Wilfred Owen also expresses anger in his verse and it is clear that like Sassoon he is an anti-war poet, however, rather than showing anger at specifically the poets feelings, his poem: ‘Anthem For Doomed Youth’ tactically tries to express anger at the initiators of the war, by forming a sympathy towards the already dead soldiers and how humiliating the lack of respect for them is. First of all Owens anger is shown by the constant question marks at the end of sentences, for example: “what passing-bells for these who die as cattle?” and “what candles may be held to speed them all?” Both of these questions made up one line of the poem each and were tactically positioned at the beginning of each stanza for greater impact, the first question opening an octet, the second a sextet, which together make up the sonnet. The questioning makes the reader feel more intimidated and would be immediately trying to think of a possible answer, whereas if Owen were to write ‘there are no passing-bells for those who die as cattle’, the poem would not be as personal and infecting the readers with Owens point of view would not have been as effective. As for the meaning of the questions, Owen is trying to point out that it is a common mark of respect for a person to be given a decent funeral, but the soldiers who “die as cattle”, the metaphor meaning they have been brutally killed, have not even had any “passing-bells” or “candles held to speed them all”, despite them deserving it more that most people would.
Sassoon’s poem: ‘Attack’, uses the desperation of the soldiers to express just how angry he is at war, but similarly to Owen, he also personalises his poem using something comparable to speech, to make the readers feel even more responsible for this desperation of the soldiers. The last of the poem reads: “O Jesus, make it stop!” which sounds almost like the soldiers are calling out to the readers to save them from their heartbreak, therefore very emotive. However, it could also be said that this is Sassoon’s anger speaking, and he is the one almost pleading with the readers to come over to his side and do something about all these horrific deaths. Either way the quotation “O Jesus” gives even more passion to the line, and using this name in vain was likely to have only been used when in the highest point of calamity. The fact that the poem ends on its thirteenth line, also leaves further impact, as it is an incomplete sonnet, and the “O Jesus, make it stop” could even be seen as an abrupt interruption of the already angry poem, bringing far more realism into it.
Rupert Brooke also opens his poem very personally; however the language almost speaking to the readers is used very differently to the personal language in the other two poems. Rupert Brookes poem is very idealic and calm throughout but
this has been skilfully sustained to draw attention, even whilst talking about death. Brooke simply says “if I should die”, talking to the readers with the word “I” and the subsequent “think only this”, which is an instruction, drawing them in to want to almost listen further. But “if” specifically makes death seem such an unimportant thing, the complete opposite views of both Sassoon and Owen, whose poems have been solely based around how horrible and horrific these deaths are., but Brookes view from just this one word, can be identified as it is irrelevant whether or not he dies, but only that he can say what he has to say throughout this poem. What his poem has to say can be clearly seen by the repetition of both the words “England” and “English”, along with the powerful word of “home”, as previously mentioned shows just how important his country is to him.
In contrast to Brookes view that death is noble, and it is unimportant to an individual, Owen deepens his poem: ‘Anthem For Doomed Youth’ after expressing the lack of respect given to the dead soldiers, he says that even if they were given the respect of a funeral service and mourners, it would still be an embarrassment to even admit that so many men have died so pointlessly. From the quotation “no mockeries for them from prayers or bells”, we can almost sense not just anger, but even shame coming from Owen, and by saying even “prayers and bells” would be “mockeries” it is possible that Owen is expressing the fact that nothing can be done about the many thousands of poor soldiers that have died in vain, and that those responsible should be embarrassed that it has happened, therefore impressing far more guilt.
Similarly, it can be said that Sassoon has also used a technique in order to impress guilt upon the readers, but in a different way, Sassoon has used references to the sheer force of war, compared to the virtuous soldiers. The horror and power of war can clearly be seen with Sassoon’s great use of imagery. Firstly, he says the “ridge emerges massed”; though the “ridge” cannot physically “emerge” it is a reference to the fear they share as they approach their doom to die. This is heightened by the word “massed”, which shows that the ridge is impenetrable, therefore implying their almost certain deaths. ‘Attack’ is full of many more points that show the soldier fear or the certainty of their deaths, which Sassoon is so angry about. Some other examples are “the glow’ ring sun”, “menacing scarred slope”, “tanks creep” and “barrage roars”, the continuous present tense seen makes the description seem more urgent and real. Sassoon makes the soldiers seem small as he writes they are “smouldering through spouts of drifting smoke that shroud”, the fact that the soldiers are “smouldering” shows they are almost being engulfed by the smoke, and therefore that they are virtuous and without a chance in such a hostility.
Owen too has understood the soldier’s innocence, and has used hyperbole in ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ to create more sympathy towards them. This is seen when he refers to the soldiers as “boys” when of course they are young men, but when talking about children the language is always far more emotive and therefore creates far more impact on the readers, this can also be seen as an annoyance at how young these men are dying. The quotation “Not in the hands of boys, but in their
Eyes shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes” shows again Owens anger at the lack of respect given to the young men who were dying, as the only grief they are given is from their fellow men in battle, whose “eyes shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes”, again the only ones who will cry for the dead. In addition the word “holy” could be a possible extract of sarcasm, as many Christian values not to kill and to live in peace had become irrelevant to anyone, as men were continuing to die in action.
Nevertheless, this idea was perhaps unclear to Brooke as in his poem he uses religious references that to some may appear rather ironic, though not to his intent. As Brooke was both a religious and patriotic man, he thought that dying for your country was a noble thing, reflected when he says that after he dies, and left would be “hearts at peace, under an English heaven.” However, Owen also as a Christian man thinks that despite the amount of religious prayers and mourning there is, it cannot stop the deaths of war continuing. This can be seen when he says that “nor any voice of mourning can save the choirs,-
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;” meaning the “voice of mourning” cannot stop the “choirs of wailing shells”, which is the continuous amount of fighting and war.
Therefore, in conclusion, Sassoon and Owen share overall very similar attitudes to war, as both are anti-war poets and have used brutal realism to show the truths of war, and persuade others away from the views of people like Brooke, who was a very patriotic man, and his poem showed he thought dying for his country would not be such a bad thing, for the good of England in the future. Sometimes, all three poets, used similar techniques, like personalisation, which they all used for different persuasive reasons. Both Sassoon and Owen have evidence in their writing to show their anger, embarrassment and sometimes sympathy towards the soldiers. Owens poem specified that there was little respect shown for those who had died in vain; whist Sassoon exemplified the desperate feelings of the soldiers as this was clearly something he felt especially strongly about. While both of these writers used realism, Brookes work contrasted as he used idealism to make his patriotic views used in writing more effective. Personally, I found Wilfred Owen’s poem had the most impact on me, as I found it was like no other poem I had ever read before in pointing out a negative factor of war that may have seemed insignificant, but successfully made it seem so important and linked to the far larger factors, such as the carelessness of the initiators of war, and the sheer scale of deaths of young men.
By Amy Capel
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