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Examples Of Pity In Refugee Blues

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How do poets evoke pity in 'Disabled ' and 'Refugee blues '? In this essay, I will be writing about how the theme pity is shown in both poems 'Disabled ' written by Wilfred Owen in 1917 and 'Refugee Blues ' written by W.H. Auden in 1939. A vast amount of similar techniques has been used to evoke pity and I will be analyzing them in detail. In 'Disabled", Owen explores the veritable effects of war on those who live through it by comparing the present life of an injured soldier to his past life which was before the war. As well as how ordinary people who are not true heroes are treated better than someone who has fought in a war for his country. This was all due to the fact that the ex-soldier in the poem has a physical disability. Furthermore, in 'Refugee Blues ', Auden explores the troubles the Jews face, who were forced to flee Europe with no place to go when the Holocaust started. Additionally, it shows how badly the Jews were treated, which links to how the ex-soldier in 'Disabled ' was also treated. This all makes the reader feel pitiful and sorrowful because of the tone and context created in both poems. Both of these two poets have used a range of descriptive techniques to evoke pity. For example, Owen has done this by using a simile in the first stanza. "Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn, Voices of play and pleasures after day...". This immediately evokes pity towards the ex-soldier because Owen used this simile in order to show that he
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This contempt of emasculations is also made clear in Owen 's "Disabled". This poem discusses the faith of a teen soldier who has lost his limbs in the trenches and is confined to his wheelchair, utterly helpless. Relationships

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Finishing on the third stanza, Owen has used colour once again. “ purple spurted from his thigh”, it illustrates the bruises he had gotten from war and the deep impact on him, a colour signifying life and languor. Ending the poem with soldiers in the institute waiting for people to come emphasizes the fact that he is dependent and helpless. Also it reflected back to the start of the poem where he was waiting for death to come. “ How cold and late it is!

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From here, a uniform mood and tone is set throughout the poem and can be seen heavily in not only the choice of words but, also the plot and structure of the poem. The theme of sympathy is really conveyed through Erdrich’s melancholic tone. Throughout the poem, we see a very gloomy and melancholic tone set by the events happening. “Until I could no longer bear / the thought of how I was” (51-52), these two lines portray her battle after she is rescued and how instead of her relief she is feeling a longing to be back with her captors. Lines similar to these two lead embody why the tone is so gloomy and sad especially when readers see the battle she is experiencing because she is safe now, away from her captors but, she doesn 't really want to be.

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The poem aims to glorify soldiers and certain aspects of war, it goes on to prove that in reality there really isn 't good vs bad on the battlefield, it 's just a man who "sees his children smile at him, he hears the bugle call, And only death can stop him now—he 's fighting for them all.", and this is our hidden meaning.

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Firstly within the poems, both Owen and Harrison present the horrific images of war through use of visual imagery. “And leaped of purple spurted his thigh” is stated. Owen describes the immediate action of presenting the truth of war as horrific and terrifying . The phrase “purple spurted” represents the odd color of the blood which was shedded as the boulder from the bomb smashed his leg in a matter of seconds. The readers

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Peacefulness against chaos, beauty against ugliness. One time is between personification and inhuman feelings to describe the brutality of nature. In “Disabled” other people in the town think the soldier as an animal. They also see him as a burden and a unwanted responsibility. They look down upon him and pity him but do nothing.

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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…”

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Furthermore, these subjects are presented as having lost their personal identity through being victims of society. This can be seen in ‘Disabled’ when he says, “now he will…take whatever pity they may dole”. This demonstrates a loss of personal identity because, as we know from the rest of this poem, his pre-war life revolved around being an active young lad, and the war has transformed his life and stripped him of his personal identity. The word ‘now’ in particular highlights the fact that his current dispirited personality and desperation for pity and attention has not always been a part of his personality; the way society has rejected and neglected him has brought that about. In ‘Refugee Blues’, however, the loss of identity can be seen both legally and personally, the latter of which is not dissimilar to the loss of identity observed in ‘Disabled’.

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The poem Refugee Blues is written by Wilfred H Auden in 1939 who moved to Germany in the late 1920’s and observed Hitler 's rise to power. Refugee blues is in reference to the abuse of human rights and the suffering, despair and isolation that all refugees experience during their journey of survival. The refugees in this case were the Jews. The poem is written as a conversation between two people, possibly a husband sharing his thoughts to his wife. Despair is first shown in the structure of the poem.

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