Differences And Diction In Borden And Owen's Poetry

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.

Both Ted Hughes and Wilfred Owen present war in their poems “Bayonet Charge” and “Exposure”, respectively, as terrifying experiences, repeatedly mentioning the honest pointlessness of the entire ordeal to enhance the futility of the soldiers' deaths. Hughes’ “Bayonet Charge” focuses on one person's emotional struggle with their actions, displaying the disorientating and dehumanising qualities of war. Owen’s “Exposure”, on the other hand, depicts the impacts of war on the protagonists' nation, displaying the monotonous and unending futility of the situation by depicting the fate of soldiers who perished from hypothermia, exposed to the horrific conditions of open trench warfare before dawn.

Throughout history, one of the most common occurrences during times of warfare is the death of the soldiers who are fighting for their country. Depending on one’s point of view, a soldier’s death at war could be honorable and glorified, or it can be a gruesome, anonymous demise. In the two poems, “Epitaph on a Solider” by Cyril Tourneur and “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner” by Randal Jarrell, there is a stark contrast between the emotional impacts experienced by the reader. Through each author’s unique writing style, “Tourneur’s Epitaph on a Soldier” shows glory in a soldier’s death and is supportive of war, while Jarrell’s “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner” gives a much more painful impression of war and the passing of those involved in it.

The poems Remains, by Simon Armitage and War Photographer, by Carol Anne Duffy both discuss the topic of war. In both poems, you can see how war affects people and how memories of what they have seen haunt them forever. In War Photographer, attempts are made to put order to the chaos created by war, unlike Remains, which shows how chaos is created.

stanzas symbolizing the effects of war through the comparison of nature. The rhyme scheme is

We march up, moody or good-tempered soldiers- we reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals (Remarque 56). The book, “ All Quiet on The Western Front” , written by Erich Maria Remarque is a book about World War I where soldiers are consistently surrounded by death, fighting, and the bare survival instincts that war brings out in people. World War I effected poetry greatly by the death and bitter pain it brought to people's lives which influenced their writing.

Whitman is known for his grim and realistic poems depicting war as a result of his time as a volunteer nurse in the American Civil War. During the war, he saw the horrible results of battle in piles of amputated limbs and field littered with bodies. It is no wonder that after his time as union nurse he would write poems that were transfixed with the tragedies of war and their victims. This obsession with death combined with his fierce nationalism blended with the beauty of nature has made Whitman remembered as one of the great romantic poets. “The Dirge for Two Veterans” is one of his greatest works and uses these themes to create a vividly clear picture of tearful funeral procession.

In essence, these two poems are drastically different works of art. "Dulce et Decorum est" is a more graphical and relational work compared to the latter, as you go on a journey as a soldier who gets to experience traumatic and graphic events, it begins to alter what you think about war and conflict. As you read on, it gives you graphical wording to prove that the saying "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" is a misrepresentation of actual war. After reading, the underlying message becomes apparent, it wants you to alter your current perceptions about war and how pointless they really are. In contrast, "The Things that Make a Soldier Great" aims to clear up what soldiers really go to war for, they are not there for "The pomp and pride of kings" but only when you "Endanger but that humble street whereon his children run—You make a soldier of the man who never bore a gun.", soldiers fight to protect their homes, not their kings. The poem aims to glorify soldiers and certain aspects of war, it goes on to prove that in reality there really isn 't good vs bad on the battlefield, it 's just a man who "sees his children smile at him, he hears the bugle call, And only death can stop him now—he 's fighting for them all.", and this is our hidden meaning.

“The Charge of the Light Brigade”, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, affects my understanding of the real events behind the narrative poem in the following ways. Tennyson used repetition and metaphors and rhyme to deliver his message that battle is intimidating, deathly, and heroic.

In this essay I have been asked to choose one of the twelve sections from ‘Staying Alive ‘and discuss why I believe it to be the most effective. It is clear that section 9 ‘War and Peace’ is the most effective. War poetry is harsh and to the point. It is filled with gruesome images and vivid descriptions of war time. The poems in this section will resonate with you for a lifetime. .Most poetry of this genre is based around the topic of World War One and World War Two. But also around other famous wars in history such as the American Civil War and Troubles in Northern Ireland. This poetry contains messages of hatred towards war and towards the idea of war. This section includes poetry of very famous poets who not only were alive during the war but some of whom also

In the poems “Disabled” by Wilfred Owen and “The Bright Lights of Sarajevo” by Tony Harrison, both poems present the truths of war. However, both differ in terms of setting and contrast that help depicts the similarities between their theme. Disabled takes place within World War I as Owen vividly describes the subject’s amputation, but the poem is centered around the subject’s adjustment to civilian life after war. In The Bright Lights of Sarajevo although Harrison discusses the consequences of partaking in war in the town, he illustrates the way in which life goes on regardless the horrific impact. Through use of setting and contrast, both poets contribute to presenting the theme of the realities of war.

The comparison between Shelley’s “England in 1819” and Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade” surfaces distinct difference the scope of the theme of history. Given the fact that both of the poets experienced different eras between the Romanticism and the Victorianism. This influences their way of writing and also the ideas conveyed. The main factor to be discussed for the theme of history regarding the poems of choice and the respective poets is regarding the livelihood of the poets that affected the writing of the poems.

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

‘Remains’ by Wilfred Owen is a war poem that presents an unnamed conflict where the soldier shoots the looter, but is unsure whether the man was armed or not. If the latter case, the shooting would have been unnecessary and would be thought as an act of murder. This acts as an emotional conflict arising to the soldier due to the situation. Similarly, in ‘Poppies’, the mother suffers from an emotional conflict arising from her yearning for her son as the mother seems to be speaking to the memories of her son. By the use of metaphor and imagery, both poets offer an emphasis on the idea of internal conflict arising to the persona of each poem.

In the poems “A Psalms of Life” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” by Emily Dickinson, “Beat! Beat! Drums!” by Walt Whitman the themes, mood, structure and literary devices has similarities and differences. In Longfellow’s poem “A Psalms of Life” its theme focuses on how everyone should live a life for today. The theme is expressed in his poem as Longfellow states, “Lives of great men all reminds us, we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us footprints on the sands of times”. As in Emily Dickinson poem, the theme is based on the cycle of life the inevitability of death. The poem “Beat! Beat! Drum!” theme is the ravages of war.