A Comparison Of 'Dulce Et Decorum Est' And 'Suicide In The Trenches'
A Comparison Of 'Dulce Et Decorum Est' And 'Suicide In The Trenches' The lies and illusions promising glory in war were cast aside by two poets during World War One, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. These poets have written many famous poems but when comparing the two most famous poems of the poets, Siegfried Sassoon's "Suicide in the trenches" and Wilfred Owen's "Dulce Et Decorum Est", an immediate conclusion can be drawn about the contents of the poems. "Suicide in the trenches" which gives an impression of despite being in the trenches, men were not only being killed by the brutal pounding of enemy fire but were killing themselves. Wilfred Owen's poem "Dulce Et Decorum Est" however seems to give the opposite impression at first as the Latin saying translates into: "It is fitting and honorable to die for your country," but, ironically, the meaning of the poem is the opposite. The poet has chosen this title deliberately so he can display it in a sarcastic manner. The poem "Dulce Et Decorum Est" is, therefore, not about dying gloriously or patriotically for your country but instead the horrors of the way the soldiers died. "Suicide in the trenches" focuses on the meaningless life in the trenches and that a quick death ends it all where as "Dulce Et Decorum Est" focuses on the suffering and torture of a slow death. Sassoon's style of poetry and language is simplistic
Presentation of Suffering in Dulce et Decorum est and The Sentry
How does Owen convey the suffering of the soldiers in the Sentry and Dulce et Decorum est? In both the poems "The Sentry", and "Dulce et Decorum est", Wilfred Owen create a strong impression of the suffering of the soldiers involved, both at the time of the incidents portrayed, and the time lapsed since those incidents. Dulce et Decorum est tells the story of the death of one of Owen's men in a gas attack. In the first stanza, the use of hyperbole is a strong technique illustrating the torment of the soldiers. For example, lines such as: "Men marched asleep." And "All went lame, all blind" are blatant exaggerations, but subsequently convey the overwhelming nature of the soldiers' exhaustion and pain. Consequently, I feel that the use of such ideas as "Men marched asleep" gives the impression of the soldiers' psychological detachment from their own bodies - they have been subjected to so much stress and trauma that their minds no longer work in the same way as their bodies. This is a clear symptom of shell shock, and is evident in The Sentry also: "And splashing in the flood, deluging muck - / the sentry's body; then his rifle". The selection of the words "The sentry's body" rather than simply "The sentry" gives the idea that the man's body fell down the steps first, and that his mind may have followed later, as if he were in a trance, or were particularly panicked. Owen
Compare and contrast 'MCMXIV' by Philip Larkin and 'Six Young Men' by Ted Hughes.
Compare and contrast 'MCMXIV' by Philip Larkin and 'Six Young Men' by Ted Hughes. The First World War was a landmark event in the twentieth century. In terms of social attitude, it marked a transition from a stable orderly world to a more modern age, and with that "modern" age there came a brutal, cynical view of society's government and a lack of trust in its leaders. First World War poets like Siegfried Sassoon expressed this hardened and more savage viewpoint in their poetry attacking the military leaders and governments, and this change of view and tone (from innocent to cynical) has been of interest to poets of the following generations. The poems I am going to compare and contrast, 'MCMXIV' by Philip Larkin and 'Six Young men' by Ted Hughes, were both written at least half a century after the First World War. This shows the importance of the event to modern writers and this distance in time gives them a kind of perspective. Fifty years on, they can see that World War I had no final good purpose and that all that World War I did for Great Britain was not to make it safer or better but just to change the way of life they had always known. How dramatically it was changed in social terms is the subject of Larkin's poem, whilst Hughes's poem talks about the impact it had on individual young men of the time. 'MCMXIV' by Philip Larkin Larkin's poem consists of four stanzas,
George and Lennie- COmparison and Contrast
David Urlanda George and Lennie (Comparison and Contrast) In the novel Of Mice and Men, the main characters George and Lennie were brought up closed to us. Through the first several pages of the book, these two characters were visualized. "George was small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features. Every part of him was defined: small, strong hands, slender arms, a thin body and nose." While Lennie the opposite of George, "is a huge man, shapeless of face, with large pale eyes and with sloping shoulders." John Steinbeck describes these two characters as the opposite of each other. He describes Lennie as big man who thinks just like a child, and George as a small and a strong man. Steinbeck differentiates George and Lennie from each other on their mental and physical appearance and strength, George a small man and his opposite Lennie a huge man. In their physical appearance George was visualized with defined body parts and with strong features while Lennie with a shapelss face. In terms of mental ability, Steinbeck said that Lennie has a mild mental disorder that made him the weakest character in the novel. While George, compared to Lennie, he is the boss, he decides on everything they will do and Lennie depends on what he say. George and Lennie traveled together, since Lennie's Aunt Clara died. They are both migratory workers seeking
"English poets are being forced to explore not just the matter of England, but what is the matter with England" (Seamus Heaney) - Discuss.
