How do Wilfred owen's 'dulce et decorum est' and Wilhelm klemm's 'clearing station' show the true horrors of war? What are the similarities and differences between both poems?

The only thing they can do is toss him into a wagon. The fact one word can add to the meaning so much shows how the speech of this poem adds to its effectiveness. also, the use of figurative language in this poem also helps to emphasize the points that are being made. Owen capitalizes greatly by using strong metaphors and similes. Right off in the first line, he describes the troops as being "like old beggars under sacks." This not only says that they are tired, but that they are so tired they have been brought down to the level of beggars who have not slept in a bed for weeks on end.

Owen also compares the victim's face to the devil, seeming corrupted and baneful. A metaphor even more effective is one that compares "...vile, incurable sores..." with the memories of the troops. It not only tells the you how the troops will never forget the experience, but also how they are frightening tales, ones that will the troops will never be able to tell without remembering the extremely painful experience. These comparisons illustrate the point so well that they increase the effectiveness of the poem. The most important means of developing the effectiveness of the poem is the graphic imagery. They evoke such emotions so as to cause people to become sick. The images can draw such pictures that no other poetic means can, such as in line twenty-two: "Come gargling from the froth corrupted lungs." This can be disturbing to think about. It shows troops being brutally slaughtered very vividly, evoking images in the reader's mind. In the beginning of the poem the troops were portrayed as "drunk with fatigue." With this you can almost imagine large numbers of people dragging their boots through the mud, tripping over their own shadow.

Later in the poem when the gas was dropped, it painted a psychological image that would disturb the mind. The troops were torn out of their nightmarish walk and surrounded by gas bombs. How everyone, in "an ecstasy of fumbling" was forced to run out into the mist, unaware of their fate. Anyone wanting to fight in a war would become nervous at the image of himself running out into a blood bath. The graphic images displayed here are profoundly affecting and can never be forgotten. The poem ties it all together in the last few lines. In Latin, the phrase "Dulce et decorum est pro patria moiré" means: "It is sweet and becoming to die for one's country." Owen calls this a lie by using good diction, vivid comparisons, and graphic images to have the reader feel disgusted at what war is capable of. This poem is extremely effective as an anti-war poem, making war seem really bad and revolting, just as Owen wanted it to. The rhyme scheme to the poem is

ABABCDCD EFEFGH GH IJIJKLKLMNMN

This poem by Wilhelm klemm is describing the war from a German soldiers point of view and what is happening behind the front line. It is set in a German church. It shows the true horrors of war through the use of imagery in the line 'blood puss shit and sweat' it shows you how disgusting even the medic camps were. This also uses your senses it tell you how it smelt and looked as well as telling you how bad a state the place was in. The structure of the poem is 3 stanzas of 4 lines each there is no rhyme scheme in this poem as klemm did not want people to think that there were other meanings to the poem and just realise how horrific war really is. After reading this poem readers can only feel shock and horror at the treatment of these soldiers.

Klemm says in the poem 'bodies stay propped up as their dying heads slump down' this makes them seem dead already. In the final stanza klemm tell that they can still hear the battle is still going on but it goes to show how worthless life is to the war although men are dying in mass numbers the armies are still saying it's a good thing that they join but they are not telling them how horrific it is when you get there this is what this poem is doing it is telling the truth about war unlike the propaganda poems that people like Jesse pope are writing.

After comparing these two poems I have started to understand poetry more but also how people who didn't fight in the war thought it was though these poems showed the true horror of the war people still joined up.

The message in these poems is more clearly presented though dulce et decorum est as the poem is easier to understand the main difference in these poem is that they are written by different sides of the armies one is German the other is British but they still share the same views on how horrific war is. On both sides men's lives are worthless they don't care they are just disposable. But they both show how horrific war really was back in the first world war.

By Jamie Naylor