Owen uses shocking diction to convey the horror of war. He uses diction such as “trudge”,”writing”,”guttering”,”choking”, and “drowning” to express the horrific struggle of fighting death when the soldiers are choking on mustard gas. He uses these words to express that there is nothing beautiful about dying for your country.
Words like, “choking, drowning, obscene as cancer, forth-corrupted lungs, and incurable sores”, are all dark meaning words that show the reader what terrible events happened during the time of the war. “In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.” As you can see the soldiers went through horrific events that were deadly or life altering at the least. This shows the audience what people went through and validates that war is not at all what citizens believed it to be. The problems such as mustard gas were a major event that occurred and was a terrible way for young men to die. The harsh words that Owen uses shows the audience how bad the events the soldiers went through were and the realities of these
The way Owen crafts the poem clearly shows the ‘pity’ that he emphasizes throughout his poetry. His choice of language and structure illustrate his experience and emotions regarding the tragedy of war. Also, the image of horrendous conditions and psychologically disturbed soldiers continuously remind
During World War 1, a poet and soldier named Wilfred Owen wrote multiple poems about what happened around him during the war and his views on it, his view on war was completely different to others such as For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon. Owen shows what the reality of war is and explains what he has seen during the war. Firstly the way he describes war as, Secondly what the soldiers have to deal with during the war, thirdly what the effects on the families and friends of the soldiers.
‘Obscene as cancer’, the word ‘cancer’ connects to readers on a personal level with cancer killing around 7.9 million people each year. This deadly disease therefore can create many tragic outcomes, which the public deems to be horrific so by Owen placing this term in the poem makes the level of brutality more relatable and understandable. Which in turn helps Owen get his two key ideas across. A second example ‘his hanging face like a devils sick of sin’ the word ‘devil’ is a phrase, which is feared by most people and relates to something evil and nasty. In turn this also makes the public understand that there is nothing glorious about war in any way. It is exhausting, inhumane and brutal and therefore anyone who glorifies war should be criticised.
“Noah and the Flood”, “Deucalion and Pyrrha”, and “Tower of Babel” all go through the apocalypse archetype. First, the world and the people in it become extremely corrupt. Second, some powerful force causes the apocalypse and ends the world. Lastly, there is a new world created that will supposedly be a better one. In the modern world shows like The Walking Dead follow apocalypse archetype. The Walking Dead is about Walkers (Zombies) walking around the world and a group of survivers trying to survive. The Walking Dead follows the second step of the apocalypse archetype, that a powerful force destroys the world because it is the world destroyed and people trying to survive in it. The stories “Dulce Et Decorum Est”, “The Sniper”, and “Tower of Babel” all follow the first step of the apocalypse archetype,
There are many war poems that were written at the beginning of the first world war, one of these being ‘The Soldier’. They were written to persuade and manipulate young men that saw enrolment as exciting. Brooke welcomes patriotic death and expresses how he feel privileged to have been brought up in a country such as England. He saw it as a blessing. While ‘Dulce et decorum est’ conveys the reader of the ruthless reality of war and mocks patriotic death, Brooke uses ‘The Soldier’ to stress the fact that its honourable to die for your country. Wilfred Owen uses harsher, more repulsive onomatopoeic words which provide a cutting edge; ‘knock-kneed, sludge, trudge, guttering, choking, gargling’. Rupert Brooke uses softer words that are pleasing to hear (euphony). The changes in rhythm throughout ‘Dulce et decorum est’ creates a more bitter and cynical tone. Both poets use the idea of death to their own advantage. Brooke takes a different approach to Owen and uses the idea of death to express the fact that not only is it every man’s duty to fight and die for his country, but once they die the ashes physically enrich the already rich soil – ‘in that richer earth, a richer dust is
The fact that war is a life destroying machine and not patriotic nor loyal thing. The war has left him with being crippled. The use of “ threw away his knee” contradicts the idea that war is honourable. Instead his loss was a waste and no praised was given to him. “ Now, he is old; his back will never brace; He’s lost his colour very far from here.” Now his face has become withered with experience and sorrow. He looks old and his back will never be upright like how it was before. This can be a comparison to his life that by losing his legs, his life will never be like before. Now, he can’t support himself both literally and figuratively. Half of his lifetime has already becomes a failure,“ And half of his lifetime lapsed in the hot race. ” Finishing on the third stanza, Owen has used colour once again. “ purple spurted from his thigh”, it illustrates the bruises he had gotten from war and the deep impact on him, a colour signifying life and languor.
