“A pulse in the eternal mind”
This suggests that Brooke believes the soldiers will always be remembered for fighting for England... Whereas Brooke has a patriotic and idealistic attitude, Sassoon and Owen have a stark hate towards war.
“The old lie: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mon”
We can see very clearly from this how Owen feels towards war. He doesn’t see the point of going over to another country and fighting for a piece of land. Equally Sassoon feels the same.
However, Brooke feels very different about the state and attitude of war.
“Under an English heaven”
This tells us Brooke declares his love for England and suggests England shall win the war. He is very open in agreeing with war and its state.
Sasoon has a stark and bold poem; he uses no similes or metaphors but lots of personification.
“Lonesome dark”
Has a great effect of loneliness and depression. It makes you feel pity towards the soldiers. He uses quotes like this to show his feelings towards the war. He also uses rhythm to help you understand the emotions of a simple boy, who is in a war beyond all his nightmares. In contrast Owens, poem, Dulce et Decorum est Pro Patria Mori, uses descriptive devices graphically to help with the understanding the horrific lifestyle these men had to go through.
“guttering, choking, drowning”
Describes the worst things in order. He repeats ‘ing’ because it gives rhythm and adds to the imagination. In Brooke’s poem there is a lot of devices, not quite as many as Owen though, but more than Sassoon. In the first part of his poem he rhymes every other line to keep the poem in line and interesting.
“England bore, shaped, made away”
He uses personification to change England into a mother; someone who loves us and made us what we are. So we should go up there and fight for her. This is really good use of devices so the audience wants to keep on reading.
Brooke has a patriotic attitude towards death in war. He even thinks it an honour to die for his country!
“if I should die, think only this of me:
that there’s some corner of foreign field,
that is forever England”
This proves how much Brooke was devoted to dying for his country, he believes he will be honoured and remembered when he dies. Whilst Brooke feels this, Owen had a very different and graphic hate towards dying in war. Sassoon agrees with Owen, but is more blunt and realistic towards death, he plays with it and rhymes with it so death seems almost impossible to ignore
“he put a bullet through his brain”
No one could disagree with this stark quote; Sassoon makes others feel horrified by it.
The title of Owens poem is being sarcastic of it being lovely and honourable to die for your country. Owen really doesn’t like this line so twists it so everyone can see it’s wrong and shouldn’t be said. Like the rest of his poem, Sassoon’s title is blunt, stark and delivers a message.
“Suicide in the trenches”
Once you’ve read the title you instantly know what Sassoon thinks by the words he uses. He suggests the horror of war in a sentence. In contrast to Sassoon’s title, Brooke’s is mysterious, and you can’t really tell what he is about to talk about in his poem.
In conclusion I have found Sassoon’s poem, the most effective yet Owens poem, Dulce et Decurum est is more interesting. I presume, while reading Sassoon’s poem; the soldier, your mind almost switches off, because he talks in an idealistic way. Owens poem gives us the most insight into the war, through describing details which were true and describing the true life for men which he had experienced. In talking about his own experience it gives us the impression he knows what he is talking about.
