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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.
In the Poem Dulce Et Decorum Est It is about the horrors of war and how no one ever realises it if they war not in the army. As Wilfred Owen Said “Dim, Through the misty panes and thick green light/ As under a green sea, I saw him drowning/ In all my dreams, Before my helpless sight,/ He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning”(Document C). The soldier that tells the story states of his horrors of war and how a man died in a gas attack and he was not able to save him, “under the green sea, I saw him drowning” the green sea was the chlorine gas that was dropped.
Employing softer language conveyed that the soldiers are trying to detach themselves from the horrors of war. For instance, words like “grease…offed, lit up,” and “zapped while zipping” were used instead of “killed” (604). By deliberately repeating the phrase “they carried” and “the things they carried” at the start of several sentences, it is evident that O’Brien uses anaphora as a rhetorical device in his writing in order to assert the fact that war can be burdensome and grueling. These phrases are stressed repetitively throughout the story to denote the weight of war also becoming heavier for the soldiers the longer it continues. Another rhetorical and stylistic device used to emphasize the tone is the asyndeton.
War is a transformative event because it alters people's perspectives of war, and leaves them suffering, mentally and physically. When the soldiers experienced the true realities of the war, they were left haunted, as depicted in the poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen. This poem explains the true realities of the war and how he was left with a damaged mental state. Owen says:
“Dulce Et Decorum Est” shows that no man can say that someone should die in a war for their country unless they have been through war and seen what it does to people. The poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” illustrates step one of the apocalypse archetypes, that the world is becoming corrupt. Wilfred Owen, the author of the poem, was trying to tell people that the humans new technologies were destroying each other. When the narrator shot the gas shell, “Gas! Gas!
William Blake’s “London” and Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” appear to have little in common. Although at first they may seem different, they have many hidden similarities. Blake and Owen both uniquely deliver the message being told in their pieces to the readers. Ultimately, both deliver their message by allowing one to expect the unexpected, appeal to their senses, and the way the poet wants one to feel while reading.
Slaughtered like worthless cattle, these soldiers are dying one after another without dignity and no remorse; they are fighting for a hopeless cause because war is anything but heroic. It is just a place where soldiers go to die. The title of the poem, “Dulce et Decorum Est” derives from the Latin saying “It is sweet and proper”, which ironically is anything but sweet and proper. While a majority of the public would believe that it is honorable to fight for a so-called “justified” war or to die for one’s country in battle, war is not honorable; it
In “Dulce et decorum Est”, Owen demonstrates the effect of battle as confusion and exhaustion through the use of simile: “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks”. He characterizes the soldiers are extremely fatigued and anemic like “old beggars”. The word “double” exaggerates the soldiers’ movement to help indicate the physical effects of a clash. The phrase “bent double” has connotation of tiredness because the soldiers are exhausted while they “trudge” with their legs “bent
Another way a metaphor is used is “when someone died it wasn’t dying...because they had their lines memorized, irony mixes” (O’Brien 480). According to the evidence, psychologically, it describes the idea of death in the minds of all soldiers while physically they had to endure suffering. Therefore, all soldiers are shown to have hardships through
Wilfred Owen’s poem ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ structure hints to the uncertainty of war. In the first eight lined stanza, Owen describes the soldiers from a third person point of view. The second stanza is shorter and consists of six lines. This stanza is more personal and is written from a first person 's point of view. This stanza reflects the pace of the soldiers as everything is fast and uncoordinated because of the gas, anxiety and the clumsiness of the soldiers.
Through both of his poems, Dulce Et Decorum Est and Disabled, Owen clearly illustrates his feeling about war. Both of them convey the same meaning that war destroyed people’s lives. For Dulce Et, Decorum Est, it mainly illustrates soldier’s life during war, the dreadfulness of war, whereas, Disabled illustrates how war have damaged soldier’s life. Also, the saying that said that war it is lovely and honorable to die for your country is completely against his point of view. Owen conveys his idea through graphically describing his horrible experiences in war.
Discuss how Owen uses imagery in ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ to illustrate his antiwar message. Wilfred Owen uses imagery in ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ to illustrate his antiwar message by giving the intended audience an image to think about the effects of war and how it can hurt many people like the soldiers. In the line ‘Drunk with fatigue’ it conveys a mental imagery on the soldiers as being tired and suffering from fatigue constantly. Another example of this mental antiwar imagery is ‘Gas! GAS! Quick boys! -
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.
"Disabled" by Wilfred Owen is a poetic analysis of war that exposes the struggles of adjusting to civilian life. A deeper analysis of "Disabled" reveals the irony of war; a soldier's fight for his country's freedom which results in the sacrifice of his mental and physical freedom. The soldiers and their families suffer from the scars and traumatic events of the war daily, while those that benefit can remain in oblivion of their suffering. Owen’s "Disabled" gives the readers an intimate poem detailing the tragic loss of humanity that a soldier suffers. Because of the war, the soldier has been reduced in mind and body.
Wilfred Owen utilizes imagery in his poem “Dulce et Decorum Est.” Owen uses visual and auditory imagery. Visual imagery is in line one of the poem: “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks.” Owen uses this to let the reader visualize how the how the soldiers looked while they were carrying their heavy packs through the fields and trenches of World War One. The first part of the quotation “bent double” lets the reader visualize that the soldiers backs were giving out form carrying the heavy packs.