Compare and Contrast Owen’s ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ and Brooke’s ‘the Soldier’

Mohammed Tahir Y11 31 March 2001 COMPARE AND CONTRAST OWEN'S 'DULCE ET DECORUM EST' AND BROOKE'S 'THE SOLDIER' The poems 'Dulce et decorum est' and 'The Soldier' by Wilfred Owen and Rupert Brooke respectively, render images of war that have rather contrasting effects. Brooke foresees his death yet is contempt, while Owen describes others and is frustrated and angered at what he beholds, attacking the lies of the widespread propaganda. Owen's portrayal of war comes as a jolt to the average bystander, predominantly comprised of the armchair patriots to whom he mainly concentrates on awakening. He initiates the recount of the trial of courage and heart of the soldiers, with their description as 'old beggars' 'coughing like hags', trudging through the 'sludge', walking 'asleep' with an 'ecstasy of fumbling'. The unnerving description of the sufferings endured in the war and the disjointed rhythm to the poem further captivates our attention, and causes us to be charged with a sense of pity to their inevitable sense of fatalism. The objective of Owen needs no unearthing. When he depicts the scenes of brutal torment and excruciating affliction, he rekindles the reader's emotions from a somewhat dormant phase into one where sadness and anger are dominant. He describes what he beholds as 'blood gargling from the froth corrupted lungs | Bitter as the cud | Of vile,

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Compare Dulce et decorum est by Wilfred Owen, and Before Agincourt by William Shakespeare.

Before Agincour and Dulce et decorum est I have chosen to compare two poems for this piece of work, and they are Dulce et decorum est by Wilfred Owen, and Before Agincourt by William Shakespeare. Both look at War as the main subject, but express very different views on it. Wilfred Owen has written a very powerful poem about a man dying from a gas attack during the First World War, whereas Shakespeare writes a rhetoric poem about the honour and pride found in battle. ¡¥Dulce et decorum est¡¦, and ¡¥Before Agincourt¡¦ are two poems so incredibly far away, in meaning, from each other, that it is very difficult to compare them. The one big difference is their attitude towards war. Wilfred Owen has actually been in a war. He saw what he wrote about. He was there, as the writing is his thoughts and feelings. Shakespeare wasn¡¦t in the war he wrote about. He wrote about it after it happened, either as a way to boost morale in England at the time of the Spanish Armada for Queen Elizabeth, or because they were his own views on War. This battle did actually happen, but Henry didn¡¦t say these words, Shakespeare just put them in his mouth. Owen¡¦s poem is concrete. It happened and was real. He knows what he¡¦s talking about because he was there and went through it all. Shakespeare¡¦s poem is airy. It¡¦s abstract and doesn¡¦t appear to mean anything. At a first

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  • Level: GCSE
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"With specific focus on Wilfred Owens poems Futility, Anthem For Doomed Youth, Dulce et decorum est and Mental cases, evaluate

"With specific focus on Wilfred Owens poems Futility, Anthem For Doomed Youth, Dulce et decorum est and Mental cases, evaluate the methods Owen uses to bring across his convictions, feelings and ideas, to you, the reader." "Above all I am not concerned with Poetry. My subject is War, and the pity of War. The poetry is in the pity... All a poet can do today is warn. That is why true Poets must be truthful." - Wilfred Owen, quoted in Voices In wartime, The Movie Wilfred Owen was born in 1893 and killed in 1918. At Twenty-Five years of age, he was the greatest poet of the First World War. He wrote many poems about the First Great War, and some of the most memorable. He used a variety of techniques, using images of death and harsh conditions to really bring out his true view of the war. There are many different themes in these poems intertwined with one another. If we look at the poem, 'Futility', we can see here that the main theme is based around the futility and hostility of war. There are strong references, suggesting how it is a waste of life and a waste of youth, it is proving that life I sacred and should not be looked upon as a worthy cause. I think that this poem is linked closely with Dulce et decorum est, as there is also mentions of wasted lives and the pointlessness of the war. The soldiers are looked upon as 'hags' and 'beggars'; this sheds bad light upon the war

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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The send off / Ducle et Decorum est - Compare these two poems by Wilfred Owen which is both about the horrors of war. In any way you like.

The send off/ Ducle et Decorum est. Compare these two poems by Wilfred Owen which is both about the horrors of war. In any way you like. Wilfred Owen is trying to tell people the way soldiers were sent off battle and who was there to show them support in of their need. Also he is showing people who were pressured into going to war and they know that they have a 5% chance or not returning back let alone in tacked with an arm missing. Death seems to be mentioned a lot in Wilfred Owen's poems for example the title of "Dulce et decorum est." in an English translation means "It is sweet and fitting to die for ones country. Throughout the poem more pictures are painted of death and funerals e.g. Dulce et Decorum est. is an unglamours shocking picture at the front line. It is really making fun of the title I think that there might be a bit of irony in it. The two poems are first hand accounts of the war. Wilfred Owen is trying to tell everyone "don't go to war unless it is absolutely necessary". The two poems are showing the bitterness about war also there is a sense of shame in both of how people where sent off to die and not really care about them because it was their choice and they wanted to die for their country and in the way that the soldiers never returned the same person as when they arrived. Both of the poems are immensely sad by the way that they portrayed things like

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Comparison of 'Attack' written by Seigfried Sassoon and 'Anthem For Doomed Youth' Written by Wilfred Owen.

