difference and a result of the differing techniques used by Owen - as it is more thought provoking for the reader. However, “Mental Cases” is very similar in it’s frequent use of onomatopoeia, which gives the same effect here as it does in “The Show”. The heavy use of words such as “gouged” and “shatter” again help to create the horrific imagery in the reader’s mind, and emphasis the carnage that the soldiers would have seen. The use of onomatopoeia is a very effective technique that Owen uses that helps to shock the reader, perhaps adding to our feeling of guilt and sympathy for the soldiers and adding to the feeling of anger that Owen demonstrates to the reader.
Linking to an earlier point about an effect of the comparison, another method that implies Owen feels bitter about attitudes around that time is the style of language overall that he uses in this poem. Many of the describing words and verbs that he uses are very vague – for example “dithering”. This word sounds indecisive, scattered, and gives the feeling of not knowing what to do – there is no specific action or movement. The majority of the poem is just the same, which phrases being used such as “that might be little hills” and “what that sight might mean” which unnerves the reader because we become unsure of what he means due to his use of the conditional. The vague feeling in the poem is reflected even in the form, with short verses that differ in length giving the impression that the poem is just dithering along aimlessly, much like we are told the soldiers are. As well as this, the rhyming pattern in the poem consists of mostly half-rhymes such as “Death” and “dearth” which makes even the sound of the poem seem inconsistent and unclear. This makes the poem feel somewhat sinister, because it creates suspense in the poem, and the reader is at times unsure of what Owen means or is referring to. From this vague style, we are given the impression that Owen is trying to mirror again the attitudes of the public during the war - that they did not think about specific soldiers or about the specific injuries they might obtain, perhaps preferring to block out the suffering, and I think it shows again that Owen feels anger and resentment towards the people because of this.
Owen also uses the overall style of language to convey his feelings in the poem “Arms and the Boy”, however although the end effect is similar, his method is very different. The language in “Arms and the Boy” is very specific, and Owen uses many small details in his description, for example “fine zinc teeth”. The way that everything is described so specifically has a similar effect to the vagueness of “The Show”, in that it creates a sinister mood around the poem because the reader finds the way that the bullets are so carefully described eerie. This adds to the poem’s already mocking tone of voice, again perhaps showing that Owen feels bitter about the treatment of soldiers in general. Owen uses directly contrasting language to achieve a similar effect, showing that it is an important technique as it can easily manipulate the reader’s feelings. I believe that this poem is aimed to shock the reader, like “The Show” which shows that Owen wished for them to have similar end effects even though he chose directly contrasting styles of language.
Another technique that Owen uses in “The Show” is the style of narration and the speaker that he uses to tell the story of this poem. The speaker is looking down on the scene from a distance away, and the poem seems as if the speaker is detaching himself from what is happening below. As mentioned before, the language in the earlier parts of the poem is very understated and casual, which adds to this effect. The use of words such as “seemed” show that the speaker is not involved enough to know what is happening – he is just making observations based on what he can see. I believe Owen may have meant this to reflect the same situation as that of the majority of the country, and that many people are not involved in the war and prefer to stay emotionally detached from it. Personally, I feel that this creates a certain amount of sadness for the reader because it effectively shows how divided the country may have been even in times of war. This narration style also seems to show sadness from Owen as well, but because the speaker is looking down on the scene, also continues to somewhat trivialise it, continuing the feeling of bitterness that the reader picks up from Owen from many aspects of his poetry.
In “The Show” Owen also ensure that he has a strong ending to the poem, an important technique for him to manipulate our overall thoughts and feelings about the poem, as well as to create the shock that we feel in the final stanza of the poem. One technique he includes to achieve this is the use of repetition. The line “Showed me its feet, the feet of many men” is one example of this, because the repetition of “feet” creates a build up of suspense and also puts the thought in the reader’s mind that it could be emphasising how many pairs of feet (or how many dead bodies) there are lying on the battlefield. The following line “And the fresh-severed head of it, my head” again uses the repetition of “head”, but here it is used more to create a shocking ending to the poem, as repeating it together with a pronoun emphasises the shock the speaker feels at finding his head on the floor. The reader feels just as shocked as the speaker does, and as a result it means that we feel more disgusted by the poem. To add to this, in this last couple of lines the style of writing becomes more specific, as we are told that the speaker is seeing his “fresh-severed” head. This sudden change in writing style from the vague description in the rest of the poem as well as the graphic imagery ensures that we find the end especially disgusting, and the contrast is even more of a shock. I believe this is a clever technique that Owen uses because it means that the heightened disgust ensures that we pity the soldiers and further hate the very idea of war, which I believe is what comes across in many of his poems on the subject.
The technique of a contrasting ending is also shown in the poem “Dulce et Decorum Est”, as in the last stanza the rhythm of the poem changes and becomes more of a rant directed at the reader. This is shown by the use of the word “you” frequently throughout the final stanza, making it much more personal and much more directly angry. Like “The Show”, the language also changes in terms of the imagery, with the final stanza of “Dulce” containing much more graphic imagery, such as “white eyes writhing in his face”. It has the same effect, in that the reader feels shock at the change in style and disgust at the more horrific language as it becomes easier to visualise. However, the final part of “Dulce” also emphasises the overall tone of the poem, in that because of the way it feels like a rant, Owen’s bitterness and resentment strongly shows. This is more of a contrast to “The Show” because there, the tone of the poem seems continuous all the way through, in that much of it comes across without an obvious tone and this does not change in it’s final stanza.
Overall, I believe that Owen uses a variety of techniques to effectively show his opinions and feelings on war, from anger to resentment and from bitterness to sadness. I feel that many of his poems communicate his feelings to the reader effectively and leave us with many different things to think about. However, I feel that the general feeling Owen had about war was one of intense dislike due to the combination of the main emotions he shows and his obvious distress at the injuries and damage the soldier suffered, and the methods he used successfully portrayed that to the reader.