Furthermore, the word merciless has the connotation of the wind being personified as a heartless and tyrannous villain who kills anyone without any sound considerations. This shows that the wind just weakened and killed anyone on its way, no matter who it is. Therefore, it makes the readers feel pity for what the soldiers have to endure – the wind, which is invisible to the soldiers and can be more dangerous than the real enemies. Also, the word iced might suggest two things. Firstly, it might suggest that the wind is cold and can cause physical harm to the soldiers. Secondly, it might suggest that the wind is cold-hearted, and does not consider once when it harms and kills them. This links back to the idea of the wind being merciless, which is stated above.
In addition, Owen has used another effective diction in this line, which is knifes. This word suggests that weather is like a deadly weapon which killed the soldiers, just like the enemy. It implies the readers feel that life in the trenches is very harsh as the soldiers have to confront with two types of enemies: the Germans and the nature – the wind, both of which have the ability the kill the soldiers. This is effective as an anti-war poem as it makes the readers reconsider whether life in the trenches is as easy as the propaganda poems said, or there is something besides the enemy which the soldiers have to tackle.
3rd poetic technique in “Exposure”:
sikecy24: “For hours the innocent mice rejoice: the house is theirs;
Shutters and doors all closed: on us the doors are closed –
Wilfred Owen also uses metaphor to compare the condition of the soldiers to the mice’s condition.
“For hours the innocent mice rejoice: the house is theirs;
Shutters and doors all closed: on us the doors are closed –
We turn back to our dying.”
However, the life for soldiers at the Front Line was so terrible that the condition of a small, smelly creature – mouse – was even better than the soldiers’. At night, the war stops and the mice can sleep happily. However, the soldiers cannot even sleep a second in happiness; they always had to ready for the fight as they cannot know when the fight will happen. The sentries had to swap times with each others and guard the trenches, so they always had to live in a condition of fear, nervous and terror.
4th poetic technique in “Exposure”:
Wilfred Owen uses repetition to show that the soldiers rather wanted to die and the war than sit still in worry about the sudden attack of the enemies. The line in the poem that shows this is:
“But nothing happens”
When we read other propaganda poems, they all say that the soldiers come to the Front Line to fight; therefore, we will be surprised when Owen said that nothing happens. “Nothing happens” in this poem is not saying that the war is over, but the war is happening and the silence can break anytime. Therefore, the soldiers were not waiting in peace, but in nervous and in terror. For them, the war is happening even second in their life.
1st poetic technique in “Dulce Et Decorum Est”:
In the poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est”, Wilfred Owen uses assonance of verb –ing to show that he got a shell-shock of his friend’s death. The line that suggests this point is:
“He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.”
This line shows the consequence, which will haunt the author forever. The verb –ing is repeated because Owen wants us to understand that he always remembers every moment of his friend’s death. It was still haunting even when he got back to England, and it seems that the image is happening now.
2nd poetic technique in “Dulce Et Decorum Est”:
Wilfred Owen uses hyperbole to exaggerate his friend death as if his friend looks like a devil. The line that shows the horrible scene, where Owen can never forget, is:
“His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;”
Wilfred Owen exaggerates the image to let us, especially the propaganda poem’s author, think more about the war in a serious way. He also reminds the government about their careless about the soldiers, who were fitting to protect the government. He wants the government to feel sorry, to...
3rd poetic technique in “Dulce Et Decorum Est”:
Wilfred Owen uses repetition to show the terrifying felling of the soldiers, when they saw mustard gas. The line that shows the threatening of the gas is:
“GAS! Gas! Quick boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling”
In this line, Owen took an actual speech at the Front Line into his poem to show that... The speech suggests that the soldiers had to remind each others when things happened, as the government didn’t care about them. If they didn’t remind each others, no one would and they would all die. The tired marching of the soldiers was interrupted by the horror of the mustard gas. Everything became a chaos and everyone was trying to do anything to save their life. ECSTASY OF SUMBLING
4th poetic technique in “Dulce Et Decorum Est”:
Wilfred Owen uses Latin words in the last two lines of the poem, because he knows that only the rich and powerful people know or learn about Latin. Therefore, he wants them to use their power to pressure the governments to stop the war. The two lines that show this are:
“The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patris mori.”
Latin is a very old-fashiond language and Owen also emphasises this by say the term “The old Lie” to general say that all the wars are not necessary, they should be forgotten and all the wars are lie. The word “The” shows that the lie has been there for very long time, but everyone just ignores it. The meaning in English of these Latin lines is:
“The old Lie: Sweet and right are
To die for your country.”
Owen wants the entire propaganda poem’s authors to think about what they wrote, is it true that it will be sweet and right to die for your country or is it wrong just for encouraging men to join the Front Line.
