Ap English Poetry Comparison Essay

Many people die in war. Sometimes a death is a horrific experience for everyone involved, other times it is twisted into a beautiful sacrifice. In the poem, “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, the cruel truths of war are revealed. Through the use of diction, imagery, and figurative language, Owen conveys a disgusted and angry tone that describes his attitude about dying for one’s country.

In today’s world people often overlook the gruesome and violent events that occur, rather than confronting the issue. In Tim O’Brien’s metafiction novel, The Things They Carried, he avoids sugarcoating the scenes that soldiers faced before, during, and after the war by describing the gore and violence in every detail. By including the scenes of violence, Tim O’Brien portrays the horrific effects of war on soldiers and the unnecessary casualties that the soldiers experience. Whether it be Rat Kiley murdering a baby water buffalo, Azar blowing up a puppy, or Lee Strunk begging his friend not to kill him after an explosion, O’Brien assures that the audience will have to confront the conflicts that these soldiers faced.

In “The Trouble with Poetry”, and “Introduction to Poetry” Billy Collins focuses on the issue of forced inspiration, and the lack of appreciation readers, and aspiring poets have for the feel of poetry.

Guilt plays a huge role throughout the novel. In war, men are constantly dying and these men all become best friends with one another. For example, Norman Bowker felt a tremendous amount of quilt towards the death of Kiowa. In the chapter Speaking of Courage, the narrator explains how Norman tries to save Kiowa, “He would've talked about this, and how he grabbed Kiowa by the boot and tried to pull him out. He pulled hard but Kiowa was gone, and then suddenly he felt himself going, too.” (page 143). Norman lived with this for the rest of his life, playing what he could've done to save him over and over again in his head. Another example is in the chapter, In The Field, a young soldier decides to show Kiowa a picture of his girlfriend. The young boy switched on his flashlight, and seconds later the field exploded around them. “Like murderer, the boy thought. The flashlight made it happen. Dumb and dangerous. And as a result his friend Kiowa was now dead.” (page 163).

In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’brien reveals the hardship of war through different accounts of soldiers who experienced them. More specifically, he discusses the impact different characteristics of war had on the soldiers and the war itself. Tim O’brien uses personification, cause and effect, descriptive diction, and metaphor to convey how the animals made war horrifying, and the soldiers paranoid.

Vonnegut use of existentialist detachment can be used to describe the tone of Slaughterhouse-Five. The novel is fragmented into miniscule sections. The majorities of these sections is rather thrilling and contain much action, thus the narrator does not give himself ample room to become emotional regarding the events he is concerning. Therefore, it is difficult to understand what type of emotional meaning the narrator is endeavoring to communicate. The narrator detaches himself from events, then, does not get emotional, consequently the novel is spoken in a straightforward means. Nonetheless, the narrator’s depictions of the terrors of war are vivid. He is illustrating appalling events that have vast significance for him individually. Although,

Once the poem “History Lesson” was written numerous poetry foundations celebrated it for many reasons. “History Lesson” not only makes an impact on literature today it has also impacted people also. This poem inspires people and moves them to the point to where they can find a personal connection to the poem itself and to the writer. Not only does it hold emotional value for those who were victimized and those whose family were victimized by the laws of segregation, but the poem is also celebrated for its complexity. The poem uses many techniques to appeal to the reader. In this poem the writer uses imagery to create logos, uses connotation convey ethos,

The two poems I will be comparing and contrasting in this essay are two of William Shakespeare 's most popular sonnets. Sonnets in chapter 19, 'Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? ', and in chapter 23, 'Let me not to the marriage of true minds, ' of our Literature book. Both of these poems deal with the subject of love but each poem deals with its subject matter in a slightly different way. Each also has a different purpose and audience. In the case of 'Shall I compare thee ' the audience is meant to be the person Shakespeare is writing the sonnet about. Its purpose is to tell the audience about how the speaker feels about them. In the case of 'Let me not ' the audience is anyone who wishes to read it. Its purpose is to introduce what love should be like. This makes 'Shall I compare thee ' much more personal and realistic as a poem about love. 'Shall I compare thee ' seems to deal more with the idea of a lover rather than the idea of a relationship, as 'Let me not ' does. 'Shall I compare thee ' deals with the idea of a perfect lover and the fading beauty of both women and the seasons. 'Let me not ' is about ideal love in its most perfect and purest form.

