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Critical analysis of wilfred owen poetry
Critical analysis of wilfred owen poetry
Wilfred owen's ideas about war
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Poetry and music have been strong ways for expressing human emotions, thoughts, and experiences. They have the unique ability to evoke strong emotions and connect with people on a deeper level. This essay will analyse the theme of war in Wilfred Owen's poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" and Redgum's song "I Was Only Nineteen". Both texts use significant poetic and stylistic devices to comment on the horrors of war and its impact on soldiers. Wilfred Owen's poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" was written during World War I and described the horrors and reality of war.
Both Ted Hughes and Wilfred Owen present war in their poems “Bayonet Charge” and “Exposure”, respectively, as terrifying experiences, repeatedly mentioning the honest pointlessness of the entire ordeal to enhance the futility of the soldiers' deaths. Hughes’ “Bayonet Charge” focuses on one person's emotional struggle with their actions, displaying the disorientating and dehumanising qualities of war. Owen’s “Exposure”, on the other hand, depicts the impacts of war on the protagonists' nation, displaying the monotonous and unending futility of the situation by depicting the fate of soldiers who perished from hypothermia, exposed to the horrific conditions of open trench warfare before dawn. The use of third-person singular pronouns in “Bayonet
War is a cruel event created by mankind and inflicted upon one another, whether it be for power, for glory, or to settle an argument. One of these events, World War One, lasted from 1914 to 1918 and devastated the soldiers of the Triple Entente and the Central Powers. All Quiet on The Western Front is a war novel written by Erich Maria Remarque that tells World War One from the perspective of a German soldier and is considered “The Greatest War Novel of All Time.” “Dulce Et Decorum Est” was a poem written by Wilfred Owen who was an English poet and soldier who fought and was killed in World War One. “Anthem for Doomed Youth” was a poem also written by Wilfred Owen who was in a Scottish hospital recovering from shell-shock in 1917.
War poetry has an extremely interesting history. From spiritual war poems written by the Greeks to World War One and World War Two poems written about everything from the struggles and victories of the wars. Many tried this ancient art of poetry, and many also succeeded and became well known in the poetry world. Two of these poets had a great impact on both the soldiers and the civilians in the war, Wilfred Owen and Alfred Tennyson. ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ covers the brutality and horrific nature of what it was like to serve in the trenches of World War One, and gives an eye-opening perspective of how many died in terrible ways, affecting many.
War is a time of sacrifices in the lives of all involved. Some view these sacrifices as inhumane, thinking that no human should ever experience the brutality of war no matter the cause. Others view these sacrifices as heroic, thinking that the opportunity to serve an important cause is a very honorable sacrifice that you should be willing to make. Both Wilfred Owen and Jessie Pope wrote poems with the potential to influence readers to view war the same as they do. Both “Dulce et Decorum Est,” written by Wilfred Owen, and “Who’s for the Game?,” written by Jessie Pope, contain strong viewpoints and different intended impacts regarding the reader.
Owen uses shocking diction to convey the horror of war. He uses diction such as “trudge”,”writing”,”guttering”,”choking”, and “drowning” to express the horrific struggle of fighting death when the soldiers are choking on mustard gas. He uses these words to express that there is nothing beautiful about dying for your country. Owen uses horrific imagery to express the excessive agony the soldiers went through.
In this essay, I will be comparing how Wilfred Owen and Jessie Pope have used language to present their views towards war, particularly in their poems " Who's For The game?" And "Exposure". I have chosen these poets because the meanings behind their poems are very different. In the poem, "Who's For The Game?", Pope has used language to express her views towards war, which are patriotic.
This era was the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars. Wilfred Owen’s poem The Next War, was written from his own perspective. The imagery in the poem was actual circumstances he had to cope with when on the front in 1917, during World War One. The tone of the poem is reasonably miserable, but somehow Owen has captured one of the most sorrowful events of our lives, death, and turned it into a tolerable situation, where death is not the enemy; rather the companion.
