Dulce Et Decorum Est And The Soldier
Dulce Et Decorum Est And The Soldier Dulce et decorum est is written regarding the First World War in the hindsight of the battle of the Somme. This takes a somewhat cynical view on warfare. The soldier by Rupert Brooke on the other hand takes a very strong patriotic feel and this shines through more then anything else. The soldier paints a picture of English serenity and whereas "dulce et." portrays Owens anger at the indifference of those at home who continued to propagate lies. You can see the influence of Siegfried Sassoon in this piece. The language is more direct and shocking "guttering, choking, drowning" helps convey the grievance in the air. In the soldier the language is less deplorable and has a feel more of a love poem "her sights and sounds... under an English Heaven" this coupled with the fact that the poem is written as a sonnet reiterates the feel of Love. Both poems are based on death in Wars. However Brooke paints a more glamorised and less direct picture of death "if I should die, think only this of me: That there's some corner of a foreign field...blest by suns of home." This evokes the idealistic image of a perfect England in a 'Golden' age, such as many believe existed immediately prior to the First World War. This does however expose the arrogance that Brooke perhaps had. It places too much importance on his own sacrifices and not on the general
Seamus Heaney's poems explore the loss of childhood and the cruel awakening into the world of adulthood. Discuss.
POETRY COURSEWORK - SEAMUS HEANEY Seamus Heaney's poems explore the loss of childhood and the cruel awakening into the world of adulthood. Discuss. Seamus Heaney has been described as 'the best Irish poet since Yeats'. He was born on April 13th 1939 and was the eldest of nine children to Margret and Patrick Heaney, at the family farm in Mossbawn. He studied English in Queen's University in Belfast, also in Saint Joseph's College in Belfast, to become a teacher. After many years of writing "Death of a Naturalist" was published in 1966. It contains poems symbolic of death of childhood, specifically Heaney's childhood as a curious young "naturalist", eager to learn about nature. Heaney's poems reveal his thoughts of his childhood and his family. His poems are filled with the images of dying, but are also firmly rooted in childhood. His poems of transition explore the journey from childhood into the adult world. "Blackberry Picking" is a reflection of adulthood and childhood. Heaney tries to tell us that we should enjoy childhood because adulthood is disappointing. He gives the message to have low expectations, therefore when we grow up we will not be let down by the adult world. The poem is written from an adult perspective, although it has many childlike phrases in it. It is about Heaney's summer ventures with his friends during which they would collect blackberries in
Compare The Send-off and Dulce et Decorum Est
"The Send-off" and "Dulce et Decorum Est" are two poems, both written by the anti-war poet Wilfred Owen. Wilfred Owen was born in England in 1893. He was the son of a railway man who was not very rich, so because of financial hardships he moved to France. When he was in France the First World War began (1914). This meant that he got involved in the war and during the war he sustained a severe head injury, which led him to suffer the rest of his life in hospital. During the stay at the hospital he started to write poems about war. He became an anti-war poet because he witnessed the reality and the suffering of war. Owen wanted to show the world how ruthless war was through his emotional poems. The injuries he sustained during the war finally killed him in 1917 at the age of just 24. Owen wanted show young men that war wasn't all about honour and glory, but that the true reality of war was death and destruction. He used his own experiences of fighting to write about the horrors of war in many of his poems. "The Send-off" and "Dulce et Decorum Est" are both about soldiers in the First World War. "The Send-off" is an ironic poem that deals with the lack of respect given to the young men heading for the front lines, whereas "Dulce et Decorum Est" talks about the horrors and realities of war. "The Send-off" is a poem in which the poet expresses his disgust at the lack of
Compare and Contrast the attitudes to war conveyed in the poems Anthem for Doomed Youth and The Soldier
Compare and Contrast the attitudes to war conveyed in the poems 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' and 'The Soldier' Anthem for Doomed Youth, written by Wilfred Owens and The Soldier, by Rupert Brooke, are two war poems written during the Second World War. They are both based on different sides of the war and are both Sonnets based on Shakespearean layouts. The first one, 'Anthem for Doomed Youth', describes the flaws and disadvantages of the war. Saying it is a loss of young men, as described in the title. The second, 'The Soldier', contradicts with the first poem, explains that it is devote for our country, a soul cleaner. There are similarities in these Sonnets, such as that they both talk about death and how this counteracts. In 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' the poet, Wilfred Owen, describes war as a "die as cattle", being a slaughter, and a barbaric fight that if fought, you have no choice like the cattle in a slaughter house, to be killed. When Owen describes the "anger of the guns" with monstrous he shows the "funeral" is not of anger but of pity and sorrow. This also shows how furcating and devours the death of many people is. Owen uses many persuasive techniques like Onomatopoeia such as the "rapid rattle" used when the "stuttering riles'", used to describe the only sound being the continues fire of guns. Owen uses religion in the sonnet, because in 1914, Christian religion
Comparing Poems, The Soldier & Dulce et Decorum est.
