Explain how the poems reflect the changing attitudes to war. Comment on content, language and poets' purpose.
Explain how the poems reflect the changing attitudes to war. Comment on content, language and poets' purpose. World War One started in August 1914. British people were feeling positive at the time. They were feeling enthusiastic and patriotic. The partners, friends and family of the "heroic" soldiers all thought they would be home by Christmas. Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen are famous poets from the time. Rupert Brooke at the start of the war wrote 'The Soldier'. In 'The Solider' it shows going to war is heroic but some lines are shockingly ironic. During the war, Wilfred Owen wrote two famous poems named 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' and 'Dulce et Decorum Est'. These poems showed more of the reality of the war. A difference between the 2 poets was that Wilfred Owen saw frontline trench warfare and Rupert Brooke did not. A year into the war, Rupert Brooke wrote 'The Soldier'. His main subject was to tell the people how heroic the soldiers were going to war. He wrote the poem as if he was a soldier himself. "If I should die, think only this of me: That there's some corner of a foreign field". This line is saying that if he dies at least he died for England. Also in the poem he expresses idealism through irony. His ironic lines such as "And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness". This really didn't happen in the war but helped families of the soldiers feel better. He also
Summarise and explain the key elements of Futility by Wilfred Owen
Summarise and explain the key elements of Futility by Wilfred Owen The front line on a bright winter morning. A soldier has recently died though we don't know precisely how or when. Owen appears to have known him and something of his background and he ponders nature's power to create life, setting it against the futility of extinction. Only five of his poems were published in Wilfred Owen's lifetime. FUTILITY was one of them. It appeared, together with HOSPITAL BARGE, in "The Nation" on 15th June 1918, shortly after being written - at Ripon probably - although Scarborough is a possibility. At about this time Owen categorised his poems, FUTILITY coming under the heading "Grief". It takes the form of a short elegiac lyric the length of a sonnet though not structured as one, being divided into seven-line stanzas. Owen uses the sun as a metaphorical framework on which to hang his thoughts. The sun wakes us (lines 2 & 4), stimulates us to activity (3), holds the key of knowledge (7), gives life to the soil (8), gave life from the beginning, yet (13) in the end the "fatuous" sunbeams are powerless. "Move him into the sun". "Move" is an inexact word yet we feel the movement has to be gentle, just as the command has been quietly spoken. (What a contrast with the body "flung" into the wagon in DULCE ET DECORUM EST.) Of course, we may have been influenced by "gently" in line 2
Describe an important theme and why it was important in 'Dulce Et Decorum Est' by Wilfred Owen.
Describe an important theme and why it was important. In 'Dulce Et Decorum Est' by Wilfred Owen an important theme that interested me was the lie. That it is not glorious and it is not "sweet and honourable to die for your country." Through the use of vivid figurative language and effective poetic techniques such as rhyme, rhythm and alliteration Owen conveys a memorable experience creating horrific graphic imagery which develops his anti war theme. Through the use of personal pronouns, Owens expresses his own experience, detailing how the soldiers were mislead into believing fighting for your country was rewarding. This is important as Owen vividly expressed the opposite idea. In the first line, "Bent doubled like old beggars under sacks", gives you a snap shot of what is not expected of a soldier, while comparing them to "old beggars", uncomfortable and undesirable. Then Owen goes onto describe the flares as haunting to the soldiers. This suggests that they are sick of war and despise the constant reminders of it. The rhyming pattern of AB, AB, CD, CD reflects the organisation and the vigorous marching of the soldiers. This image of strong and repetitive steps is contradicted by the use of alliteration on the deep 'M' sound. "Men marched asleep." The message of strength is contradicted by the lack of rhythm. This indicates confusion, tiredness and portrays the soldiers as
Discuss how Owen portrays the horrors of war in Dulce et Deocrum Est
