Poem comparison - Wilfred Own

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English poem comparison

Wilfred Own was born on the 18th of March 1893. He was born in a place called Plas Wilmot Shropshire and became an English teacher in Bordeaux. Later in 1915 he enlisted in the army. 1917 saw him in France were he wrote his first war poem. After a shell landed near to him he laid there with a mangled corps of a fellow officer, because of this he soon transported to a Lock Hart war hospital here he meet a well know writer Siegfried Saloon. He was diagnosed with suffering from shell shock. After his meeting with Siegfried Saloon he wrote two famous poems “Anthen doomed Youth” and “Dulce Et Decorum Est”. 1918, he was fit for fighting and was sent to Beavievior Fousonne, for this he was awarded the military cross for bravery. Just one week before the war ended on the 4th of November 1918 he got killed by machine gun fire while crossing the Sanbre Canal.

        The title “Dulce Et Decorum Est” is written in Latin and translates to “It is sweet and fitting to lay down ones life for ones country. Both poems offer opposing views of war, Tennysons is saying the view on honour and the glory of fighting, Owens is saying the about the horror and the futility of wasting young lives. The title of Owens poem is ironic and gives the content more impact.

        In stanza 1 it is slow paced, it sets the scene and the mood of the poem, which is sad. Stanza 1 sees a few similes, alliteration and metaphors. Owen gives you an image of a solider that the reader wouldn’t expect, for example, when this poem was written the soldiers thought they would go fight, win, and be back in time for tea! However, this wasn’t the case; Owen wrote “Knocked-Knees, coughing like hags.” This tells us it wasn’t just as the soldiers thought. This stanza concentrates on the physical/mental conditions of the men. He makes the soldiers feel frail, weak and degraded.

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        Stanza 2 is faster, you can tell this by the first line “Gas! Gas! Quick boys!” This is contrasts to stanza, also notice that

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Owen says boys, not men, this is saying that most of them were young not men yet. When the gas does come the soldiers panic, but are to tied to do anything. There is the realism of imminent death because the “Gas” is in capital. Owen describes what it is like to be the solider inside the gas mask, he does this by not acutely describing it but he does this in an obscure ...

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