7/10/02 'Attack' written by Seigfried Sassoon. 'Anthem For Doomed Youth' Written by Wilfred Owen. The essay is to compare Attack and Anthem For Doomed Youth. In both poems the poet has described life in the World War 1 but at different stages. In 'Attack' he is about to go into battle from a trench whereas in 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' he is being more general, but they are both cataclysmic. The first line in 'Attack' is about the actual battle-taking place at dawn, so straight away you know what's happening and it sets a mood, which is calm but is also goading. In 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' the first line is a rhetorical question, which is about men during the war that went into battle and died, but bells are ringing in their honour. Then the rest of the stanza is like the answer to the question by telling you what was going on during that time. Both of these lines set your mind to think about life in the war and what's going to happen next. In the second line of 'Attack' it's very atmospheric, because it goes on to say that the troops massed in to battle in the 'glowering sun', which is personification because glowering is a human life form and the sun can't glower. In the second line of 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' it uses personification by quoting ' anger of the guns'. Its personification because it is giving guns a human form

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  • Level: GCSE
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Wilfred Owen - "The old Lie"

TRACE THE HISTORY OF "THE OLD LIE" WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE POETRY OF WILFRED OWEN The "old lie" is a term that was developed by Wilfred Owen. The phrase refers to the story that was told to soldiers and civilians of the day. This story was indeed an idealistic view of war and fooled the general population into believing that war was glamorous and glorious and that dying for ones country was noble and dignified. The old lie was developed over many years and originally started in the days of the Romans that in roman times fighting for your country was honourable as every warrior needed to be extremely fit and skilled in battle, hence, it was an occupation for the physically elite. In modern day war, an unfit unskilled man can easily kill a skilled and fit man with a gun with little or no effort, and this death is one of an undignified nature and certainly not glorious. The views from Roman times have been carried through to the modern ages though and even though it was a reality that war was no longer fought by skilled men and death on a battlefield was anything but dignified, civilians had no idea of this and still believed the "old lie" as old attitudes had been carried through to the modern days. The attitudes of people towards war changed during World War One for many reasons. Originally the attitude to war in the 18th and 19th centuries was that war was

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Write a comparison of the ways the writers present the theme of friendship.

Mandip Dhillon 3N Write a comparison of the ways the writers present the theme of friendship. 'Poison Tree,' by William Blake, a poem of an enemy being poisoned by an apple from a tree and 'Strange Meeting,' By Wilfred Owen, a conversation between two enemies; are both a subject of friendship and enemies. However both writers, in completely diverse methods express the running theme of 'friendship'. The theme of friendship in 'Poison Tree' is expressed through 'anger.' It is through this anger that the distinction between friends and enemies can be made. Blake argues that the anger between a friend will die down, "I was angry with my friend...my wrath did end." In contrast, however, between enemies it 'never' dies, but instead grows, "I was angry at my foe...my wrath did grow." Here there is a clear separation between enemy and friend, and a clear distinction through the way the writer feels towards both. Friendship seems to come across as a forever lasting bond, a bond of 'humanity' in which there are the highs and lows of life and anger being one of many emotions, however the relationship between enemies is simply about anger and hatred with nothing more. However, friendship and enemies in 'Strange Meeting' is presented in an opposite way to that of in 'Poison Tree.' The writer claims that it is the circumstances that drive ordinary people to become enemies, where in

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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In your view is 'Attack' by Siegfried Sasson or 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' by Wilfred Owen most effective at communicating the awful reality of war?

In your view is 'Attack' by Siegfried Sasson or 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' by Wilfred Owen most effective at communicating the awful reality of war? In my opinion both poems express effectively how terrible it was to be a soldier in the First World War. However, I believe 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' is more effective than 'attack' because of the amount of emotive language used. Looking first of all at the way the two poems convey the setting of their poems. 'Attack' opens with a highly visual image of the battlefield, 'At dawn the ridge emerges massed and dun'. This approach to the setting is deliberate. The poet intends to form an image in your mind because it helps to put across the hostility of war. By contrast 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' does not reveal it's setting until the second line. This allows the poet to give the image of a massed slaughter, he then tells us where the slaughter is, the battlefield. Later the poet changes the setting his chosen setting for the sestet is the home front. I believe this makes 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' a more effective description of the setting because it has already given of a very dramatic statement already. Both poems clearly share similarities of intention. It is to tell people of the horrors of war and the inevitability of the most brutal of deaths. This is shown in lines 'Men jostle and climb to meet the bristling fire.' And

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  • Level: GCSE
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Summarise and explain the key elements of Mental Cases by Wilfred Owen

Summarise and explain the key elements of Mental Cases by Wilfred Owen One became conscious that the place was full of men whose slumbers were morbid and terrifying - men muttering uneasily or suddenly crying out in their sleep. Around me was that underworld of dreams haunted by submerged memories of warfare and its intolerable shocks....... Each man was back in his doomed sector of a horror-stricken front line, where the panic and stampede of some ghastly experience was re-enacted among the livid faces of the dead. Thus Siegfried Sassoon remembers the scene in Craiglockhartwhere he and Wilfred Owen were patients in late summer 1917. When months later Owen was drafting MENTAL CASES he would have recalled Sassoon's poem on the same theme, THE SURVIVORS, in addition to his own 1916 fragment PURGATORIAL PASSIONS. Owen wrote from Ripon on 25^th May 1918, "I've been busy this evening with my terrific poem (at present) called THE DERANGED". Two months later at Scarborough it was revised and retitled. Owen having himself been a Mental Case, it will have been a painful poem to write. That damage to men's minds, through war, was not more shameful than bodily wounds didn't always find ready acceptance at that time, and MENTAL CASES is both a powerful poem and a propaganda document. Owen's aim is to shock, to describe in stark detail the ghastly physical symptoms of

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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

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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