Comparing Poems, The Soldier & Dulce et Decorum est. I will be comparing two poems in this essay, The Soldier, (1915) By Rupert Brooke, and Dulce et Decorum est (1917) By Wilfred Owen. I will be comparing the views of both writers and also the techniques/language they use to convey that view, both writers have distinct views on war. The poems are similar in the simple fact they are about war itself, but the views and messages within the poems are at complete opposite ends of the spectrum. Both writers portray their views in different ways, for example, Rupert Brooke has chosen to describe his dead body as a symbol for England. "If I should die, think only this of me" the poem then goes on to describe England in a very patriotic way, "In hearts at peace, under an English heaven." The words "peace" and "heaven" create a peaceful and heavenly feel within the poem, they are calming, soothing words, and they give the poem that edge or serenity. Then, on the other hand Wilfred Owen has chosen too depict a gruesome war story that he himself had witnessed. He use's words such as "Blood-shod" and phrases like "Obscene as cancer" to emphasize the horror's of war, also taking the reader to a level of understanding with the brutality in war, brutality that isn't usually flaunted. The language used in both poems is vastly different from each other, even though both poems were about war.
Comparing "The Sentry" and "Dulce et Decorum Est".
Comparing The Sentry and Dulce et Decorum Est The Sentry by Wilfred Owen was written in 1917 and is Owen's account of seeing a man on sentry duty injured by a shell that has exploded near him. The man has his eyes mutilated and is blinded by his injuries but at the end claims to see a light again. Dulce et Decorum Est also by Wilfred Owen at a similar time to The Sentry and is Owen's account of seeing a man die from poison gas because he didn't get his mask on in time. In both The Sentry and Dulce et Decorum Est, Owen is trying to demythologise war by portraying horrific examples of the effects of war. In The Sentry, Owen accounts how he saw a man have his face disfigured by a shell. He uses gruesome imagery and descriptions of the man, "Eyeballs, huge-bulged like squids" which puts a dreadful image in the readers mind. Owen uses similar techniques in Dulce et Decorum est when the man is choking from the poison gas, "the blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs" which again conjures up grotesque images in the readers mind. By using these techniques Owen is showing how war is not glamorous and there is no real glory in war, just death and destruction. The first paragraph in both poems sets the scene for what is about to come, "We'd found an old Boche dug-out". Nothing particularly eventful happens in these paragraphs but they are needed as they help the reader
Compare and Contrast Horses by Edwin Muir and Pike by Ted Hughes
Harry YandleEnglishMr Evans Compare and Contrast “Horses” by Edwin Muir and “Pike” by Ted Hughes ________________ Both “Horses” by Edwin Muir and “Pike” have a title which is a clear statement of intent on what the poem is about. However both of these poems seem to symbolise something more complex, on top of the simple animal poem which it could be interpreted as. Both Ted Hughes and Edwin Muir, ‘animal poets’ have a pastoral lust for the countryside and were writing around the time when Darwin published his “Origin of Species”; This could explain why both poets seem to portray their respective animals rather negatively and yet in conclusion, the poets seem to relish nature despite being fearful of it; “I must pine // Again for that dread country crystalline”. Edwin Muir has a paradoxical wishing for the dreadful country side as it has been taken away from him and hast lost the magic and down-to-earth innocence he had as a child. Hughes’s poetry however dwells on the innate violence in the natural world and on instinctive predatory behaviour; yet he sees to view it as appropriate. He attempts to reconcile what at first appears to be a horrible violence in nature. Perhaps human beings are no different from a creature such as the pike, driven by impulse and appetite in a universe that follows no moral law but eat or be eaten. Hughes clearly views
Continuum by Allen Curnow
Continuum The poem ‘Continuum’ by Allen Curnow revolves around the central theme of poetic inspiration, how it ebbs and flows. He describes himself and his thoughts on a particular night, when he is unable to sleep because his mind is alive and restless. He seems to be in the grip of a poetic impulse that struggles for expression within him. This poem is the medium through which he conveys his experience, and he does so in a very interesting manner. ‘Continuum’ begins with a striking image of the moon “roll[ing] over the roof” and falling behind the poet’s house. It is an animated image of the moon, which has the lucidity of a child’s imagination and so successfully grabs our attention. But even as the reader reacts with mild surprise and pleasure at the novelty of this queer idea, the poet cuts us short with a very matter-of-fact and obvious truth: “the moon does neither of these things”. Curnow is referring to himself. The image of the moon may be interpreted as a symbol of his unsteady train of thought. This and the contradiction thus serve to establish the confusion and indecision in the poet’s mind. Also, the moon is a symbol of poetic muse. Thus the falling moon becomes a metaphor for his sinking poetic abilities. The moon is supposed to be steady but it has lost its balance, as if to suggest that poetic inspiration is not a steady source; it
Analysis of "Futility" by Wilfred Owen
Futility The poem Futility is based in World War 1. The first stanza it is about a soldier who has just passed away, and how now nothing can wake him, not even the sunlight which supposedly is meant to give life. The second stanza then talks about the sunlight, the earth and life, and how it is unfair and pointless if all this beauty is created, to just be destroyed by war and death. This poem is told by another soldier, who witnesses the whole event, and then whom speaks his views about it and other subjects. The title is 'Futility' which means something is pointless, this is so called because he talks about how war and all the effort is meaningless as because the outcomes are always terrible. The structure of the poem is two stanza's both with 7 lines, but the same amount of lines as a sonnet. I think the two stanza's represent the different stages that come with grief; the first being the denial as he is hopeful the light will wake him, and the second showing the realisation, despair and then anger. The first stanza is more of a descriptive one, as it describes the death and uses the past as an example; the next is more reflective, as it reflects his views about his grief and what he compares it too. By using enjambment, it creates a continuum in the piece, it also creates a lack of control onto the reader, which makes them read on, this also could be like the lack of
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