Discuss how Owen portrays the horrors of war in "Dulce et Deocrum Est" WWI, an event that occurred from 1914 to 1918 was a horrific and shocking incident which shook the world. Wilfred Owen, a soldier of WWI, wrote the poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" which portrayed the terrors, misery and misfortune of war. Firstly, Owen portrays war as terrifying, gruesome and horrific through his descriptive use of similes. This is evident when the narrator depicts the tragic suffering of a soldier in the line "And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime". During WWI gas bombs were invented and used as a very effective and efficient way of killing large numbers of the enemy. This quotation shows that the soldier is "flound'ring" because he is in so much pain and is trying to get away from the gas but he cannot because he is already too late and the gas is inescapable without a gas mask on. This simile suggests that the gas is so corrosive and poisonous that it would burn your skin. And if it was inhaled it would fill the lungs with fluid and had the same effects as when a person drowned. This simile is effective in portraying the horrors of war and startles the reader. The second technique which is used by Owen to portray the horrors of war is the effective usage of alliteration. This is apparent when he describes the eyes of a soldier to be twisting in pain in the line "And watch the
Dulce et Decorum est - Appreciation Essay
Dulce et Decorum est - Appreciation Essay By Luke Harris 10R/T Wilfred Owen was born in Shropshire in 1893. When the war started, he was in France, however, he came back home to enlist. He fought on the Western Front, but in June 1917, was diagnosed with shellshock and taken to Craiglockhart Hospital for treatment. Whilst he was there he met poets, such as Siegfried Sassoon. Craiglockhart hospital was the place where Wilfred Owen wrote his most famous poems, "Dulce et Decorum est" and "Anthem for doomed Youth" "Dulce et Decorum est" is a poem about soldiers in the front line and their experiences in the war. Wilfred Owen wrote this poem for the people back home, who thought that the soldiers were heroic and were glad to fight and die for King and Country. This, however, was not the case for many of the soldiers. This poem could have been written about many battles, but more probably about 1916, when gas attacks were first tried and tested against the English. I think that this poem is about the Battle of Marne. In the first section of the poem, Wilfred Owen describes the soldiers at the front line as "Old beggars". He is telling us that these men are so tired that they do not know what they are doing. They march on, because they are told to. Wilfred Owen describes these men as "Drunk with Fatigue". The first and second stanzas are relatively long, and then there is a
Anthem for Doomed Youth
Wilfred Owen - Anthem for Doomed Youth Wilfred Owen is a poet who wrote anti-war poems. One of his most famous poems is called 'Anthem for Doomed youth'. He wrote this poem to enlighten the reader about what you experience on a battle field. He describes to us the conditions to show his bitter angst towards war and how wrong it was of the government to send innocent men to fight a battle which was not even worth the amount of lives that were lost. Wilfred Owen manages to achieve his purpose by using different methods in language. He uses alliteration, onomatopoeia, metaphors and suitable words. The words are very straight-forward but Wilfred Owen still manages to describe the conditions clearly. The alliteration and onomatopoeia used in the poem empathizes certain phrases, for example, "Rifles rapid rattle," it uses sound to create an image in our minds. The images are the most important technique in which Wilfred Owen puts his message across. For example in the first line we are told about "passing-bells." Bells are tolled for the dead. The word 'passing' has various meanings, for example a bell that 'passes-by' on the way to the funeral. Passing can also refer to dying or passing-away. Owen uses words to enrich the meaning of his lines, supplying multiple ideas to a word. Another image in the first line is 'cattle' which is directed towards the soldiers who are
Analysis of Anthem for doomed Youth
Anthem for Doomed Youth - Wilfred Owen Wilfred Owen was born the 18th of March 1893 in United Kingdom. He's probably, one of the most important English War Poets. The popularity of Owen today can be explained by his condemnation of the horrors of war. As an English poet, he is noted for his anger at the cruelty and waste of war and his pity for its victims. He said," "My subject is War and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity." The title, 'Anthem for Doomed Youth', gives the first impression of the poem. An 'anthem', is a song of praise, perhaps sacred, so we get the impression that the poem might be about something religious or joyous. However, the anthem is for 'Doomed Youth' which describes something negative. The poet shows his anger and bitterness in the first part of the poem. In the second part of the poem he expresses his sadness at the pathetic condition of the soldiers. The poem is a sonnet. The first stanza is mainly about the battlefield, whereas the second stanza is more about the reactions of friends and family back at home. The poem starts with a rhetorical question and is very intense from the starting. In order to express his ideas, Owen mixes the sad, calm images of a funeral with the chaotic, explosive images of a battlefield. The poet uses poetic techniques such as imagery, personification, assonance and alliteration and sound (onomatopoeia)
How does Wilfred Owen portray the horrors of war through his use of language in Dulce et Decorum Est?
