He would represent this war in his poem to let people know of the glory and honour of this battle.
This poem is also reflected in the time of “The Old Lie”. This structure and way the poem is written affects the way that it represents the battle. There is a quick rhyme pace to represent the quick pace of the battle. The positive verbs emphasise the fact that the battle is not wrong but enforced and intense.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
“Charge for the guns!”
Repetition used underlines the odds that the soldiers are facing. In one of these cases was where the poet described the thundering cannons stormy shots.
“Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them”
The poem is visual, especially in the third stanza, which makes the poem sound more heroic. The personification used in stanza 5 focuses on the bravery and courage of fighting and death throughout the battle. The final stanza begins with an effective rhetorical question where throughout the stanza the poet, Tennyson, is answering and explaining about the glory and honour of this part of the war.
This active poem manages to takes such a disastrous event and make it appear glorious to the public even after the death of over four hundred men in order to show respect, appreciation and honour towards the men that fought.
When the poet, Rupert Brooke, wrote his poem “The Soldier”, the attitudes towards war were still fairly positive and soldiers were still keen to support their country. Although the belief in these thoughts began to weaken as the public realised that as well as glory, war also caused terrible injuries and hurt.
Rupert Brooke himself was also prepared to die for his country and its people. In his poem, he frequently repeats the word “England”, and “her” which represents England in the form of personification. The repetition of “her”, “English” and “England” represents the more nationalistic and patriotic sides of war.
Brooke is favouring England using different techniques. The poem is in sonnet form, which is also the form used in many love poems. Because the language is quite soppy and presents war as being a positive event. This gives a romantic idea to the poem.
Rupert Brooke’s use of words and language are very serene and peaceful in order to avoid the poem from sounding too harsh, even though this poem is about horrific events that lead to the death of many innocent men. This type of calm language is almost implying that war may be a good thing. Heavy use of euphemism also adds to the subtlety of the poem whilst talking about war. An example of this would be when the poet describes death as “sleep”. This makes the poem sound more peaceful and once again prevent the concept of war from sounding too terrible. This also encourages the reader to imagine the soldier as having a soft, blissful state of death, rather than a harsh, vicious end to his life due to the horrific goings on in the war.
The poem is very patriotic and speaks of England using words such as “heaven” to show that England is some kind of paradise.
One part of the poem that I find particularly effective and that could help change a person’s opinion on dying for your country being terrible is the sentence stating:
“If I should die, think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England.”
This quotation basically means that when a soldier is dying in a foreign land, he is leaving a part of England on the land where he was once standing. I find this very honourable and it could truly make someone appreciate these soldiers for being loyal to their country and risking their life for their country. This would definitely make England proud of them.
Many believed that peace could be achieved through the sacrifice of all the men that courageously died in the battlefield.
This is like a form of spiritual redemption where they can free their sins and make peace finally.
The most significant poet of the period was Wilfred Owen. Owen was a strong believer in the fact that glory could not be found in the fields of war and was totally against the fact that honour could be found in the horrors that war brought to the world.
The poems reflecting this same viewpoint are mainly describing the reality of death that occurred and the horrors that took place in these wars. The poets of this time didn’t want to portray war as being better then it actually was and beautifying details that would appear terrible to readers in order to make them sound bold and honourable just like many other poets did.
I will be looking at three different Wilfred Owen poems. I will compare “The Soldier” and “Anthems for Doomed Youth”. I will also explain the main features of “Dulce et Decorum est”, one of Owen’s more commonly known poems. My aim will be to show how differently Owen portrayed war and death on the battlefield to Tennyson and Brooke, which I have already discussed. In doing this, I will establish why Owen regarded “Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori” as “The Old Lie”.
“Anthem for Doomed Youth”, was written by Wilfred Owen. The title of the poem already gives a brief outline on the poem. With “Anthem” meaning a very solemn song of loyalty, “Doomed” meaning something bad will happen, and “Youth” meaning the young soldiers. In conclusion, explaining that a horrible fate was yet to come for these innocent men.
“Anthem for Doomed Youth” and “The Soldier” are both circling the same type of message, putting across to the readers that they should remember the deceased.
“Their glory will not fade” - “The Soldier”- Brooke
In “The Soldier”, Brooke is writing about how the soldier, due to their heroic sacrifice for their country will be forever remembered and appreciated. On the other hand, in Owen’s poem, he is explaining how none of the soldiers will even be getting a proper funeral or shown respect after giving up their lives for their country. The soldier’s families are far away from them and they don’t get a ceremony to honour their heroism. All that they have are the tender thoughts by their loved ones who they have left behind.
