Sassoon was able to fight in May 1915. He was depressed because of the war but that did not stop him from doing his duty, for that courage he was a well-known man. Because of the fact that he appeared to be completely fearless; his friends called him “Mad Jack”. In Sassoon’s poem he gives descriptions that show the state of the soldier. In the first stanza we can see that the figure is “Groping along the tunnel, step by step” and in the third stanza we get the line “alone he staggered on…” These phrases point out the physical and physiological detachment, well known effects of intendance combat.
However, they both resent the war when they face it. During peacetime, Phineas creates his own reality, but later his classmates force him to accept the truth. Originally, Phineas only refuses to believe in silly things like Caesar, Latin, or the war. He views Caesar as “more of a tyrant at Devon than he had ever been in Rome” ( Knowles 162). However, his greatest denial comes when he purposely tries to forget about Gene jouncing the limb and tells Gene “I don’t know, I must have just lost my balance” (Knowles 66).
The poem features a soldier, presumably Owen, speaking to fellow soldiers and the public regarding those atrocities. Correspondingly, drawing on the themes of innocent death and the barbaric practices of warfare, Owen expresses his remorse towards his fallen comrades and an antagonistic attitude towards the war effort through a solemn tone and specific stylistic devices. The poem is structured as free verse, contributing towards the disorganized and chaotic impression Owen experienced while witnessing these deaths firsthand, enabling the audience to understand the emotional circumstances of demise in the trenches as well. Throughout the poem, Owen routinely personifies the destructive weapons of war, characterizing them as the true instruments of death rather than the soldiers who stand behind them. Owen describes how, “Bullets chirped…Machine-guns chuckled…Gas hissed…” (Owen 3,4,15).
In Ernst Jünger’s book, Storm of Steel¸ this passage captured his attitude about war: confusion caused by inexperience. This confusion surrounding war comes from the fact that he is an experienced soldier. He and his fellow inexperienced soldiers had shown up to fight with a yearning “for the experience of the extraordinary” and on their first day of the war, they got that experience (Jünger, p. 5). A violent shelling caused Jünger to rethink his initial thoughts of war. He had been sure war would supply him with “the great, the overwhelming, and the hallowed experience” (Jünger, p. 5).
First person. For centuries the notion of war as an exciting and romantic endeavor has existed until Stephen Crane DE glorified war in his novel The Red Badge of Courage. He tells about the true nature and experience of war through a young soldier Henry Fleming and contrasts it with his romantic imagination. Crane introduces a more realistic approach to war which is in contrast to Henry’s expectations. Along the journey from home as they go to Washington, Henry and his regiments are treated so well that he now believes “he must be a hero” with “the strength to do mighty deeds of arms.” Contrary to his expectation he does not become a hero immediately he is confronted with self-doubt.
Throughout the poem, he underlines the cruelty of war to which soldiers are exposed, without celebrating any hero. In the last quatrain, the readers fully understand the ironic tone of his title—and of the whole poem—when he calls the words of Horace “The old Lie” (Owen 27), which are told to children generation after generation, pushing them to war in order to obtain “some desperate glory” (Owen 26). Indeed, this oxymoron represents the contrast between the glory of warriors celebrated by poets and the desperate reality of war. Moreover, it is an old lie, not simply because it has been told for centuries, but also because it is what old people told to the young generation, in order to send them to the front. Thus, Owen uses an ironic tone, which has not the purpose of entertaining the readers, but rather make them reflect about the fact that there is nothing to celebrate about wars.
A comparison of W. B. Yeats’ The Second Coming and Wilfred Owen’s Dulce Et Decorum Est on the theme of warfare and its consequences. Literary works during the 20th century; especially the first half was significantly focused on the desolation and chaos brought upon by events such as the World War I & II. The significant events and magnitude of these wars not only affected people physically but also altered their mentality and ethics (Pizarro, Silver & Prause, n.d). Yeats’ The Second Coming was written in the aftermath of World War I to shed light on the physical and mental deterioration of both the people and landscape after the war which indirectly signifies the fall of human society. On the other hand, Wilfred Owen’s Dulce Et Decorum Est highlights the uncertainty of the lives of those soldiers who are on the frontline, fighting for their nation’s glory.
The aftermath of the horrifying and traumatic events of World War 1, brought a dramatic rise in of pacifist and anti-war literature, including the impactful novel All Quiet on the Western Front, composed by Erich Maria Remarque. Remarque’s personal experiences fighting in the futile battles of World War 1 drove him to portray a realistic perspective of war and serve a voice for the Lost Generation through his novel and make deliberate decisions to portray the betrayal of the older generation forcing innocent boys to engage in atrocities, the immense fear and sadness when losing a comrade, and the major physiological impacts soldiers endure, in order to influence audiences towards pacifism and away from romanticizing war. Born 1898 in Osterburg,
Through the topics of the poem, his dialect decisions, and differentiating the charming title going before the aggravating substance of the poem, he conveys regard for his perspectives on war while amid in the middle of one himself. Owen utilizes imagery in shape and dialect to outline the abhorrences the speaker and his friend’s experience; and the way he portrays the fighters, just as they are twisted and harmed, parallels how the speaker 's brain is abused and frequented by war. In the opening stanza, the narrator depicts the soldiers walking through the trenches, described as ‘bent double’ and ‘coughing like hags’, vividly showing the reader how difficult life is inside the trenches. Owen exhibits the demise like fleeting tranquility before all hell breaks loose from the gas assault. Alliteration and onomatopoeia join with effective metaphorical and strict pictures of war, to create a desolated
Through both of his poems, Dulce Et Decorum Est and Disabled, Owen clearly illustrates his feeling about war. Both of them convey the same meaning that war destroyed people’s lives. For Dulce Et, Decorum Est, it mainly illustrates soldier’s life during war, the dreadfulness of war, whereas, Disabled illustrates how war have damaged soldier’s life. Also, the saying that said that war it is lovely and honorable to die for your country is completely against his point of view. Owen conveys his idea through graphically describing his horrible experiences in war.