"English poets are being forced to explore not just the matter of England, but what is the matter with England" (Seamus Heaney). Discuss. It is an inevitable fact that the consumers of literature - laymen and literary critics alike - tend to group together texts and authors into separate categories, and attach to each category a number of supposedly 'common' characteristics and idiosyncracies which all its members apparently share. Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes, and their poetry, are no exceptions. Larkin and Hughes are often linked together when discussing English poets, and do have a number of things in common: they were born within eight years of each other, they wrote and published their poetry at similar times, and both are identified with the north of England. Both men were writing at a time when the notion of a stable and established England was being undermined, largely due to the rapid social change initiated by the termination of the Second World War. Thus both poets were heirs to a unique poetic impulse which sought to reject the old order of modernism by employing creative and innovative forms of expression: the new consciousness of a new generation. Yet although Larkin and Hughes are frequently grouped together as 'English post-war poets', a term which suggest homogeneity, there is in reality more diversity in their approaches than is commonly assumed.
Compare the two poets Ted Hughes and Simon Armitage.
Compare the two poets Ted Hughes and Simon Armitage In the untitled poem by Simon Armitage, the poem describes to us a short story that happened many years ago. The story is of a 13-year-old boy during puberty, and not knowing how to deal with his feelings for a girl in his class. The boy heated up scissors in a flame in a chemistry lab and then handed them to the girl marking rings around her fingers. We presume that the boy in the story is the poet, Simon Armitage as the poem is written in 1st person. The poet now feels a little sorry for what he did but tries to excuse it using the sentence, '...that was just my butterfingered way, at 13 of asking you to marry me.' In this quote he tries to use his age as an excuse as he was only young. The poet telling the story does not actually say that he is sorry but we get that impression from the quote, 'Don't believe me, please, if I say...' when the poet was 13 though we get a different opinion of what he was feeling, we get the impression that he felt amused, proud and triumphant of what he had done, but know looking back does not feel the same as he did. I believe that the overall message of the poem is to ask the girl that he burnt at 13 to marry him; he tries to excuse what he did and then goes on to say; 'Don't believe me please, if I say, that was just my butterfingered way, at 13 of asking you to marry me.' I believe
Comparing and analysing Heaney's 'Blackberry Picking' and Plath's 'Blackberrying.'