How does Wilfred Owen portray the horrors of war through his use of language in Dulce et Decorum Est? Dulce et Decorum Est, a poem by Wilfred Owen, explores the many horrors and cruel ordeals of World War One. Through his use of linguistic techniques, vivid imagery and dramatic descriptions, Owen seeks to convince the reader that it is far from honourable to die for ones country, as the title of the poem in fact suggests. He does so successfully, presenting his opinion through a series of images designed to obliterate the misconception that war is admirable, as well as differentiating and varying his techniques throughout the poem. In the first stanza, Owen describes the state of the soldiers to allow the reader to visualise the cruel reality that war was for them. Their situation is made more realistic through the use of first person plural as displayed in the line "we cursed through the sludge". Unexpected and contrasting descriptions of the soldiers such as referring to them as "bent double, like old beggars under sacks", and associating them with animals by referring to them as "blood shod", also changes the reader's perception of what conditions were like during the war. In relation to their harsh portrayal, Owen uses similes such as "coughing like hags" to help produce a pitiful sense of anguish for the soldiers, as well as, for emphasis on their weariness, and both
Dulce et Decorum Est
Dulce et Decorum Est The poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" was written during the First World War by a soldier called Wilfred Owen. The title is Latin and means "It is Sweet and Fitting To" and is shown as ironic, as it explains throughout the poem, that there is nothing sweet or fitting about war. The poet explains the irony by use of various literary techniques. The poet himself suffered greatly during the war and, to escape shell-shock or madness, he transferred his suffering into poem form But he sadly died on on the front line on the last day of 1918. The first stanza sets the scene and shows us the urgency of the situation. The poet does this by giving a vivid description of life on the front line. Wilfred Owen uses a variety of literary techniques to give us an image of what the horrors of war are really like. The use of similes and metaphors help to create that true gruesome picture of war. For example the use of the simile "coughing like hags" suggests, in the word "hags" there is evil around them and that war itself is evil. He also uses techniques like alliteration, still to create the image of the disgusting reality of war. The second stanza consists of only two lines but in its shortness it changes the poem entirely by the use of the word "my". This changes the format of the poem from a second hand account, to his thoughts and feelings being presented in first
Wilfred Owen Poetry Comparison.
Wilfred Owen Poetry Comparison In this essay, I have decided to analyse two poems by the war poet Wilfred Owen, taken from his writings on the First World War. Both of these poems ('Dulce et Decorum Est' and 'Anthem for Doomed Youth') portray Owen's bitter angst towards the war, but do so in very different ways. Owen developed many of his poetic techniques at Craiglockhart Military Hospital, where he spent much of the war as an injured soldier, but it was only through the influence of fellow soldier and poet, Siegrfried Sassoon, that he began capturing his vivid visions of the war in the form of poetry. Many would argue that it was while writing his war poems, that Owen felt most able to express his ideas on paper, and he certainly was one of the greatest war poets to have ever lived. Arguably his most famous poem, 'Dulce et Decorum Est', is a fine example of his narrative, first-person poems, written through his own eyes and based on his own experiences and views of the war. Using four clear stanzas, the poem uses standard, alternate rhyming lines. A slow, painstaking rhythm is established at the beginning of the poem through Owen's use of heavy, long words and end-stop lines, in order to illustrate just how slow and painstaking the war was. The pace then quickens during the final stanza (a rhythm achieved by the use of lines with fewer syllables and run-on endings), so