“Different Authors write different ways, have different relationships with their audiences, and those are all legitimate”(John Green).Authors Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman who lived and expressed Themselves through Poetry and Writing during the realism era, convey different style characteristics, write in very different ways and connect to their audiences through very different ways. Both authors have very contrasting writing, although both differences and similarities are discovered by such characteristics. The writing of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman shows many similarities and many differences through their backgrounds and themes, and the way both aspects affect their writing.

In this poem “Dulce et decorum Est”, Owen portrays the deadly effects of conflict through the use of metaphor: “as under a green sea, I saw him drowning”. Here, he describes the pain of the gas attack. The word “drowning” has connotation of death as it implies that Owen was “helpless” when he “saw” his friend ‘drowning’ in the “green sea”. Perhaps, it suggests that how dangerous and deadly the “green sea” could cause and the horrific nature of war. The word “sea” has connotation of vast as it states the range of the gas attack is broad. Also, it might suggest that the gas attack is perilous and unpredictable. Owen uses this gruesome and grisly image to emphasize it is not sweet and honorable to die for one’s country.

The two titles of the poems are different, Dulce et decorum est has a very formal and serious title while Who’s for the game? Has an informal and joyful title. In Owen’s poem the use of the latin title makes it look formal because Latin is a very old and respected language because it’s the source of many languages. While Jessie Pope’s title: Who’s for the game? Is informal because its main aspect is to encourage young readers to join the war. Dulce et decorum est has an ironic title, this is because the full title is Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, it 's meaning in latin it is sweet and honourable to die for ones country. Being an anti war poem this is ironic because through out the whole poem Owen tries to influence the reader his feelings on war and how he or she shouldn’t take part in the war.

During war, authors like Stephen Crane,Wilfred Owen, Tim O’Brien, and Kevin Powers use literature to protest war. There were also authors who experienced the war first hand.. These authors use irony, imagery, and diction to help their anti-war protest.

The ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ is a poem written by Wilfred Owen on September 1917. Wilfred Owen was born on 18th March 1893, in Oswestry, United Kingdom, and his poems are famous through the use of descriptive words to portray the pity of the war, which is a common theme throughout all of his poems. Owen wrote most of his poems between August 1917 to September 1918 before he was killed on 4th November at Sambre-Oise canal in France. ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ is a poem about a soldier dying in foreign country, and no one is praying for them; at the same time, the family in home country just can pray and do nothing other than that. Owen describes the theme of this poem agony of forgotten soldiers by using several literary devices such as imagery,

Wilfred Owen was one of the main English poets of World War 1, whose work was gigantically affected by Siegfried Sassoon and the occasions that he witnesses whilst battling as a fighter. 'The Sentry ' and 'Dulce et Decorum Est ' are both stunning and reasonable war lyrics that were utilized to uncover the detestations of war from the officers on the hatreds of trenches and gas fighting, they tested and unmistakable difference a distinct difference to general society impression of war, passed on by disseminator writers, for example, Rupert Brooke.

Within the context of recent history, Wilfred Owen is often considered the greatest writer of modern British war poetry. Composing the vast majority of his poems in a one-year time span, Owen found inspiration from his personal experiences fighting in World War I and fellow poets joining in the fight around him. Born in 1893, Owen grew up the oldest of four children, enjoying a particularly close relationship with his mother while his father remained distant. Owen graduated from Shrewsbury Technical School at age eighteen. Afterwards, Owen took numerous odd jobs throughout Europe, seemingly at a loss for his purpose in life. Owen returned to England in September 1915, a year after the Great War began, and enlisted in England’s Artists’ Rifles