An examination of how Wilfred Owen and Carol Ann Duffy convey the suffering of War.

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Tracey O’Hara

AN EXAMINATION OF HOW WILFRED OWEN AND CAROL ANN DUFFY

CONVEY THE SUFFERING OF WAR

The two poems that I have chosen to compare and contrast are Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen and War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy. These two poems were written over fifty years apart and yet still manage to convey a similar message, the unnecessary suffering to those involved in war and the ignorance of those who are not directly affected. I will look at how these two exceptional poets use different devises, including form, language, tone and imagery to take the reader through an emotional and enlightening journey.

Wilfred Owen’s poem was written in 1917 and describes his personal experiences during the First World War. He witnessed and experienced appalling atrocities and the reader is able to gain historical information and distressing images as he reads the poem. By using ‘I’ and ‘we’ to describe what is happening he brings the reader much closer to his thoughts and feelings. Owen’s use of the past tense heightens the reader’s sympathies by highlighting that the events are real. This made me feel that Owen’s experiences and emotions were being shared directly with me. In contrast Carol Ann Duffy’s poem was written in the 1970’s and was based on conversations that she had with Don McCullin a famous photographer, whose war photographs were widely published and respected. Her poem is fictional and written about a war photographer alone in his darkroom. She uses ‘he’ and ‘his’ which enables the reader to relate to the overwhelming isolation and loneliness that the photographer is feeling.  Duffy’s use of the present tense allows the events to gradually emerge and this makes them appear more realistic and shocking.  When I read this poem I became aware that the feeling of isolation is essential to understanding the message of human ignorance and neglect.

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Dulce Et Decorum Est has four stanza of varying length, this fluctuating form, and the changing lengths of the sentences reflect Owen’s changing mood as his emotions and circumstances alter. In stanza one the pace is very slow as the soldiers ‘trudge’ back in the ‘sludge’ and this is noticeable in the first four lines, the length of this sentence enables the pace of the poem to trudge along with them. In the second stanza, when pandemonium breaks out with the gas attack, the sentences become shorter and the punctuation more expressive, with the use of exclamation marks and a ...

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