“Anthem for Doomed Youth” is a truthful and honest poem about the reality of war. It is proving that there is no respect involved after the death of the soldiers, even after all of the fear and suffering these men have endured whilst being alive. Not only this but they are also left with a sad and lonely death to end their lives. These men have no choice over what they are doing and die like cattle.
“What passing-bells for those who die as cattle?”
This is an interesting piece of imagery that the poet has used. Cattle go round in herds and are to be later slaughtered with no choice on what they do. This is the same for the soldiers. They are doomed for death and are treated like animals, they are no longer individual people but one merged group of soldiers.
Each of the two poems are both very rich in imagery. This results in a very effectively written poem.
“The Soldier”, even though being a poem about war, is written in a quite romantic way by using soppy words to represent the love for England. Similarly, with “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, irony is found due to the poem being written in sonnet form which is usually used for love poems, this is because it is a good way of expressing depth and meaning to a poem, yet this poem is about death.
“The Soldier” is a nationalistic poem explaining how the soldiers in war should be honoured for the sacrifice of their life that they have given to their country. Euphemism is used to beautify the horrific sides of war. An example of euphemism in this poem is when the poet describes death as sleeping to make the poem sound more peaceful and less harsh.
Unlike “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, where the title is implying already that the soldiers will die, “The Soldier” uses the type of words saying if the soldiers die. This also lowers the impression that war is bad because it is all about glory and bravery rather than being about death.
“Dulce et Decorum est” is another Wilfred Owen poem. It is clearly a very important poem as it incorporates the concept of “The Old Lie”. It also details the death and injury of men by an unknown enemy. This is a complete contrast to noble death in a battle of hand to hand combat.
This poem is formed into three sections of eight lines each with the rhyming scheme of “ABABCDCD”. The final four lines that are added to the end are basically a summary or conclusion of the poem containing the main point of the poem which is that you should not tell your children that war is glorious because it is not. The poem is written in fist person plural, because this poem is an eye witness account. Because Owen was there during the war and has experienced the horrors he is trying to persuade children not to think of him as a hero. If they are told war is great, they will believe it. This is why they should be shown how horrible it really is to prevent more suffering from occurring. War should not be encouraged. In that period, children would pretend to be old enough to be involved in the war (Sixteen years of age), so that they could fight and join in with the glory.
Once again like “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, this poem is based on imagery and senses. An example of this is:
“He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.”
This part of the poem is using strong words to illustrate that the men would have been making if for example they were having a fit or dying. The awful sounds sum up the helplessness this soldier is experiencing.
Very pointed similes and metaphors give a more visual effect to the poem. An example is when Owen compares the battleground and a suffering soldier with the sea and a drowning soldier.
“As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.”
Because you can see that he is speaking as a personal experience, he is describing war as he saw it, which as you know was not a tremendous thing. This is very effective because Owen himself had actually experienced the horrors of war.
Violent and blunt language enforces the effect of proving how terrible war is and was. The addressing of the reader as “you” is important because it is as if he addressing he directly to warn them of the pain that war brings.
Added dimension is achieved by the manner of how the poet has pronounced his words and sounds, the metaphors and similes and the sickening verbs commonly used in the past participle. This language gives a strong influence on how violent and disgusting war is and enforces how Owen is representing his beliefs against it. This effect encourages the reader to empathise in what Owen is trying to show them.
This poem is brilliant because it is dictated by truth rather then by beauty which merely increases its effectiveness. It is part of the movement away from vagueness to greater realism.
“Dulce et decorum est” represents a recurring nightmare and horrific memories by the poet. To complete the poem, the immortal line “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori”, meaning it is sweet to die for your country, is included. Owen stated that this is “The Old Lie”. The horror of war has finally been realised.
Through the poetry examined it can be seen that the attitudes to war have moved from being positive in the belief that war was glorious to being negative and realising that war is insufficient in benefit.
Lord Alfred Tennyson’s highly structured poem represented war as being very patriotic. It centred the Crimean war and the language was intense and jingoistic which could easily emphasise on the valour of war.
Rupert Brooke, like Tennyson, also had a positive view on war. The belief in wa
r being good was still there yet gradually decreasing in strength. Brooke’s poem was also patriotic and the use of language was very subtle to give a calm peaceful view of war. The poem concentrates on loyalty to your country and the heroism war brought to the soldiers.
By the time Wilfred Owen’s poems became popular the attitudes towards war had already started to change. Wilfred Owen’s honest poem describes truthfully the horrors of war through his own experience. This personal touch puts across Owen’s point more effectively and war is gradually being seen for what it really is. In his poem “Dulce et Decorum est”, Owen includes the immortal line “The Old Lie” to once again to make the readers realise the truth about war.
These three poets and their poems provided a record of changing attitudes to the war which went from being for war, to being against it.
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