Essay on A Comparison of World War I Poetry

Even a century long time after his death, Wilfred Owen is still famous for his war poetry written during World War 1. In his poems, Owen uses various language techniques to vividly illustrate the horrendous reality of war. Hence, he communicates his own anti-war feelings, that are embedded beneath his techniques. However, although he is now known as an anti-war poet, for once, he had been a naive boy, who had been pressured by the propaganda and volunteered to fight in war.

Wilfred Owen establishes and displays his thoughts and opinions on war and conflict rather plainly. He writes about the dehumanization of very young and innocent soldiers, as well as the grotesque and painful deaths that awaited them. Also, the impact this has on the families at the Homefront

In order to fully understand and appreciate great poetry, one must be acquainted with the poet. Wilfred Owen was born in Shropshire, England. After being educated at the Technical School in Shrewsbury, he later taught in France at the Berlitz School of English. It was in France where Owen became interested in World War I. In 1915, Owen enlisted in the army, unaware of the effects it would later have on his psychological state and overall well-being. After suffering battle wounds during combat in 1917, Owen was diagnosed with shell shock--more commonly known as post-traumatic stress disorder. Unfortunately, war had made yet another victim of Owen. However, from the misfortune came a silver lining. As he resided in the Craiglockhart War Hospital, he met a poet by the name of Siegfried Sassoon. Sassoon pulled Owen deep into the world of literature, showing him acclaimed works and "...well-known literary figures such as Robert Graves and H.G. Wells"

Wilfred Owen can be considered as one of the finest war poets of all times. His war poems, a collection of works composed between January 1917, when he was first sent to the Western Front, and November 1918, when he was killed in action, use a variety of poetic techniques to allow the reader to empathise with his world, situation, emotions and thoughts. The sonnet form, para-rhymes, ironic titles, voice, and various imagery used by Owen grasp the prominent central idea of the complete futility of war as well as explore underlying themes such as the massive waste of young lives, the horrors of war, the hopelessness of war and the loss of religion. These can be seen in the three poems, ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ and

World War I had a powerful and long lasting effect on people all over the world. A significant figure from the literature of World War I was Wilfred Owen who expressed his powerful thoughts on the war in his writing. Owen was particularly noteworthy because he had experience in the war as a soldier himself. He noted many hardships that included suffering from illnesses and the changing weather conditions. Throughout his firsthand accounts, the reader gets to see what actually happened during the war and gains a new perspective. Also the war greatly affected the mood that Owen wrote in and his tone would change along with the physical and mental difficulties he was faced with. In one of Wilfred Owen’s particular poems, “Dulce et Decorum Est”, he wrote with extensive imagery of the war which showed his view point and what occurred in reality. The stanzas have a darkening mood as they go on to make the war seem very real and alive. Owen used powerful diction to express his experiences as a soldier that stick with the reader when combined with his powerful imagery. Another important part of Wilfred Owen developing as a writer in this time period was due to his influence from outside sources. The most significant influence that Owen had came from Siegfried Sassoon. The two spent a great amount of time together in recovery from various conditions. Owen used many of Sassoon’s ideas and they had similar viewpoints of the war resulting in a fast

The mood and tone drops throughout the poem. The start is fairly sombre, using phrases such as ‘cursed through sludge’, ‘marched asleep’ and ‘limped on’. The mood darkens in the second stanza. Owen uses words such

Owen, in his war poetry reveals the awful reality of war and its effect on the young men involved. Given that these men are suffering in treacherous conditions, Owen expresses empathy towards the wretched soldiers who are fighting in a battle which they have little hope of surviving. Owen discloses his sympathy towards these young men by revealing the harsh conditions they live in and exposing their suffering both physical and mental. He exposes the reality of the war in an attempt to reveal the lives shattered to the unknowing public who do not know the true war conditions.

even made aware of the fact and the true horror of the war. During the

“In his poetry, Wilfred Owen depicts the horror and futility of war and the impact war has on individuals.”

men and he mentions names and, as he knows his men so well, he can

For thousands of years mankind has been obsessed with the subject of war, from the clash of swords to the bitter thunder of artillery mankind has brought upon itself an immense amount of suffering. Good evening teachers and students I am here today with the aim of convincing you on why Wilfred Owens poetry must not be ignored but instead explored to find the deeper meaning of his poems. The poetry of Wilfred Owen was different to that of other war poets of his time as it revealed the horrors and agony of the so-called Great War which were concealed by the Church and British Authorities for the purpose of deceiving the youth. The idea of romanticising war goes strongly against Wilfred Owens moral purpose, thus his Poetry is didactic and condemnatory. Throughout his short life he had first hand experience with the scourge of war. From this he aimed to debunk those romanticised notions of the glorification of war that were present at the time by challenging poets such as John Keats who glorified war. Owen effectively conveys the truth of war through his use of techniques such as imagery, ambiguity and many others in his poems of "Dulce Et Decorum EST" and Anthem For doomed youth.

One such war poet, Wilfred Owen, illustrates his distaste for the realities of war and for Britain’s romanticized and religious depiction of the death of soldiers in his poem “Anthem for Doomed Youth.” Siegfried Sassoon, another wartime poet, expressed similar feelings of disdain for the religious officials who attempted to justify the atrocities of war in his poem “They.” Both Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon utilized various techniques to describe their disillusionment with religion’s attempts to justify or heroicize the horrors of World War I. Both authors used titles and religious imagery to convey the disparity between the brutality of World War I and the justifications for and romanticization of the war promoted by religious ceremonies and officials. Wilfred Owen employed form and meter and auditory imagery to convey the disparity between a soldier’s death in battle and his funeral at home while Siegfried Sassoon emphasized the physical consequences of war and humanized soldiers to subvert the idealized version of war that religious figures espoused.

Poems using strong poetic technique and devices are able to create a wide range of emotions from the readers. Wilfred Owen’s poetry effectively uses these poetic techniques and devices to not only create unsettling images about war but to provide his opinion about war itself with the use of themes within his poem. The use of these themes explored Owen’s ideas on the futility of war and can be seen in the poems: Anthem for Doomed Youth, Futility and The Next War. The poems provide unsettling images and belief of war through the treatment of death, barbaric nature of war and the futility of war.

Throughout Wilfred Owen’s collection of poems, he unmasks the harsh tragedy of war through the events he experienced. His poems indulge and grasp readers to feel the pain of his words and develop some idea on the tragedy during the war. Tragedy was a common feature during the war, as innocent boys and men had their lives taken away from them in a gunshot. The sad truth of the war that most of the people who experienced and lived during the tragic time, still bare the horrifying images that still live with them now. Owen’s poems give the reader insight to this pain, and help unmask the tragedy of war.

The poet Siegfried Sassoon saw that war was destructive and it should not happen because it was a waste of human life, Sassoon described the horror of war unsparingly, also, his poems were often based on actual incidents. Wilfred Owen focused his poetry on the particulars of war and the men involved: dirt, muddle, boredom etc, Owen often wrote about the horror of war and the dignity of men. He deeply felt a sense of the appalling wastefulness of war, casualties and the human spirit. The similarities between these two poets are they both tried to record realistic horrors of the war; to have it stopped. They were both angry at the war’s brutality, they were also showed very compassionate studies of the circumstances of fighting men.