Wilfred Owen portrayed the effects of war on the individual in ‘’Disabled’’ with various techniques, structure properties and his use of language. Firstly, Owen was a disabled soldier which survived the First World War so he is experienced about the situation and he can easily portray the effects of war and his feelings. Wilfred Owen used some phrases to describe the effects of war on the individual and the soldier’s feelings. One of the phrases he used is ‘’waiting for dark’’, we can understand that the soldier doesn’t have anything positive to look forward to, he only waits for the end of the day.
Owen uses of simile differentiate with Shakespeare’s depiction on heroic sacrifice. He depicts the soldiers in the war like cattle locked in a pen waiting to be slaughtered, implying that the scarification of the soldiers was pointless. During the poem Owen highlights that a role of a hero isn’t someone who sacrifices his or her self. The perception that Owen has was because mass destruction weapons like bombs, tanks, airplanes and machine guns allowed hundreds for men and families to die at a click of a button. Additionally, millions of men were involved in these wars and civilians were even under attack.
Although Susan Hill and Owen tell stories of two different worlds, they both convey very similar themes. Wilfred Owen paints a melancholic picture of the former soldiers’ life, and in doing this he creates a theme of isolation, dread and despair. We see that this man is now cut off from the rest of the world, isolated - “waiting for dark”. We see that he is unlike most men, he cannot experience life’s pleasures as he used to, having the war to blame for that. This theme, isolation, is also portrayed in the beginning of the poem – ‘waiting for dark’.
Wilfred Owen was one of the main English poets of World War 1, whose work was gigantically affected by Siegfried Sassoon and the occasions that he witnesses whilst battling as a fighter. 'The Sentry ' and 'Dulce et Decorum Est ' are both stunning and reasonable war lyrics that were utilized to uncover the detestations of war from the officers on the hatreds of trenches and gas fighting, they tested and unmistakable difference a distinct difference to general society impression of war, passed on by disseminator writers, for example, Rupert Brooke. 'Dulce et respectability Est ' and the sentry both uncover the genuine environment and conditions that the troopers were existing and battling in. Specifically The Sentry contains numerous utilization of "Slush" and "Slime" connection to the sentiments of filthy, messy hardships. 'The Sentry ' by Wilfred Owen was composed in 1917 and is Owen 's record of seeing a man on sentry obligation harmed by a shell that has blasted close him.
Wilfred Owen’s poem “Anthem for doomed youth” and Siegfried Sassoon’s poem “Suicide in Trenches” have both used personification and imagery to portray the theme ‘mental and physical pain that the people will get in war’. However, Sassoon has used shift in tone in last stanza whereas Owen’s tone is consistent. Personification is effectively used through Owen and Sassoon’s poem to emphasise and adds different meanings. The second line of first stanza “Only the monstrous anger of the guns”, from ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ (hitherto Anthem) is describing the way the guns’ acting towards human as having a ‘monstrous anger’.
The ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ is a poem written by Wilfred Owen on September 1917. Wilfred Owen was born on 18th March 1893, in Oswestry, United Kingdom, and his poems are famous through the use of descriptive words to portray the pity of the war, which is a common theme throughout all of his poems. Owen wrote most of his poems between August 1917 to September 1918 before he was killed on 4th November at Sambre-Oise canal in France. ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ is a poem about a soldier dying in foreign country, and no one is praying for them; at the same time, the family in home country just can pray and do nothing other than that. Owen describes the theme of this poem agony of forgotten soldiers by using several literary devices such as imagery,
The poem features a soldier, presumably Owen, speaking to fellow soldiers and the public regarding those atrocities. Correspondingly, drawing on the themes of innocent death and the barbaric practices of warfare, Owen expresses his remorse towards his fallen comrades and an antagonistic attitude towards the war effort through a solemn tone and specific stylistic devices. The poem is structured as free verse, contributing towards the disorganized and chaotic impression Owen experienced while witnessing these deaths firsthand, enabling the audience to understand the emotional circumstances of demise in the trenches as well. Throughout the poem, Owen routinely personifies the destructive weapons of war, characterizing them as the true instruments of death rather than the soldiers who stand behind them. Owen describes how, “Bullets chirped…Machine-guns chuckled…Gas hissed…”