Compare and contrast how Wilfred Owen and Isobel Thrilling portray the horror, suffering and inevitable disillusionment of war in their respective poems.

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Craig Beach CRA

Compare and contrast how Wilfred Owen and Isobel Thrilling portray the horror, suffering and inevitable disillusionment of war in their respective poems.

The two poets that I am going to compare and contrast in this essay both write from a different perspective of the war. They are writing about different poems, Owen writes about the 1st world war and Thrilling the 2nd. Both poets are in a different setting when they write these poems, Thrilling is back at home whereas Owen is in the middle of the action, he is in the battlefield. This makes his poems more vivid and realistic. Owen was an adult at this stage and writes it from a soldier's point of view, however Thrilling writes from a child's point of view.

The poems that I am going to write about are "Dulce et Decorum est.", "Disabled", "Children in wartime" and "Evacuee". "Dulce et Decorum est." written by Owen and "Evacuee" which is written by Thrilling are very similar in that they are both very subtle and use somber imagery. However the other two poems are much more vivid and attack the reader.

The first poem I am going to write about is "Dulce et Decorum est". It has an angry and bitter tone throughout. Owen describes the soldier's as "old, weak and frail. "This shows us the extreme conditions of war. Soldiers were not though of as weak and frail so it is ironic. The war was very gruesome and horrid; we can see this from onomatopoeic words in the poem such as "sludge". There is a homeless image given in the first line through a similie, "like old beggars". The war is portrayed as a routine and this is shown through the rhyming.

The words "haunting and frightening" are used to symbolise soldiers like ghosts and maybe already dead? This can also be viewed as a nightmare. Another onomatopoeic word is used to emphasise that the war was never-ending, "trudge".

 The soldiers are described by Owen as hard working and faithful as they "limped, blood shod." The war is also stressed by the use of the hyperbole. Many metaphors are used in the poem for example "rest" is used to signify the dead soldiers. The soldiers are portrayed as being dead and are so tired that they are almost like they are drunk, "stumbling with fatigue."

In the next verse highlighting the immediacy of the action speeds up the pace. "GAS, GAS quick boys!" The word boys in this sentence emphasises how young and unprotected the soldiers  were. It also shows that they are blind to what is happening, they are inexperienced and therefore suffer. The word "ecstasy" is then used to highlight the chaos and tempo. It is a contrast to the previous verse when they were trudging on the same routine.

The army is portrayed as smart and heroic but they are told to us but Owen as "clumsy". The simile "like floundering in fire" is used to highlight that they were not in control of what was happening, they were delirious.

The pace is then slowed down as one of the soldier's dies. He is "suffocating" and this shows us he is totally helpless. We are at this point looking through the soldier's eyes and this emphasises that we are helpless too. The slowing down is as if he is drowning. The gas is suffocating the soldier and it is if he is drowning under the sea because it as described using the metaphor the "green sea" .

The next verse is the on lookers personal reaction. He is feeling guilty about what has happened. "Guttering as he plunges at me." It is as if he is having a nightmare. "Smothering of dreams" this is the reoccurring image of suffocation.

Verse four is then an attack on the reader. Owen is directing his anger at the government or whoever persuaded the young brave soldiers to go out to war. The soldier that died was disregarded, "they flung him in." Owen drags us into the horror that he saw. He does this by describing the "hanging face" as he saw the man dying. Owen wants to show people what it was like and he is tired of all the suffering, "Sick of sin." Onomatopoeia is used again to show the suffering of the man, "gargling". He describes him as having "froth corrupted lungs" he does this to try and poison the reader for what they have done.

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Then Owen then becomes sarcastic as he says "My friend" because he believes that it is the reader's fault for sending out the soldiers to suffer. "The old lie"- Innocent deaths

have been caused due to the ignorance of the suvillian.

"Disabled" is the second poem I am going to discuss. Owen writes about how a man has fought for his country and as a result he has become disabled, then he feels rejected by his country. The first line "waiting for dark" is a metaphor for death and shows the soldier as helpless. They are scared ...

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