A comparison of two poems on the subject of war, "Who's for the game?" and "Dulce et Decorum Est".

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A comparison of two poems on the subject of war

“Who’s for the game?” is a recruitment poem that was written by Jessie Pope to persuade men to enlist for the First World War. She composed ‘crude war verses’ for the Daily Mail, and was particularly detested by wartime poet, Wilfred Owen. In one of his poems, “Dulce et Decorum Est,” Owen uses direct address to poets like Jessie Pope, and for this reason I am going to compare and contrast these two very different styles of poetry by two very diverse authors.

        “Who’s for the game?” was written at the beginning of the war and consequently was written in Georgian style, as was a lot of the poetry of that era. The poem consists of four, four-line stanzas with a,b rhyming scheme, which gives the poem added rhythm. This ‘sing-song’ approach ties in with the ideas the poem holds, about war being a ‘game’ and a ‘show.’ These similes were commonly used in wartime propaganda as a way of encouraging men to sign up, to make war seem almost appealing. The last line of each stanza is almost mocking – Pope being not able to believe that men could be so ‘cowardly.’ Historically, during this period of time women were very involved in convincing men to join the army. For example, women would present men with a white feather, as a symbol of their cowardice. Women like this, women like Jessie Pope inflamed not only Wilfred Owen, but other war poets as well, and therefore the style of “Dulce et Decorum Est.” differs vastly.  

Wilfred Owen’s poem was written after poetry dramatically changed in style, as a side effect of the war. Poems before this change seemed derisory in comparison to the war poetry that told of the horror and the huge scale of sacrifice, instead of the ‘glory’ and ‘honour’ in dying for one’s country. Wilfred Owen’s poem consists of three stanza’s, with an alternating rhyming scheme, which shows the regularity of death during war.  Although Owen does specifically write about one man he saw ‘drowning’ in the sea of gas, Owen does not glorify death, because thousands of others died. Owen does not name this man, and this anonymity does not glorify war, this man could be one of several thousand who died this way. In comparison to Jessie Pope’s poem, there is no rhythm, no song in Owen’s writing. Owen's poem is full of stumbling, fumbling, tired, hopeless, dying men. He is writing about a ghastly scene of war and of a man drowning in poisonous gas. If there is music in Owen's poem, it is a dirge for the dying.

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In “Dulce Et Decorum Est”, Wilfred Owen reacts to the war by turning conventional poetic technique into something that appears to be normal on the surface but in reality is tainted and corrupted. Owen's break from the conventional poetic form serves to symbolize the breakdown of society's value system - a system that had been trusted for many years. Owen also breaks from the pretty language prevalent in the poetry of his day to show his society the awful images of real and not romantically heroic war. Finally, Owen juxtaposes the idea of war as devastating and the idea ...

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