Owen writes the poem with style. He uses the recruits contrasting memories and new views to create the war victim's true feelings "About this time town used to swing so gay", "He thought be better join in" - he wonders why. "Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn".
The poem also illustrates how his lifestyle changed dramatically. He was once a great athlete, popular with the girls but now he is in a wheelchair, "they touch him like a queer disease", and he notices how "their eyes pass from him to the strong men that were whole”. He is no longer seen as a normal person. An artist was once eager to paint him but "Now he is old, his back will never brace; he’s lost his colour very far from home".
When he departed for war he was treated like hero but peoples' reactions were different on his arrival home, "Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer goals". Only one person thanked him.
The war took away everything in this young man's life and ‘Now he will spend a few sick years in Institutes".
DULCE ET DECORUM EST
This poem deals with an experience of a soldier during an attack in World War One. The mood of the poem is sadness. Sadness is too weak a word to describe the poem but is still the general emotion that comes to heart. The thoughts of WW1 and the horrors of trench warfare come into mind when reading "Dulce et Decorum Est". The fact that this poet has experienced the war at first hand really makes you think how real this poem is.
The poem is in four stanzas and four corresponding sections. The first deals with the extreme conditions of the exhausted soldiers and is couched in exaggerated terms. "All went lame: all blind" indicating the strength of Owen’s feelings rather than the misery of the men. These horrific images really take away from the glory of war. The second stanza deals with a gas attack and the cruel death of a soldier, literally drowning in his own blood, unable to get his gas mask on in time. The third stanza, consisting of only two lines, emphasizes the personal reaction of the poet to these circumstances-it indicates a nightmare from his experiences. His nightmare shows his guilt due to his inability to help his fellow soldier, "Before my helpless sight". In the fourth stanza the poet is asking Jessie Pope and other to consider the outcome of war by writing "The Old Lie: Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori ".
The mood of the poem is sadness. Sadness is too weak a word to describe the poem but is still the general emotion that comes to heart. The thoughts of WW1 and the horrors of trench warfare come into mind when reading "Dulce et Decorum Est" . The fact that this poet has experienced the war at first hand really makes you think how real this poem is. The reality comes to mind of a lifeless body being flung in a wagon; the fact that this man has nightmares about a death he witnessed contributes to the theme and mood alike. Flashbacks were a huge problem for ex-military men and really shows that the poet is dealing with the sad aspects of war, before and after.
The horrible descriptions of post-war effects are disturbing. Take these few lines and realise the non-glorious side to war: "And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin: If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues".
This line is a vivid description of death and really shows what men in history have sacrificed to enable us to live the way we do. Phrases such as "the froth corrupted lungs" really makes you think you’re lucky you’re able to breathe, let alone fight in war.
This poem detests war and fighting for your country, the reality of war and the painful deaths and memories.
WHO’S FOR THE GAME ?
Jessie Pope composed persuasive recruitment poems. She was detested by Wilfred Owen, who saw her as a typical irrespective, unfeeling civilian who was supporting the war from the relative safety of the Home Front. The presentation of war is quite different in Jessie Pope’s ‘Who’s for the Game?’ to Wilfred Owen’s poems.
She writes in a more conversational manner which makes the poem more memorable and persuasive. She compares the war to a ‘game’, implying that there is little danger on the battlefield and nearly no chance of dying. She also refers to the war as a sport where a player would return with a minor injury such as a crutch. She persuades the men to join the army by making them feel ashamed and cowardly if they weren’t going to fight for their country. She also has a friendly manner in her mistruthful poem as she refers to the men as ‘lads’. She pressurizes the men into joining the military with her prediction that they’ll ‘come back home safe and well’. She makes the country more appealing and dependable upon their support when she gives it a female gender. This capitalizes on the sexist attitude of the WW1 era where men were expected to take care of and protect their women.
Jessie Pope has written this poem in 4 sections with 4 lines in each section and 4 stanzas with regular rhythm and rhyming and rhetorical questions asked. This makes the poem more memorable and is also a technique employed in children’s poetry. This poem is a recruiting poem with the aim of encouraging men to volunteer to join the military. It was written at the beginning of the First World War and therefore the true disastrous effects of the war had not been experienced. Those left behind, women, children and exempt men, were often unaware of the true horror of the war and instead were seduced by a romantic ideal.
In conclusion, I feel that both poets are effective, but they both present such different pictures of War. Owen’s poems are excellent examples of poetry portraying the realism of war whereas Pope’s poem is an excellent example of the unfortunate attitude cultivated on the home front. The contrast between the two allows the reader to see the reality of the First World War from two hugely different perspectives.
© DHAMIRAKANTH YOGANATHAN