A comparison of the ways in which World War One is presented by Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon in their poetry with close reference to “Dulce et Decorum est” and “Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Owen and “The General” and 

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WAR POETRY

A comparison of the ways in which World War One is presented by Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon in their poetry with close reference to "Dulce et Decorum est" and "Anthem for Doomed Youth" by Owen and "The General" and "Base Details" by Sassoon.

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The First World War marked a significant turning point in poetic tradition and history by the revolutionary styles and ideas expressed by the poets. Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon are probably two of the most well known war poets and their poetry was instrumental in this change. Prior to 1914, much poetry was written about wars such as the Crimean War in 1854-56 (The Charge of The Light Brigade by Tennyson who says, "Honour the Light Brigade, Noble six hundred.) but the great majority of the poets had not experienced war first-hand. Thus, they reinforced the poetic tradition of glorifying war and death. Both Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, who both fought through most of the First World War, use their poetry in the hope that they can give a more realistic impression of war than the pre-twentieth century poetry.

Both Owen and Sassoon present World War One as unheroic, in direct contrast to pre-twentieth war poetry such as The Destruction of Sennacherib by Byron. At the very beginning of Dulce et Decorum est Owen describes the soldiers as 'Bent double, like old beggars under sacks'. That image is the complete opposite of what we would consider to be a heroic and romantic figure, an attribute that was always given to soldiers in pre-twentieth century poetry. Owen goes on to describe the soldiers as 'knock-kneed' and 'coughing like hags'. Neither of these images can be associated with the glorified, smartly dressed soldier that would be fixed in almost all of the minds of women and children back home. The comparison of the soldiers to hags is not a pleasant one as hags are often scruffy and dirty. The mention of the coughing portrays the many illnesses that soldiers suffered from in the trenches.

Although both of them present war as unheroic, they do so in very different ways. The style of Owen's poetry which is much longer and contains more description than that of Sassoon's, allows him to expand on the simple description of the horrors of war that he experienced. In Dulce et Decorum est, he describes in graphic and horrific detail the death of a man who was not able to fit his helmet in time during a gas attack. He uses words such as 'flound'ring' 'guttering, choking, drowning'. The word 'flound'ring' gives the impression of the helplessness of the man.The onomatopoeic effect of these words gives an image that adds relaism to the horror of war. This makes it more realistic and moreover, more chilling to read. Owen goes on, in the final stanza of this poem to describe the dead man in greater detail. His varied use of language allows him to create shocking imagery which means that the reader can visualise the man. Owen uses phrases such as:
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"watch the white eyes writhing in his face"

and

"the blood/Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs"

The first of these phrases is particularly chilling as it makes the reader think of snakes writhing in his face. This gives the impression of a crazed person, driven insane by what he has seen and what he had suffered before dying. The alliteration of the 'w' is also effective as it emphasises the phrase. Owen wants to present the reality of the First World War and in slowing the reader down, he makes them think about what ...

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