"All Quiet on the Western Front" is a war novel by Erich Maria Remarque that reveals the ways in which war is not glorious, and the ways in which destroys a soldier 's happiness, innocence, and youthfulness. In addition, it uses imagery and characterization to describe some of the hardships the soldiers face in the trenches and at the front. Likewise, "Suicide in the Trenches" is a poem by Siegfried Sassoon that glosses over these topics as well, in the form of a poem. While both Remarque 's "All Quiet on the Western Front" and Sassoon 's "Suicide in the Trenches" portray war as a destroyer of innocence and youthfulness, Remarque 's use of characterization to illustrate the theme is more effective than Sassoon 's use of imagery and word play, because it is more
Siegfried Sassoon takes on a narrative style in his poem “The Rear-Guard”, and combines it with complex syntax to portray the speaker’s horrific experiences throughout war. The poem exposes a soldier’s experience of finding the violent battlefield above through the death-filled tunnels. Pairing the speaker’s point of view with specific word choice clearly demonstrates the excruciating mental and physical pain being a soldier inflicts, and leaves a glooming effect on the reader. Sassoon fills the poem with explicit imagery to reveal the pacifist theme he is trying to convey. Sassoon wants the audience to realize that war and violence is not the solution, and he reveals this through his poetry.
He uses the poem to highlight the gross mistreatment of the soldiers, the immoral motives for war, and the lack of reasonable victory in relations to the Just War Criteria. He compares the harshness of the battleground to the sanctity of the church as he conveys his displeasure with how the young men were treated during the war. The use of metaphors and personification within the poem helps depict vivid imagery of the war and the conditions the soldiers faced as they served. Towards the end of the poem, Owen highlights the saddens among the relatives of the deceased soldiers, creating a bittersweet ending to the chaos that is
They have been completely dissolved by the incredible pain they experience. In his novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque uses figurative language, such as apostrophes, personifications and metaphors to convey the theme that war destroys men by causing emotional, physical and psychological pain Apostrophes are used to foreground the pain Paul feels due to the fact that war has caused him severe emotional despair. For Example, as Paul speaks to his mother, he feels an incredible sadness due to the fact that it is no longer acceptable for him to show emotion: “Ah! Mother, Mother! You still think I am child- why can I not put my head in your lap and weep?
They both agree that war destroyed the lives of many. Both narrators in each poem have lost something vital to their happiness. In ‘Disabled’ it looks at war using a dark, depressing and disturbing manner,
Shruti Manglik ENGL 1102 Diebert June 12, 2016 Dulce Et Decorum Est Analysis The poem ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen is a thought provoking and shocking poem which details the experiences of soldiers in World War I. Owen himself had served in the war. Caught in trenches while waging the war, he found it hard to justify all the suffering and deaths he had witnessed. He soon realized the division between the elevated language of nationalism and his reality of death and remorse due to the war. Increasingly convinced that the war had been going on for no fruitful reason, Owen began to write poetry to express the irony of the situation. He set the tone for an entire generation of men and women affected by the war to think and write about the events that had resulted in a blood bath around the world.
While in ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ the soldiers life ends abruptly whilst in ‘Suicide in the trenches’ the boy’s experiences were so unbearable he took away his own life. These two poems describe the soldier’s personal perspective of war using the bare naked truth, not glorifying it in anyway. In ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ the poet Owen reflects on life on the battlefield. The title of the poem,
The two war poets Wilfred Owen and WH Auden both spectate different wars but presented the horrors of war; alienation, loss and desolation in their poems. Although “Refugee Blues” and “Disabled” both signify the same theme, each poet uses different techniques and styles to depict the leitmotif of their poem. The images portrayed in both poems give a great sense of tragedy and loss from different perspectives. Although the soldier is still living, he has to now experience a life of melancholy, solitude and adversity. Moreover, the tragedy in “Refugee Blues” is also a great loss as we realize how discernible discrimination was.
We know this because how can it ‘sweet and proper’ for soldiers to be ‘Drunk with fatigue’ or for men’s body’s to become disfigured to the extent that they no longer resemble men at all? Owen is an anti war poet who stands in blatant contrast to both the public perception of war and to the patriotic poem written by Jessie Pope “Who’s for the game?”. Owen’s passionate defiant war beliefs are stressed in the last line of his poem; “The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.” The start of the quote states ‘The old lie:’ Owen uses the term ‘old’, which shows that the lie has been inflicted on individuals in all ages. The choice of language also highlights the fact that the lie is timeworn, since Latin is an ancient and dead language. Therefore, the use of it allows the reader to make an inference that as it is a dead language it should be a dead lie.
The poem considers the illusion of war as glamorous, and stresses the violence of battle. The writer, Owen, also illustrates what impacts the war could bring to an individual, and the permanent loss of physical ability. ‘‘Refugee Blues’’, by W.H. Auden was written a few months before the outbreak of the Second World War. ‘Refugee’ emphasises their escape from persecution, their loss of identity, their hopelessness.