A Comparison of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon's War Poetry

However, the result of the War had produced some outstanding poets and Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) was a of the war poets who was widely regarded as one of the best poets of the World War One period. He wrote out of his intense personal experience and memory as a soldier and wrote with unrivalled power of the physical, moral and psychological trauma of the First World War . Heavily influenced by Keats and Shelly, a young Owen intrigued to become a poet began to absorb himself in poetry. He did not go into religious life like his mother. Instead, he left for Bordeaux, France to teach English in the Berlitz School after the war had erupted. Although he thought of himself as a `Pacifist', he enlisted in the Artist's Rifles in October 1915 and later in 1917 changed to France. There he began writing poems about his war experiences. Owen finally suffered from shell-shock in the summer of 1917 and was sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital and met his friend Siegfried Sassoon, who shared his feelings about the war and who became interested in his work. Reading Sassoon's poems and discussing his work with Sassoon revolutionized Owen's style and conception of poetry .

In order to fully understand and appreciate great poetry, one must be acquainted with the poet. Wilfred Owen was born in Shropshire, England. After being educated at the Technical School in Shrewsbury, he later taught in France at the Berlitz School of English. It was in France where Owen became interested in World War I. In 1915, Owen enlisted in the army, unaware of the effects it would later have on his psychological state and overall well-being. After suffering battle wounds during combat in 1917, Owen was diagnosed with shell shock--more commonly known as post-traumatic stress disorder. Unfortunately, war had made yet another victim of Owen. However, from the misfortune came a silver lining. As he resided in the Craiglockhart War Hospital, he met a poet by the name of Siegfried Sassoon. Sassoon pulled Owen deep into the world of literature, showing him acclaimed works and "...well-known literary figures such as Robert Graves and H.G. Wells"

Wilfred Owen can be considered as one of the finest war poets of all times. His war poems, a collection of works composed between January 1917, when he was first sent to the Western Front, and November 1918, when he was killed in action, use a variety of poetic techniques to allow the reader to empathise with his world, situation, emotions and thoughts. The sonnet form, para-rhymes, ironic titles, voice, and various imagery used by Owen grasp the prominent central idea of the complete futility of war as well as explore underlying themes such as the massive waste of young lives, the horrors of war, the hopelessness of war and the loss of religion. These can be seen in the three poems, ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ and

World War One poets Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen both use poetry to examine their differing perspectives surrounding the idea of heroism in war. Brooke’s The Soldier depicts an idealistic, patriotic view towards fighting for his country, whereas Owen’s Dulce et Decorum est demonstrates a realistic view of the senseless horrors of war. Both poets utilise similar poetic techniques of imagery and sound devices to express their contradictory views of the atrocious events of the greatest war that the world had ever seen at that time.

Owen similarly guides the tone of his writing very carefully, choosing the perfect words and punctuation to emphasize or stress certain aspects that he had in mind to be expressed. Owen also tries to give the poem a serious tone to it by exclaiming, Gas! Gas! Quick boys! But someone still was yelling out and stumbling As under a green sea, I saw him drowning (Gioia 782). He wants the reader to understand what serious obstacles the soldiers had to suffer through. War really was a time of pain and grief, not of glory. This idea is seen in Owens overall style of writing. He is rather honest and blunt about wartime. Basically, he wants his audience to feel the pain of what soldiers of any war had to go through. His final words are, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est/ Pro patria mori. (Gioia 783). The translation of those words says, It is sweet and fitting to die for ones country. He just wants everyone to know that it is in deed a lie to believe that war and dying for ones country should be rewarded and glorified.

Suicide in the trenches were very common in World War I. Many depressed, or physically exhausted soldiers would resort to suicide to end their struggles. Siegfried Sassoon, a war veteran and English poet, wrote ‘Suicide in the Trenches,’ in an attempt to “avoid sentimentality and self-pity while describing the realities of war.” Published in February, 1918, he writes:

My soldier that I picked to research on is Percy Buckner, at 22 years old he was a 5ft 5in tall male with fair complexion, blue eyes and dark brown hair, He worked at the Post and Telegraph Department for eight years, he then went on to become a farmer with his parents Thomas and Emily Henrietta Buckner. He lived at 50 Norwich St, Christchurch. His brother William Thomas Buckner 40183 also served in the World War, where he died in October 1918. Percy enlisted in the army on 10th July 1917 under the number 62917 and was later assigned to D company, 32nd Reinforcements, Otago Infantry Regiment. He later trained at Trentham where he was fined two days’ pay for overstanding his stay at Trentham. On the 22nd of November, he embarked from Wellington arriving at Liverpool on the 7th of January 1918. He was later marched into Sling Camp on the 8th of January and later, three months to be exact he was shipped to France on

