The last two lines of the poem ‘Your country is up to her neck in a fight, And she is looking and calling for you’ are very inspiring and appropriate as the personification of Britain and pronouns make the reader feel it is their duty to help Britannia in this war.
Pope has written this poem in four stanza’s using a, b, a, b rhyming pattern creating a regular rhythm. This makes the poem more memorable. This is also a technique used in children’s poetry and as such makes the war seem less complex than what it really is.
Although the poem was written to persuade the men to go to war, at this stage Pope did not know the full danger of war as she did not have any experience. Her poems were well intentioned at the time as she thought she was doing her bit for her country.
Unlike Jessie Pope, Owen was totally against war as he had experienced its realities. Therefore Owen saw Pope as the typical of the unfeeling civilian who was supporting the war from the relative safety of the home front.
‘Dulce et decorum est’ was written by Wilfred Owen in 1917. In Owen’s poems he exposes the harsh realities of life at war and what it really does to people compared to the likes of Jessie Pope.
The presentation of war is quite different in Wilfred Owen’s poems to Jessie Pope’s ‘Who’s for the Game?’ Jessie writes in a more conversational manner which makes the poem more memorable and persuasive. Both poets are very effective, but present such different pictures of war.
‘Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori’ is a famous quote from the Latin poet ‘Horus’, meaning ‘It is sweet and appropriate to die for one’s country.’ In this poem Owen writes about an incident in which a soldier dies because of gas.
In the first stanza, British soldiers are leaving the trenches after an exhausting span of duty. The pace is very slow and a painstaking rhythm is formed through Owen’s use of long words. This shows how painstaking and slow the war was. This contrasts with Jessie Pope’s poem, where she uses short words and lines to portray that the war would be over and done with very quickly. Many believed that war would be over in a few months.
The first words ‘Bent double’ immediately give the impression of extreme exhaustion and convey an image of the soldiers in unbearable agony, having no energy left. The terrible physical condition of the men is also illustrated with the line ‘Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through the sludge.’ The simile compares the soldiers’ physical condition to that of witches, and creates the image of very old wrinkled women slowly stumbling through thick mud.
The word ‘trudge’ is an onomatopoeia used to emphasize the fact that the pace is tremendously slow. It portrays the image that it takes a lot of effort for them to take every step. ‘All went lame; all blind’ emphasizes that the war affected everyone and the fact that Owen uses personification to describe the shells as ‘tired’, gives the impressions that he thinks that the war is pointless and had been occurring for too long.
In the second stanza there is suddenly a big contrast and the mood instantly changes. The pace speeds up to a much faster, more panicky mood.
‘Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!’ is the first few words written in the second stanza. It immediately highlights the speed of this section and that everything is happening unexpectedly and urgently. The image created is that all the men are in ‘an ecstasy of fumbling’, unaware of their fate. The word ‘ecstasy,’ is ironic as it gives the impression of extreme joy, yet the opposite emotion would be expected. Owen uses this line to try and portray a gush of energy.
‘Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,’ and words like ‘stumbling’ are used to create the image that the process is urgent, life threatening and dangerous. This image creates a totally different image to that of Pope’s where the poem is compared to a game, with no life threatening consequences.
Owen uses alliteration to emphasize that there is just one person left, making hysterical movements, ‘Someone still was yelling out and stumbling.’ He then uses the simile ‘As under a green sea I saw him drowning.’ This portrays the image that the soldier is really suffering and struggling which definitely is not a ‘sweet,’ way to end one’s life.
The third stanza is a very small verse where Owen vividly describes the young man "drowning" before his "helpless sight". During this verse, Owen uses the present tense verbs "guttering, choking, drowning", to give the reader a feeling of it still happening which is very effective. The fact that these verbs are onomatopoeic means that the death is also ‘heard’ vividly by the reader.
In the final stanza I believe Owen uses the most effective language. Throughout the stanza there are some hideous comparisons. When Owen uses words like ‘you’ and ‘My friend’ he obviously aims this poem towards Jessie Pope. Owen's choices of verbs in this verse are very well thought out. He uses verbs such as ‘writhing’ and ‘gargling’ to give clear verbal images to the reader. But one verb that truly stands out is "flung". Owen uses this verb to get across how common terrible tragedies like this were and that bodies weren't even treated with care and respect anymore because the soldiers didn’t have time to bury the bodies.
The last thing Owen says in this poem is almost certainly aimed towards Jessie Pope but also tells the readers something; that if they had seen all of this terror and tragedy they would most definitely not tell ‘with such high zest’ the ‘the old lie’: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori- that it is sweet and fitting to die for your country. This poem is extremely effective as an anti-war poem, making war seem absolutely horrid and revolting, just as the author wanted it to. The aim of this poem was to shock the reader-to let them feel the sense of disgust and frustration felt by all the soldiers when incidents occurred like this.
Like Owen, Sassoon also wrote anti-war poetry that was very effective. One of his very simple yet precise and effective poems was ‘Suicide in the Trenches.’ Sassoon uses simple language and a simple structure to make the war sound ironic and meaningless.
Sassoon uses an AA BB CC DD EE FF rhyming pattern creating a rhythm which makes the poem more memorable.
The poem starts off describing how the life of a typical ‘soldier boy’ was before he went to war. Throughout the stanza it describes how the ‘soldier boy’ had once lived a happy, energetic life. The fact that Sassoon uses the word soldier ‘boy’ emphasizes that the soldier was young, naive and had his whole life ahead of him. Sassoon describes the boy as being happy and having no worries as he ‘grinned at life’, ‘slept soundly’ and ‘whistled early with the lark’ which is often associated as a sign of happiness.
In the second stanza the mood completely changes and the terrible condition of life in the trenches and the precarious existence that goes hand in hand with battle has a profound effect upon the boy; he kills himself. This stanza generates great sympathy as it is a tragic waste of life. Like Owen he shows the reality of war.
In the third stanza, Sassoon directs the poem at ‘You’ in an accusatory fashion. The ‘smug-faced’ crowds have no real concept of what it means to fight in a war. Sassoon powerfully advises them to ‘Sneak home and pray you’ll never know/The hell where youth and laughter go’. Like Owen he scolds the people and poets, who cheered and encouraged the men to enlist.
In conclusion, I feel that all 3 poets are just as effective in their writing, yet Jessie Pope presents very different pictures of war to that of Owen and Sassoon. Owen and Sassoon are excellent examples of poetry portraying the realism of war whereas Pope’s poem is an excellent example of the unfortunate attitude of those people back at home, who had not experienced war at all. Jessie pope aimed her poems towards young men in general, with the aim of persuading them to enlist in the forces. Yet Owen and Sassoon aimed their poetry towards a different audience, they scolded the people that had not experienced war, making them feel guilty for once encouraging and sending so many innocent men to their death. All poets are very successful in portraying their aims and views of war. Each poem was just as convincing.
In my opinion I believe that Sassoon’s poem and use of language is the most effective as it explains the harsh realities of life at war and the fact that he informs his readers that the war did not only affected men physically but also psychologically creates great sympathy.