Owen, unlike Brooke, uses death to depict war as a kind of final mission or stage of life which is dreary; he shows little sense of afterlife. Everything comes to a standstill as a result of death; Owen portrays death as having no alternative. His stance on the futility of war is further strengthened here. Brooke, meanwhile, shows a great sense of the afterlife and he brings out his secret hopes through these feelings. He dreams of soldiers achieving a wonderful England of peace.
'A peace in the eternal mind, no less.
Here, the dead soul retains its pulse in England's 'eternal mind'.
One of the main contrasts between 'Anthem For Doomed Youth' and 'The Solider' is that
Owen handles death as it were something trivial, unnecessary, as opposed to life, while Brooke attempts to portray death as something necessary in order to realize the dreams of victory. While Brooke does indeed regret the demise of a soldier, he also tries to convince the reader that the soldiers on the front die happy deaths, buried in tranquil and serene settings ' In that rich earth a richer dust concealed'.
Of course, we know now when studying history that this sort of burial rarely, if ever, happened. Owen describes how soldiers met their deaths, instead of prayers and blessings 'shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells'.
Owen, unlike Brooke, chose to depict death as the final stage in life, or as the final stage in the cycle of rebirth and afterlife, for he shows little sense of the afterlife, treating it as a mere social custom made up of 'prayers and bell's.
Brooke, on the other hand, glorifies the afterlife by depicting it as the most important stage in the whole cycle, by depicting his feelings in dreaming that soldiers would one day achieve peace for England.
As for contrasts and similarities in style, it can be said that both pieces posses the same, melancholy and sombre style that is frequently used in poetry.
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Owen, unlike Brooke, uses death to depict war as a kind of final mission or stage of life which is dreary; he shows little sense of afterlife. Everything comes to a standstill as a result of death; Owen portrays death as having no alternative. His stance on the futility of war is further strengthened here. Brooke, meanwhile, shows a great sense of the afterlife and he brings out his secret hopes through these feelings. He dreams of soldiers achieving a wonderful England of peace.
'A peace in the eternal mind, no less.
Here, the dead soul retains its pulse in England's 'eternal mind'.
One of the main contrasts between 'Anthem For Doomed Youth' and 'The Solider' is that
Owen handles death as it were something trivial, unnecessary, as opposed to life, while Brooke attempts to portray death as something necessary in order to realize the dreams of victory. While Brooke does indeed regret the demise of a soldier, he also tries to convince the reader that the soldiers on the front die happy deaths, buried in tranquil and serene settings ' In that rich earth a richer dust concealed'.
Of course, we know now when studying history that this sort of burial rarely, if ever, happened. Owen describes how soldiers met their deaths, instead of prayers and blessings 'shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells'.
Owen, unlike Brooke, chose to depict death as the final stage in life, or as the final stage in the cycle of rebirth and afterlife, for he shows little sense of the afterlife, treating it as a mere social custom made up of 'prayers and bell's.
Brooke, on the other hand, glorifies the afterlife by depicting it as the most important stage in the whole cycle, by depicting his feelings in dreaming that soldiers would one day achieve peace for England.
As for contrasts and similarities in style, it can be said that both pieces posses the same, melancholy and sombre style that is frequently used in poetry.
Owen makes good use of rhetorical questions, for these add a sense of irony to the poem.
‘What passing-bells for those who die as cattle’?
Owen here asks what funeral services will there be for those men who die as cattle. Obviously, when cattle die, they are not mourned over in any religious ceremony, or in any sort of ceremony, for that matter, so it is obvious that there is only one answer to this question: No.
Both poets make good use of personification, Brooke’s personification of England is to glorify it while Owen’ personification or animalisation of soldiers as cattle is somewhat degrading. Apparently, this brings us back to the whole point of the poem- Brooke glorifies war while Owen degrades it.
One of the main similarities between both pieces is that both poets made use of symbolism. In ‘The Soldier’, Brooke uses this device twice; in the opening he says
‘If I should die, think only this of me… (in) some corner of a foreign field a richer dust concealed.
Brooke here says that if he passes away, he should not be mourned, but one should rejoice that his remains (a piece of England, obviously a symbolic device) will enrich the soil of the foreign land that will receive his body. A few lines later, Brooke makes good use of the word ‘flowers’, claiming that England ‘gave her flowers to love’. Whether this is a true statement or not is not the issue her; simply flowers have always been strong symbols representing love, harmony and nationalism, which is the main theme of the poem.
Towards the end of the poem, Brooke also says
‘And laughter, learn of friends and gentleness’.
Obviously, England does not laugh nor is it gentle. However, the poet used this expression to glorify his land and to show what an hour it is to die for such a country.
In ‘Anthem For Doomed Youth’, Owen takes a more ‘dramatic’ approach when it comes to his description of war. Although there aren’t any outright symbolic devices used in his poem, many images do contain numerous symbolical phrases, although they were probably just used to create a dramatic effect.
‘What candles may be held to speed them all?’
Here, the candles are meant as the candles lit in the room where the corpse lies in its coffin. Obviously at war, the funeral services are not exactly the same as back home. There will be no candles, much less coffins.
The main symbolical device from the poem occurs in the last line:
‘And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds’.
Here, the poet combines imagery with symbolical images. Owen imagines death as a time when the blinds on a person’s life are drawn, more like the curtains in a theatre, when the actor has left the stage. This point is reinforced with using ‘dusk’, as this is the final stage in day, and here it signifies the end of a person’s Day in this world.
Both poets, like the majority of poets, employ frequent and descriptive imagery techniques in their work. While Brooke was more poetic in using that device and Owen was decidedly cynical, both used imagery for the sake of poetic resonance.
The images in ‘The Soldier’ are extremely persuading. They revolve around the theory that portrays England as a Mother, or a Woman. Certainly it’s no coincidence that both portrayals are feminine; perhaps Brooke thought that a woman would have more depth and emotion, which would make readers sympathize with Brooke’s plight.
‘A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware’.
Brooke here portrays himself (dust) as one of her children. It is no coincidence that Brooke uses these particular three verbs in that particular order, for these are the same stages that a newly born infant goes through
‘A body of England’s breathing English air’.
Again, this reinforces the idea that England is a living being, with emotions and feelings. ‘Breathing English air’ suggests that the poet’s life is connected with England; without English air he cannot breathe.
Moving away from imagery portrayed through England, Brooke used images that evoke different feelings from the reader.
‘Her sights and sounds, her dreams as happy as her day’
This certain image creates a sense of tranquillity and peace within the reader. Without such lines, perhaps the poem would not be as effective. Certainly, the main source of enjoyment that came from reading this poem is because of its vivid use of language.
With Owen, however, it is an entirely different matter. His images do not stir up harmonious feelings within the reader, rather, as they are intended to, they stir up the very opposite,
‘The shrill demented choirs of wailing shells’
Instantly, this line manages to make the reader really understand what it was like to die at war. Instead of the once taken-for-granted burial services, involving choirs and prayers, the only choir a soldier who is killed in action will hear is that of the very shells that killed him. Again, it is ironic that the thing that kills a soldier is the sound that guides him out of this world, and mourning the human it killed, in contrast with choruses mourning the dead person.
Again, ‘each slow dusk a drawing down of the blinds’ is also an image. Although this particular line was explained earlier on, I can add that the sentence manages to act as a closing statement, appropriate for the end of the poem.
For poems written from opposite an opposite angel of war, it can be said that both poems are extremely alike in style and devices. The main differences are to be found in the content. When Brooke was happy, Owen was said. When Brooke was truthful, Owen was cynical. And so forth. The opposite theme is found in every aspect of the two poems.