This excerpt is a recollection of the catastrophic defeat for the Allies on 31/7/1916. The Australian soldiers had retreated from the battle at Gallipoli, and joined the British army in France and Belgium (Ww1westernfront.gov.au, 2015). After an arduous eight months of battle on the Turkish Peninsular, the Australian Soldiers finally arrived on the western front, where the main battle was to occur. At this stage, the soldiers would have already been physically and emotionally drained from the major setback during the Gallipoli. This piece of narration is vital in depicting what happened during that time. However, the trauma from the bloody Gallipoli could have brought about emotional repercussions on the soldier, causing this excerpt to be biased and one-sided.

War is a horrible concept and it is also responsible for inspiring people, considering the intense feelings that they experience as a result of observing it and the suffering that it generates. A series of artists have gotten actively involved in providing the masses with a more complex understanding of warfare and, in contrast to war propaganda artwork, most of these respective individuals focused on condemning the practice by relating to its terrible consequences. Wilfred Owen's poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" successfully appeals to people's emotions and influences them to want to get actively involved in stopping warfare from happening. Denise Levertov's "Life at War" similarly provides an intriguing look concerning war and its disastrous effects. These individuals basically want people to understand that there is nothing glorious about warfare and that it mainly involves suffering, blood, and young lives being lost for absurd purposes.

The war poetry I am going to compare was written by Wilfred Owen and Thomas Hardy. Wilfred Owen was born in Wales in 1893. He wrote poetry as a teenager and at the age of 20 he began teaching English in France as an assistance teacher. 2 years later he joined the Manchester regiment and fought in World War 1 and 3 years later in 1918 he died near the Belgian border whilst taking his men across the Sambre canal at Ors. Therefore we know his writing shows his personal experiences.rdy was born in 1840 in the south of England. He began writing in 1867. He was more famous for his novels but also wrote about the Boer war.

For thousands of years mankind has been obsessed with the subject of war, from the clash of swords to the bitter thunder of artillery mankind has brought upon itself an immense amount of suffering. Good evening teachers and students I am here today with the aim of convincing you on why Wilfred Owens poetry must not be ignored but instead explored to find the deeper meaning of his poems. The poetry of Wilfred Owen was different to that of other war poets of his time as it revealed the horrors and agony of the so-called Great War which were concealed by the Church and British Authorities for the purpose of deceiving the youth. The idea of romanticising war goes strongly against Wilfred Owens moral purpose, thus his Poetry is didactic and condemnatory. Throughout his short life he had first hand experience with the scourge of war. From this he aimed to debunk those romanticised notions of the glorification of war that were present at the time by challenging poets such as John Keats who glorified war. Owen effectively conveys the truth of war through his use of techniques such as imagery, ambiguity and many others in his poems of "Dulce Et Decorum EST" and Anthem For doomed youth.

In majority of Owen’s poem, he demonstrates the true image of war and the impact it has on the soldiers rather than masking it with the lies of pride

The poet Siegfried Sassoon saw that war was destructive and it should not happen because it was a waste of human life, Sassoon described the horror of war unsparingly, also, his poems were often based on actual incidents. Wilfred Owen focused his poetry on the particulars of war and the men involved: dirt, muddle, boredom etc, Owen often wrote about the horror of war and the dignity of men. He deeply felt a sense of the appalling wastefulness of war, casualties and the human spirit. The similarities between these two poets are they both tried to record realistic horrors of the war; to have it stopped. They were both angry at the war’s brutality, they were also showed very compassionate studies of the circumstances of fighting men.

War, a slaughter of men that has gone on for hundreds & thousands of years. One of the most gruesome wars was WW1 which lasted for 4 years, 28 Jul. 1914 – 11 Nov. 1918. In this devastating war, the total number of casualties includes about 11 million military personnel and about 7 million civilians. Many of those soldiers were young men. The poem “Suicide in the trenches” written by Siegfried Sassoon tells what the harsh trenches had being like and how many soldiers became depressed. Sassoon was an officer who earned a military cross after carrying a wounded solider through enemy’s crossfire. He fought in many battles till 1917 where he would then have to leave the war due to Shellshock. Sassoon criticized the political leaders who sent young men off to die in huge battles that seemed pointless and while Sassoon was in Hospital he opposed the war by writing many poems including “Does it Matter”, “The Hero’ and arguably the most tragic poem, “Suicide in the Trenches”.

1. Owen was a soldier and a modern poet who was known as anti-war poet.