How do the Poets you have Studied Communicate the Reality and Suffering of War?

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How do the Poets you have Studied Communicate the Reality and Suffering of War?

War is a very brutal, but yet very controversial topic. There have been many publications in support of war, saying that it is all very good going off to fight and possibly die for your country, when the majority of the people who go off to war find it to be a very different experience. One that can be life changing and they realise that most of what has been said before had been government propaganda. Some of them wish to bring it to the attention of Joe Public in various ways i.e. Poetry, Books, Dossier’s, etc.

 The poems that I have chosen are ‘’Dulce et Decorum Est’’ by Wilfred Owen and ‘’War Photographer’’ by Carol Ann Duffy. I will start with a bit of information on the poets, firstly Wilfred Owen. Owen was born on the 18 March 1893, He was killed in The Battle of The Sombre on the 4 November 1918, and this was 1 week before the war was officially declared over. He was, considered by Historians, the leading poet of the First World War. He wanted to fight for his country after having read about war and listening to what the government had been saying about it. This being a great thing to do and you would be a hero for going off to fight for your country, however, as his writing shows us, it was to be a very different experience for Owen. He had watched his comrades die in the most unpleasant way from gas attacks and getting ripped up by bullets. This was not what he had been expecting.

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Carol Ann Duffy was born on the 23rd December 1955 in Glasgow. She is currently the Poet Laureate and is the first woman and first Scot to have this title. She has also written and starred in plays including Cavern of Dreams, Little Women, Big Boys, Loss and Casanova. She is a professor of Contemporary Poetry at the Manchester Metropolitan University. Duffy’s poem ‘’War Photographer’’ refers to war in more recent times whereas we are used to seeing images of warzones in daily life through the media. The main aim in her poetry is to let readers see a situation from ...

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