Comparing and analysing Heaney's 'Blackberry Picking' and Plath's 'Blackberrying.' In this essay I shall compare these two poets by studying one poem by each of them and analysing the different literary devices used. Both 'Blackberry picking' and 'Blackberrying' contain strong and powerful uses of imagery. Blackberrying is the first poem, which I shall be studying. It begins, again, rather dully and yet brings across more of a scenic image. "Nobody in the lane, and nothing, nothing but blackberries." Obviously this opening line is trying to show a picture of large numbers of blackberries, but notice how she emphasises the negatives as though it is the fact that here are no forms of life around which she is enjoying and not the blackberries. The first image, which she writes of 'A Blackberry alley, going down in hooks', this, is quite a sinister image for each to start. The second image, which she writes of, is that of the size of the berries "big as the ball on your thumb" but she then adds to this by saying the berries are "dumb as eyes." This is an interesting image to be putting to the reader for she is mixing the senses suggesting that the berries have eyes. However this does not bother her because unlike people the berries cannot speak to her or harm her in any way. She moves on from this to include anthropomorphism by describing the berries as "fat", this is normal
Compare and contrast Ulysses and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock in their treatment of ageing and ambition
Compare and contrast Ulysses and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock in their treatment of ageing and ambition The title of Eliot's poem initially suggests that it is not a traditional love poem at all. Eliot's choice to use the initial "J" instead of a first name implies a sense of importance, however Prufrock is a connotation of a "prude" in a "frock" which pokes fun at the pompous nature of the name and implies a subliminal other meaning to the name. Prufrock begins in the unpleasant modern world, which is comparable to "da Montefeltro" in Dante's "Inferno" being trapped in hell; however Prufrock is fixed in a lonely, isolating city. This reflects Prufrock's ambition, because he is insecure and feels as if he is trapped and cannot go anywhere. Eliot's imagery is extremely important in illustrating pieces of Prufrock's personality. He uses images of the city being bleak and frightening. The image of "the evening is spread out against the sky like a patient etherized upon a table" shows that Prufrock's view of the world is that it is bleak and empty. This also illustrates Prufrock's lack of ambition because it shows that he feels there is nothing good in the world worth trying for. Prufrock is afraid to speak to the women he sees because he thinks that he wont be able to say anything capable of making them become interested in him, and his overwhelming insecurity and fears
Thomas hardy poem - neutral tones
Taking Neutral Tones as a starting point, discuss the emotions and reactions to love shown by Hardy in his poems about unrequited love as compared with the 1912-3 collection. You should view this as a chance to really hit AO5. I want lovers named and through circumstances of each discussed as fully as possible. Hardy's focus in many poems is around the subject of unrequited love and exhibits the emotions that are felt at that period of time. He also wrote a selection of poems called the 1912-13 collection, which focused on his first wife Emma and her death, however, these poems rarely talked about his love for her. It was mostly about blame or opportunities that he could have had with her but he had let pass. The theme of missed opportunities also runs through poems other than the 1912-13 collection. In Hardy's poem 'Neutral Tones', Hardy talks about a memory he has when he is 27 years old. This poem is a snapshot of a moment, where he recalls standing with his former young love by the side of a pond, in the middle of winter, 'we stood by a pond that winter day'. The unknown girl and Hardy are surrounded by dead landscape that acts as a metaphor for their emaciated relationship, 'the sun was white'. The white colour of the sun represents emptiness and lack of passion, the sun has been drained of its natural golden colour. Hardy uses pathetic fallacy in this metaphor to
How Do These Poems Reveal Shelley(TM)s Views About The Role Of The Poet?(TM) Discuss.
'How Do These Poems Reveal Shelley's Views About The Role Of The Poet?' Discuss. Throughout Shelley's poetry, the figure of the poet is displayed not just as an intelligent witty entertainer or an intellectual social observer but is in fact, a prophet. Shelley does not try to hide the fact he believes himself to be a prophet, a splendid soul with the divine gift to restore freedom to the people and bring justice to those who need it. Shelley felt that poets have a supreme connection with nature and with this connection are able to translate the 'cosmic truths' of the world into work for people to admire and act upon. Shelley was said to compare himself to Prometheus and even Jesus Christ in the sense that he, as a poet, was a prophet, whose duty it was to liberate the peoples of the world by perceiving the world around him and translating the 'messages' from nature to the general public who would, in turn, throw off the shackles of their oppressors and rise up. Shelley also felt that poets carry a burden, similar to Christ carrying the crucifix, as they are persecuted for their works and are often misunderstood. Evidence of this can be seen when studying Shelley's poetry as well as his life. Shelley uses nature as his primary source of poetic inspiration, which was typical of Romantic poets at the time. In such poems as "The Mask of Anarchy" (1819) and "Ode to the West