Discuss four poems by Wilfred Owen.

Authors Avatar

Discuss four poems by Wilfred Owen

 and discuss the view of war given by each”

Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen was born on March 18, 1893. He was on the Continent teaching until he visited a hospital for the wounded and then decided, in September 1915, to return to England and enlist. "I came out in order to help these boys-- directly by leading them as well as an officer can; indirectly, by watching their sufferings that I may speak of them as well as a pleader can. I have done the first" (October, 1918).

Owen was injured in March 1917 and sent home; he was fit for duty in August 1918, and returned to the front. November 4, just seven days before the Armistice, he was caught in a German machine gun attack and killed. He was twenty-five when he died.

The bells were ringing on November 11, 1918; in Shrewsbury to celebrate the Armistice when the doorbell rang at his parent's home, bringing them the telegram telling them their son was dead.

Owen was perhaps the best war poet. Each of the poems have their differences and similarities of their views on war. I am going to study Dulce et Decorum Est, Mental Cases, The Dead Beat and Inspection to see what different or similar views of war they both give.

The title of the dead beat refers to someone who is mentally exhausted by, more morally than physically and the cruel incomprehension of some of his comrades. Inspection is a sort of humorous poem where a soldier is punished for having blood on his uniform and he is imagined making an ironic defence.

Dulce et Decorum Est is a classic poem denouncing a gas attack during the war where the soldiers return to their quarters. It is a very powerful poem.

Join now!

The fourth and last poem I will be studying is Mental Cases. This poem tells the story of soldiers that are suffering mental breakdowns during the war and it puts across the horrors of trench warfare.

Dulce et Decorum Est makes you mourn for the soldiers. This poem is probably the most, strongest poem of Owens. It is a poem that speaks directly to humanity and and puts the anguish of the individual soldiers across to the reader.

As I have mentioned Dulce et Decorum Est is about a gas attack during the war and it describes the poor ...

This is a preview of the whole essay