Literary Devices In Easter 1916

It is known that the First World War was one of the most lethal conflicts in history. Attack a poem written by S. Sasson and Anthem for Doomed youth written by W. Owen are both poems that touch on the sensitive topic that is the War and its hidden veracities that manifests in various forms. Not only were both of the writers inspired by the same matter, but they were in fact, friends. This is very important because similarities are established within the two poems, as one inspired the other as a form of therapy from the consequences of the war on mental health. The writers through their talent uniquely incorporate their viewpoints and personal experiences that is ultimately projected onto their poems, whilst still maintaining a level of resemblance from one another.

William Butler Yeats is one of the most esteemed poets in 20th century literature and is well known for his Irish poetry. While Yeats was born in Ireland, he spent most of his adolescent years in London with his family. It wasn’t until he was a teenager that he later moved back to Ireland. He attended the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin and joined the Theosophical Society soon after moving back. He was surrounded by Irish influences most of his life, but it was his commitment to those influences and his heritage that truly affected his poetry. William Butler Yeats’s poetry exemplifies how an author’s Irish identity can help create and influence his work.

The speaker desires for the spirit and God’s will from the clothes to enter her life and for them to affect many different aspects, from abstract parts of her being such as her will and emotions to physical things such as actions and words. In the last two lines of the poem,” Then mine apparel shall display before ye That I am Clothed in Holy robes for glory.”, the ending of the lines is near rhyme which causes the reader to break pattern and adds emphasis to the lines. The lines draw everything together and bring the motivation for the puritan way of life to the forefront. The speaker wants to use all the work God does in her life to bring glory to him and to finally meet him in heaven when she has shown she is worthy.

On 21st October 1915, ladies and gentlemen, board of the ‘Poetry Now Festival’, you and I, have enlisted in the Artists ' Rifles Officers ' Training Corps. As honourable soldiers we’re aware that as time passes, our imaginative existence has changed dramatically by a number of traumatic experiences. We, are ALL Wilfred Owen. One of the most enduring phenomena spawned The Great War created a literal response which evoked from its immediate participants, the soldiers. Owen writes with intense focus on war as an extraordinary human experience. The poems also document other experiences, such as human cruelty and suffering which are carefully structured to convey meaning, and through the use of figurative language conveying the sights and sounds of the battlefield and of trauma. With reference to ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’, ‘The Next War’ and ‘Anthem Of Doomed Youth’, Owen’s intention were to arouse an awareness of the fluctuations of fortune and mood during war and to promote an understanding that a these shifts were reflected in an enormous body of literature. Owen successfully portrays the relationship between the changing perceptions of authority/government, as the young soldiers begin to feature in the delightful and

Wilfred Owen’s Anthem for Doomed Youth and Bruce Dawe’s Homecoming are thematically connected poems which explore the futility of war and the treatment of deceased combatants. Both Owen and Dawe served in the military and were controversial condemners in all that they penned on World War One and the Vietnam War respectively. Despite this, these texts do not explicitly state these views, but rather evoke the sympathy of the audience utilising subtle poetic techniques including contrast, flesh imagery and death imagery.

This poem is also about Art, and the Irish people's response to it. It is structured around the contrast between the Yeats' dream to write for the Irish people, and the reality.

Throughout many literary text the themes of courage and sacrifice are commonly displayed. Laurence Binyon's poem is one great example that demonstrates this as he writes in dedication to the ‘fallen’ from World War One. Through a respectful and constantly calm tone he focuses his writing on the remarkable sacrifices made by soldiers as well as writes to express the idealistic point of view towards war many people had including himself. The authors image of the soldier's death is being reflected in the poem as “They fell with their faces to the foe”. This line adds an alliteration effect explaining that the soldiers fell in ‘harsh and abrupt’ ways, as well as granting the reader a pure image of what war was really like. The repetition of the f’s adds an artistic style to the poem and therefore it creates a line of text that is more entertaining and appealing to read. The whole poem relates to the many soldiers who died during World War One and the third stanza being the most well known and rehearsed in today's society; “They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them.” embodies the profound sense of respect, admiration and grief that shapes the true meaning of remembrance. These lines are situated at the heart of the poem as they are the most valued by the author and present an argument that the dead are immortalised in the memory of the living.

"And with great power the Apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all."

In the year 1914, Europe began to tear itself apart, man fighting man, neighbor fighting neighbor. In Britain, there were posters everywhere, proclaiming the glory and importance of the fight. Very few stood against this notion, but their voices and words were strong. One of these few was a young man, who had recently returned from the line of duty. This man’s name was Wilfred Owen, and he is now known as one of the most talented British poets to emerge as a response to the so called Great War. Born on the 18th of March in 1893, Owen served on the front lines of World War I and brought back mental scars that would not heal. He served in France and saw horrors that he later spoke of in his poems, which he wrote from August of 1917 to September of 1918. Shortly before the end of the war, which he fought so hard to bring, he was killed in action at the age of twenty five. He left behind him a legacy and a warning for the world to read (“Wilfred Owen.”, Poetry). Wilfred Owen’s service during World War I greatly influenced the imagery and the subject matter of his poems, both of which show the horrors of war.

Wilfred Owen’s poetry acts as a medium for people to deepen their understanding of the terrors of war, such as death, suffering, pain and hopelessness. He speaks for those who have been to war, they can truly understand war as they lived and experience these horrors. While those back at home are ignorant to these facts due to the jingoistic propaganda by the government, Owen attempts to open their eyes to this atrocity. These narratives of war are made terrifyingly apparent in “Dulce et Decorum Est” where the responders breathe the air of death. While in “Futility”, Owen uses an extended metaphor of the sun to reinforce how there is no hope of life for the personas.

While Yeats becomes conscious of the violent truth of nature which results in death, by watching the swans, he is able to comfort himself by admiring how the swans are “unwearied” and “their hearts have not grown old.” When

The theme of the poem is the author reflecting and narrating his own experiences in World War I. He describes the agony and bloodshed that he saw on the war, and how horrible his feelings

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.

Heaney’s poems ‘The Early Purges’ and ‘Midterm Break’ deal with the macabre theme of death in similar ways in terms of structure but the techniques he uses by way of form and language to articulate his feelings about the loss of life are vastly different. They were both written about youthful naivety and childhood experiences ad his transition to pragmatism, or rather the speedy voyage he had to make into adulthood in rural Ireland.

Tone’s privilege – he was “well-bred and impervious” – condemned him to be distant from “the shouts of men” and to be imperiled by forces overwhelming any steerage afforded by his position. This poem, though reaching back to a historical personage and to the complex historical events of the Irish 1790s, refines both personage and events into a few bold strokes.