Describe at least ONE memorable use of language in the text(s)
Explain how this use of language helped you understand one or more key ideas in the text(s).
In the poem ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ and ‘The Send-Off’ by Wilfred Owen, he uses a variety of language techniques including metaphor, personification and emotive expressive language to create a huge impact on readers evoking feelings such as horror and pity of the soldiers and of war. Owen’s intention of using these effective language techniques was to convey the horrific reality of war and to shatter the myth of war as a glorious mission.
World War 1 (also known as the ‘Great War’) was a major war centered around Europe that involved countries from all over the globe between 1914 and
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Even in the present, a number of soldiers returning from war commit suicide due to their unfathomable guilt of surviving and the horrible traumatizing memories that continue to besiege them.
The poet tells us, the glory of war is just an “old lie”. Owen shows the indignity of death in war as the dying man was “flung” in a wagon instead of being honored for his bravery and duty as the way they were told. The last stanza goes into sickening detail of the dying man, “at every jolt the blood – come gargling from his froth-corrupted lungs”, the “white eyes writhing” in his face. The use of alliteration and assonance emphasizes how the memory has a powerful impact on those who witnessed the scene. Owen’s vivid imagery consumes the reader in horror, pity, shock, even disgust and is enough to sear the heart and mind. The cruel reality of war can be clearly seen as men lose their lives in the most pointless futile manner as they are just “flung” aside during death. Just by reading, the readers can perceive Owen’s bitter and disparaging tone towards war, the propaganda and sectors of society who glorified it.
During those times before there was any media coverage, people only relied on the government and propaganda. In Owen’s preface to an anthology of his poems published posthumously, he stated “my subject is war, and the pity of war.” “All a poet can do today is warn. That is why true poets must be truthful.
Wilfred Owen's war poems central features include the wastage involved with war, horrors of war and the physical effects of war. These features are seen in the poems "Dulce Et Decorum Est" and "Anthem for Doomed Youth" here Owen engages with the reader appealing to the readers empathy that is felt towards the soldier. These poems interact to explore the experiences of the soldiers on the battlefields including the realities of using gas as a weapon in war and help to highlight the incorrect glorification of war. This continuous interaction invites the reader to connect with the poems to develop a more thorough
Wilfred Owen‘s poetry significantly conveys his perspectives on human conflict through his encounters amid the The Great War. Poems such as The Next War and Dulce et Decorum Est. Owen’s poetry is a representation of the conditions soldiers faced within the times of World War I, from 1914 to 1918. These poems depict these perceptions through the use of poetic techniques and features, to communicate serve as a commentary on the human condition as experienced by Wilfred Owen in relation to the violence of war during World War I. There is a distinguished shift from a romantic view of war to a disenchanted, distorted and disillusioned broken man. This is due to his experiences in the war, emphasising on such conflicts, involving, war and disaster,
World War 1 or the Great War was one of the most brutal if not the most war the world has faced so far. It originated in Europe which quickly went global, the war started on the 28th of July 1914 and ended November 11th 1918. The war consisted of many weapons and deadly gases. The weapons include;
One is to think of war as one of the most honorable and noble services that a man can attend to for his country, it is seen as one of the most heroic ways to die for the best cause. The idea of this is stripped down and made a complete mockery of throughout both of Wilfred Owen’s poems “Dulce Et Decorum Est” and “Anthem for Doomed Youth”. Through his use of quickly shifting tones, horrific descriptive and emotive language and paradoxical metaphors, Owen contradicts the use of war and amount of glamour given towards the idea of it.
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
Wilfred Owen’s poetry effectively conveys his perspectives on human conflict through his experiences during The Great War. Poems such as ‘Futility’ and ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ portray these perceptions through the use of poetic techniques, emphasising such conflicts involving himself, other people and nature. These themes are examined in extreme detail, attempting to shape meaning in relation to Owen’s first-hand encounters whilst fighting on the battlefield.
Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” is a poem made of four stanzas in an a, b, a, b rhyme scheme. There is hardly any rhythm to the entire poem, although Owen makes it sound like it is in iambic pentameter in some lines. Every stanza has a different amount of lines, ranging from two to twelve. To convey the poem’s purpose, Owen uses an unconventional poem style and horrid, graphic images of the frontlines to convey the unbearable circumstances that many young soldiers went through in World War I. Not only did these men have to partake in such painful duties, but these duties contrasted with the view of the war made by the populace of the mainland country. Many of these people are pro-war and would never see the battlefield themselves. Owen’s use of word choice, imagery, metaphors, exaggeration, and the contrast between the young, war-deteriorated soldiers and populace’s favorable view of war creates Owen’s own unfavorable view of the war to readers.
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.
Wilfred Owen wrote about the suffering and pity of war from his first -hand experience at the Somme. He was appalled by the overwhelming and senseless waste of life, the “human squander” and detailed its devastating effects on young men. In both ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ and ‘Mental Cases’ he writes with intense focus on war as anextraordinary human experience. The poems also document other experiences, the living hell of shell-shock in ‘Mental Cases’ and a cruel and grotesque death from mustard gas in
For example, Owen conveys “ He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning” (line 16). This constructs an extremely horrific image in the reader’s mind that helps the reader better understand the horribleness of war by displaying a tragic event Owen experinced. Another representation of this is when the poet states “Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud” (lines 22 & 23). This additionally recreates the horrors Owen went through as a soldier in their mind. Furthermore, the horrific imagery present in “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen assists the poet in educating the readers that war should not be
War is deadly, the marks left for the time spent there will stay with you forever; either in the sense of mortality seen or mental and physical attributes given. The experience kills a little part of you each time, even if it is for a patriotic cause, which reflects the thoughts of the nation. Wilfred Owen, which at the time was, set in the mentality that he should fight for his country because of honor and the glory it would bring. Therefore, we can infer, he felt regret and sorrow for the missed opportunities compared to if he had known the truth about the war. Owen, a war hero and poet, put forth his own experiences in war, of which he didn’t have much understanding of, in hopes to allow others to not make that same mistake. Furthermore,
Authors often use language features to stir the reader’s emotions. This is particularly true of Wilfred Owen’s World War 1 poems: Dulce et Decorum est and Anthem for Doomed Youth. Owen was a soldier who has become a well-known decorated war hero, who was considered to be the first British anti-war poet. In Owen’s poems Anthem for Doomed Youth and Dulce et Decorum Est he uses language features such as similes, personification imagery and alliteration to stir readers emotion of pity and concern for young men being sent off to fight in the war. Owen creates these emotions to warn the reader about the horrors of war and that soldiers die worthlessly and undignified when they get sent to fight.
The poet highlight how a friend soldier of his was killed because he couldn’t find a mask in time. The poem is an anti-war poem set against the romantic illusion of the glory of war. It projects unnumbered kinds of death that war brings upon the youth. Owen suggests that if people could see what he had seen they would never be able to tell any enthusiastic thing about war to their children. The poem is mockery of the meaning of the title that it is sweet and right to die for your country. Owen’s distain for the war and the horrors that the soldiers experienced becomes evident throughout his poetry. No matter how noble the cause is the individual soldier can expect nothing but misery in combat an ignominious death and should be unfortunate enough to become a casualty.
Owen's war poetry is a passionate expression of outrage at the horrors of war and of pity for the young soldiers sacrificed in it. It is dramatic and memorable, whether describing physical horror, such as in‘ Dulce et Decorum Est’ or the unseen, mental torment such as in‘ Disabled’. His diverse use of instantly understandable imagery and technique is what makes him the most memorable of the war poets. His poetry evokes more from us than simple disgust and sympathy; issues previously unconsidered are brought to our attention. One of Owen’s talents is to convey his complex messages very proficiently. In‘ Dulce et Decorum Est’–‘ If in some smothering dreams you too could pace / Behind the wagon that we flung him in’ the horror of witnessing
Thematically, the poem paints the acute reality of the battlefield where the soldiers are helpless to die for their country. It vividly projects the soldiers who are victims of chemical gas. The boys are bent over like old baggers carrying sacks and they curse and cough through the mud until the “haunting flares” tell them it is time to limp with bloody feet as they had lost their boots. All are lame and blind, extremely tired and deaf to the shells landing behind them. Suddenly the poem focuses on the gas and the consequence of the death of the soldiers. The principle target of Owen is to send message to the war mongers not to tell any glorious words about