Sasson and Owen and their views on war as expressed in Attack and Anthem for Doomed Youth

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Poem Comparison

Overview

Sassoon’s attitude to war seems to be a very realistic view to war and he seems to have experienced war before and has based his passed experiences and put them into a poem. He obviously doesn’t like war and explains it in his poem. Owens attitude to war is a lot about sadness. He does not seem to have experienced a war but has a lot of views on war and ideas on what they are like.  

The first poem Attack

A very good description of detail to the theme of the war is “In the wild purple of the glowering sun” this is also showing the imagery in the poem. There are other quotes about imagery like “Lines of grey, muttering faces masked with fear”. His diction is very sharp and straight to the point for example the title “attack” it is one word and a sharp quick word to say. There does seem to be a fair bit of assonance in the poem. There is some rhythm like “with furtive eyes and grappling fists ”. Some good alliteration in parts of the poem like “Smouldering through spouts of drifting smoke that shroud”. A good example of onomatopoeia is “Flounders in mud” it is linked with Flanders where there was a war and the mud where they were floundering in the mud. A good example of a paradox is “The barrage roars and lifts” a bit of sarcasm in that quote. The last four lines in the poem is a bit like a prayer, which is about Sassoon wanting the war to stop. This also shows how much he doesn’t like wars and how he is scared and how much he wants it to stop.

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Second poem Anthem for Doomed Youth

The title in this poem has the word anthem in it, which portrays the fact that it is like a song. Owen doesn’t show fear like Sassoon does but Owen does show that he feels a lot of sadness in war due to his poem. This poem does seem to rhyme a lot better compared to attack. There is a lot of imagery in both poems but I think that there is more imagery in attack than Anthem for Doomed Youth. An example of imagery in Anthem for Doomed Youth is “Only ...

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