"With specific focus on Wilfred Owens poems Futility, Anthem For Doomed Youth, Dulce et decorum est and Mental cases, evaluate

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English Coursework                                                                 Jack Stalker 10T

“With specific focus on Wilfred Owens poems Futility, Anthem For Doomed Youth, Dulce et decorum est and Mental cases, evaluate the methods Owen uses to bring across his convictions, feelings and ideas, to you, the reader.”

        

Wilfred Owen was born in 1893 and killed in 1918. At Twenty-Five years of age, he was the greatest poet of the First World War. He wrote many poems about the First Great War, and some of the most memorable. He used a variety of techniques, using images of death and harsh conditions to really bring out his true view of the war.

        There are many different themes in these poems intertwined with one another. If we look at the poem, ‘Futility’, we can see here that the main theme is based around the futility and hostility of war. There are strong references, suggesting how it is a waste of life and a waste of youth, it is proving that life I sacred and should not be looked upon as a worthy cause. I think that this poem is linked closely with Dulce et decorum est, as there is also mentions of wasted lives and the pointlessness of the war. The soldiers are looked upon as ‘hags’ and ‘beggars’; this sheds bad light upon the war and the men involved. It also shows how the view of the war back home is not always perceived in the correct way. I think the way Owen describes them in ‘An ecstasy of fumbling’ really shows how tired they are, and how unorganised they have been, as if they have not been taught these things and have just been shoved into the front line in war. I also think that ‘Anthem For Doomed Youth’ brings both of the previous poems together and uses both of their main themes, concentrating on the terror Of war, and the tragedy in the way young lives are just thrown to death. ‘What passing Bells for those who die as cattle?’ this gives the impression that these men are being lined up for death as cattle are to the slaughter. They are looked upon as animals, and given animalistic qualities, and lose any sort of individuality they had, this links back to the way Dulce et decorum est shows them as ‘fumbling’ and ‘stumbling’ also animal like characteristics. I think that ‘Mental Cases’ really concentrates on the condition of the trenches the soldiers are working in, instead of looking at them as animals about to die, it looks at the way in which they are already mentally dead before they make the journey to heaven or hell. They are seen as Zombies, the battlefield is the place between heaven and hell. ‘Drooping tongues from jaws that slob their relish’ this is a powerful line, really giving you and image of a soldier with sever mental problems. Although this poem does not link as directly to the others, I think it has a more personal meaning to Owen himself, as he is describing things that are sensitive to him.

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        The way in which Wilfred Owen describes the things he has seen in his life, through his poems, create specific and strong images in the mind, sometimes disturbing and sometimes providing emotional experiences, which he has been through. The language he uses is vivid and energetic and creates a lifelike atmosphere of conditions in the war. ‘Futility’ describes the death in the trenches and the wastefulness of war, the poem is quite short, and does not contain very adventurous adjectives, which means it is harder to imagine things which he is describing in the stanzas. You really have to concentrate and ...

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