DULCE ET DECORUM EST is a poem written by Wilfred Owen describing the horrors of war. In the poem Owen questions the old saying, “It is sweet and honourable to die for one’s country” and contemplates whether facing the horrors of war is worth the risk for achieving fame and glory for their country. Through the uses of a variety of poetic devices and figurative language, Owen successfully communicates his message about the gruesomeness of war.
World War I was a time of great suffering and turmoil resulting in millions of deaths, loss of property and social instability. Europe was devastated after the war: 8 million soldiers died, the culture of every European nation was in jeopardy and governments struggled to maintain stability (Wilde, 2014). Wilfred Owen, a soldier himself, had experienced the dreadfulness of World War Ion a first-hand basis. His poem Dulce Et Decorum Est is an attempt to represent the helplessness and confusion which he and his comrades faced when they were trapped in a gas attack as shown in the lines “Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue” (Owen, 1920). Though the soldiers are exhausted both physically and mentally, they are forced to march on through the wreckage in the midst of a constant shower of explosives indicated by the lines “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge” and “deaf even to the hoots of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.” The exhausted and miserable states of these men also represent the
In Wilfred Owen’s poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” he uses imagery, similes and diction to set the stage for his poem. It starts with dark imagery of the soldiers hunched up in a trench like “old beggars,” waiting for their time to go out onto the battlefield. Next the author uses diction to fully describe the situation: “But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame;all blind.” This describes in great detail with carefully selected vocabulary the harrowing situation these men were going through as they were marching and fighting for their lives in the horror of war. Similes are used in conjunction with diction to describe the soldier 's condition. “Knock-kneed and coughing like hags we cursed through sludge.” The soldiers are compared to coughing old
To create an attitude of disapproval towards dying for one’s country, Owen used elevated diction. He begins the poem by portraying a picture of exhausted soldiers. He uses descriptive phrases such as “blood-shod” and “drunk with fatigue”. This elevated diction draws in the reader’s attention and causes them to feel sympathy for the soldiers who are risking
“The War Works Hard” by Dunya Mikhail and “Exposure” by Wilfred Owen are two antiwar poems. The poems were written in different styles, and yet they have the same approach to the polemic topic of “War”, in which both poets seeks to expose the realities of relentless wars and condemn the futility of armed conflicts. Meanwhile they all strive to enlighten the public the horrible outcomes that the wars bring casualties from both sides with brutal honesty. Although Mikhail was a civilian from a war-torn country and Owen was a British soldier in World War One, both poets have experienced war firsthand and faced similar emotional trauma. The literary devices like sound, imagery, and typography all used to shape their ideas and correspond to the
To convey the density of the mustard gas that fills the trenches of the young soldiers, Owen describes it as “a green sea”. To relate the horror and grotesqueness of the soldier’s death, he portrays it as “obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues”. And to portray the emotion and fatigue of the audience’s sons and brothers, Owen convey the boys as “old beggars under sacks…coughing like hags…blood-shod…drunk with fatigue”. Owen relates these details in words all can understand because his intended audience is not those who have experienced war, but those who have not. Painting death as a monstrosity rather than an honor, Owen is able to solidify his stance against “the old
Wilfred Owen was one of the greatest poets of the first World War. Most of his poems were written between 1917 and 1918, and have an anti-war theme, which reflects Owen’s own experiences on the battlefield. Some of his most well-known poems are Dulce et Decorum est, Anthem for the Doomed Youth and Disabled. The poem Disabled was written in 1917 and is about a young boy who returns from the war, amputated. Owen describes his helplessness and isolation, and switches back and forth time to show his thoughts then and regret now. The poem is told in the third person, and the name of the boy is never mentioned. One interpretation of this is that the boy in the poem represents countless men who have been in similar situations. In addition to showing