Through his poetry Wilfred Owen wished to convey, to the general public, the PITY of war. In a detailed examination of three poems, with references to others, show the different ways in which he achieved this.

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Through his poetry Wilfred Owen wished to convey, to the general public, the PITY of war.  In a detailed examination of three poems, with references to others, show the different ways in which he achieved this

        Wilfred Owen was born in Oswestry, 18th March 1893.  He was working in France when the war began, tutoring a prominent French family.  When the war started he began serving in the Manchester Regiment at Milford Camp as a Lieutenant.

 

        He fought on the Western Front for six months in 1917, and was then diagnosed with War Neurosis (shell shock).  Because of this he was sent to Craiglockhart Hospital for treatment.  In his stay at Craiglockhart Hospital Wilfred Owen met Siegfried Sassoon.  Sassoon was also a poet, and the two became good friends.  The two friends compared and edited their poems, and Sassoon introduced Wilfred Owen to some publishers.  Whilst he was in Craiglockhart he wrote such poems as “Dulce et Decorem Est” and “Anthem for Doomed Youth.”  He used his poems as a cathartic experience to help him forget and overcome his experiences on the battlefield.

        Through a detailed examination of the poems Dulce et Decorem Est, Disabled and Anthem for Doomed Youth with reference to other poems by Wilfred Owen, it can be seen that, although he uses different political forms, styles, and devices, and he addresses his readers from different authorial stances, evoking feelings from great anger and bitterness to terrible sadness; the end result is always the same: he shows the pity of war.

        Dulce et Decorem Est was written by Wilfred Owen whilst he was having treatment at Craiglockhart, it is one of his most famous poems.  Stanza one sets the scene.  Owen takes his time before coming to the main point.  At fist he describes the hellish landscape, which is lit only by “haunting flares”, which would make a fantastically eerie setting.  “Like old beggars under sacks,” outlines the once smart uniforms the soldiers wore, which now resemble sacks, cold and uncomfortable.  “Five nines” are 5.9 shells, and the army is retreating.  All the soldiers want to do is rest, and he uses the metaphor “Men marched asleep” to stress how tired they were.  In the second stanza they are taken by surprise by a gas attack “Gas, GAS!” and the men struggle to get their masks on in time.  One man was not fast enough and is poisoned.  Owen graphically describes this dying man lunging towards him “drowning.”  The man is flung onto a cart and suffers a slow and painful death.

        Disabled was Owens’ favourite poem.  He even considered titling his collection “Disabled and Other Poems.”  Disabled is about a young man who signed up for the war without realising the consequences, or even the reasons for why it started.  The war has taken his arms and legs “Legless, sewn short at elbow” and he relies on the nurses to feed, clothe and bathe him.  It is a pitiful existence.  In the second stanza this war victim recalls old times “About this time the town used to swing so gay” and he misses those days dearly.  This is the longest of Owens poems, and it is very different to all his others.  He is talking about one individual,

compared to Dulce et Decorem Est where he focuses on many men, even a whole army.  I believe by doing this Disabled is more effective than his other poems, as our sympathy is centred on one character.  This poem conveys the powerful message that war is not glorious, that soldiers may not come home to a heroes welcome, and the suffering of war continues off the battlefield.  Disabled is my favourite of all his poems for this very reason.  

        Anthem for Doomed Youth was also written while Owen was convalescing in Craiglockhart.  Many say this poem marked a turning part in Owens life as a poet, and that a remarkable writing period was just beginning.  “Anthem for Doomed Youth” is an elegy, a lament for the dead, in my opinion this is a judgement on Owens experience of the war rather than a description of the experience itself.  This is a poem in praise of a doomed youth; it is exposing the madness of war.  Owen directly criticises the generals, who looked upon men as mere statistics, and nothing more.  

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        The title to Dulce et Decorem Est is heavily ironic.  I believe that Owen wrote this poem not to encourage pity, but to shock the public who believed war was noble and glorious, and as the poem shows, war is the exact opposite.  

The first stanza sets the scene, with the soldiers limping back from the front, this is a horrendous picture expressed through simile and metaphor.  The condition the men are in is so horrific that they are compared to old beggars “like old beggars under sacks” Using this is very powerful, as Owen is saying ...

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