The cost of loving a one’s country
The First World War of 1914-1918 was a brutal and violent war that caused death of millions of innocent soldiers and lead to various changes and revolutions around the world. It also affected the literature and poetry of the 20th century (Ağır, 2013). There were two types of war poets during that time, poets who wrote about the war, and soldiers who served in the war and were poets. Wilfred Owen was a war poet who served as a soldier in World War I. His poem, Anthem For Doomed Youth, is a Petrarchan sonnet that criticizes the church and religious representatives who sent their young boys to the battlefield in the name of patriotism. In his poem, Owen uses different poetic devices to discuss several topics such as the horrors of the war, the religious rituals that the soldiers did not receive, and the mourning of the loved ones at home.
The title of the poem “Anthem for Doomed Youth ” is ironic since the words within it contradict each other. Anthem, is a positive word, used for purposes of celebration in happy events, while doomed youth has a negative meaning which means young people who do not have a choice nor hope but to die. By putting these words together, Owen is using irony by telling that there is a celebration of the young soldiers who were doomed to die in an early age, which is a horrible thing that only can occur during war time.
One of the poetic devices that Owen uses in his poem to convey the tragic deaths of the soldiers
This description paints the scenes of the poem as they happen, the powerful connotations of the words battling against each other, and to the grievance of the reader, the negative feelings prevail. This battle illuminates the brutality and fear experienced by soldiers, in WWII, during their final moments on Earth - their fear, sadness, and horrified disgust all hidden between the lines of these two sentences. Foreshadowed by the soldier's machine like tone, the speaker alludes to the fact that he will fight for his life, and
Caught in a war that was waged primarily in trenches (big ditches that filled with mud, rats, and rainwater), Owen began to find it hard to justify all the suffering and death he witnessed. He was perfectly willing to sacrifice his life for king and country, but, like many other people, he 'd like to make sure that his sacrifice was actually needed.
The Brutal Reality vs the Virtue Gained The poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen gives insight into how a soldier is beaten to the state of exhaustion in war which defeats the perception of how society has seen war as lighthearted for generations. The poem “Epitaph on a Soldier” by Cyril Tourneur depicts a soldier at a time of death, defeating the common thought of how death is seen as a negative thing and portrays the soldier as he is ready to die, welcoming his death. The critical and bitter tone in “Dulce Et Decorum Est” conveys the brutality of war to emphasize the disillusioned way society perceives war; whereas, the admiring and comforting tone in “Epitaph on a Soldier” conveys the contentment of an honorable death.
The Loss of Innocence in “Dulce et Decorum Est” and The Wars The poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen and the novel The Wars by Timothy Findley share several similarities when it comes to the theme being portrayed. Both literary texts illustrate that although one may suggest war is an honourable act of patriotism for one’s country, the detrimental effects of reality result in one’s loss of innocence. Firstly, in Dulce et Decorum Est, the narrator illustrates the reality of the unexpected atrocities of the war that young, innocent soldiers must face.
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. Firstly, the way Wilfred Owen Describes war as is.
The meaning of the title means, “it is sweet and honorable to die for your country” (111). Irony is shown throughout the piece because Owen creates an alternative reality of what war was really like. Soldiers were often looked at as heroes for sacrificing their lives for their countries. Throughout Owens piece, he recreates the reality of what the battlefield was really like. He allows one to understand the sacrifice that comes with war, and the ones who survived suffer also.
For example,“The Song of the Mud” contains the line “covers the hills like satin” which is pleasing and makes you feel at ease which contradicts the fact that war is destructive and horrifying. Also, the word “song” in the title gives readers a feeling of enjoyment when in fact, the poem emits gloom. Owen’s main purpose of writing his poem was to expose “the old lie” which is “Dulce Et Decorum est.” This lie says that it is sweet and honorable to die for one’s country; the truth is that it is a waste of human life. Owen had first-hand experience of the tragedies of World War I and wanted to destroy the misinterpretation of it by portraying the reality of war.
“No one hates war like a soldier hates war” Tommy Franks, an american general had once said . Personal experiences can greatly effect us in various ways. One aspect is writing. During the times of conflict, different poets were influenced by war, which influenced their poems. Wilfred Owen was one of them.
At the beginning of the war, soldiers were excited and enthusiastic about fighting and they saw the other side as non-human. However, over time, the soldiers were exposed to so much death and suffering that their views shifted to see the war as an unnecessary evil which destroyed valuable lives. As shown in multiple poems written during World War One, and in Remarque’s, All Quiet on the Western Front, through witnessing excessive suffering and death at the hands of society, people recognize their individual values over the values of their society. As the war began, soldiers were surrounded by glorifying propaganda and encouragement from society to get involved, this led to feelings of excitement and pride towards the war.
Owen describes how the soldiers drowned in the gas, in a stanza of the poem that describes how the soldiers reacted to gas, and says, “As under a green sea, I saw him drowning” (Owen, line 14). Owen also describes the soldiers as “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks” (Owen, line 1), showing the horrors the soldiers were exposed to. World War I was nothing short of a gruesome war, as represented in Owen’s poem, and the war was also a result of the failure of communication. Had the two sides been able to come to a compromise, the gruesome conflict described in Owen’s poem could have possibly been
"Disabled" by Wilfred Owen is a poetic analysis of war that exposes the struggles of adjusting to civilian life. A deeper analysis of "Disabled" reveals the irony of war; a soldier's fight for his country's freedom which results in the sacrifice of his mental and physical freedom. The soldiers and their families suffer from the scars and traumatic events of the war daily, while those that benefit can remain in oblivion of their suffering. Owen’s "Disabled" gives the readers an intimate poem detailing the tragic loss of humanity that a soldier suffers. Because of the war, the soldier has been reduced in mind and body.
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. Ending the poem with soldiers in the institute waiting for people to come emphasizes the fact that he is dependent and helpless. Also it reflected back to the start of the poem where he was waiting for death to come. “ How cold and late it is!
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,
A heroic couplet structure within the poem provides a degree of clarity while still asserting the chaos and cruelness of war. Once again, it can be inferred that Owen himself serves as the speaker. However, this time his audience is more focused on young soldiers and families rather than plainly the public in general. In contrast to the previous work, this poem is set primarily in a World War I training camp, signifying the process young soldiers go through prior to deployment to the front line. The tone of this poem is more foreboding and condemnatory, not only describing the training soldiers but outright degrading their forced involvement as morally wrong.
It is apparent here that a soldier unexpectedly witnesses the death of another comrade as he watches “his hanging face, like a devil sick of sin”. A significant simile of the poem, like “Futility” questions human existence as though a devil will be sick of sin. Readers are confronted with the pain and anguish faced by the soldier and tastes the suffering as he does, comprehending the horrors and the extent of disrespect not only faced by soldiers, but also Owen himself. The poem ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ captures the spirit of the war in its irrationality and brutality. Owen names his poem “Anthem for doomed youth” signifying the inhumanity and the entrapment of war upon the youth as there is no escape.