Alliteration In Wilfred Owen's Disabled

In ‘Disabled’, Wilfred Owen a war veteran tells the story of a young soldier who returns from war and realizes how dissimilar his old life is to his new one where he is disabled both mentally and physically despite the fact that his mind may seem unaffected by past traumas the reader will begin to understand the subtle hurts that have slowly damaged him. In contrast, the story of ‘Out, out-‘ is of a boy completing his everyday chores, sawing wood, in the backdrop of the Vermont mountains. He accidentally cuts his hand off and he succumbs to death despite a doctor’s aid.

Wilfred Owen uses language and poetic devices to evoke sympathy for the soldier in the poem by using in-depth descriptions. An example of this is in the first stanza where the soldier in the poem ‘shivered in his ghastly suit of grey’. The ‘g’ sound in the words ‘ghastly’ and ‘grey’ emphasises the horror of ‘ghastly’ combined with the dreariness of ‘grey’, which are now the two main features of his life. The word ‘ghastly’ shows something that is strange and unnatural. The adjective ‘grey’, which has connotations of bleakness, portrays an image of darkness and monotony. Furthermore, the verb ‘shivered’ shows that he is vulnerable and exposed. In the phrase, ‘Legless, sewn short at elbow’, the sibilance at the end of ‘Legless’, and in ‘sewn short’ tell us that the short-syllable words are ruthlessly to the point, so it emphasises the fact that the soldier has no arms and legs because of his wounds.

The poem “Disabled” by Wilfred Owen is about a young soldier who has lost his legs during the First World War. Owen wrote the poem whilst he was being treated for shell shock at the Craiglockhart War Hospital. It is very likely that he would have seen lots of soldiers pass through his ward with severe injuries such as missing limbs.

The theme of loss is portrayed similarly in the two poems ‘Disabled’ and ‘Out, out-’. Both of these poems are about the protagonist dealing with physical loss as they both experience an accident. Both Wilfred Owen and Robert Frost manage to mesmerize their audience’s attention, and also sympathize for the protagonists’ misfortune. They do this by the use of many literary techniques which are obvious at times, but some are very subtle, such as similes, metaphors, personification, and contrasts.

One is to think of war as one of the most honorable and noble services that a man can attend to for his country, it is seen as one of the most heroic ways to die for the best cause. The idea of this is stripped down and made a complete mockery of throughout both of Wilfred Owen’s poems “Dulce Et Decorum Est” and “Anthem for Doomed Youth”. Through his use of quickly shifting tones, horrific descriptive and emotive language and paradoxical metaphors, Owen contradicts the use of war and amount of glamour given towards the idea of it.

Owen uses the contrast of the soldiers’ state pre-war and post-war to highlight just how much the soldier has lost through going to war. Physically, pre-war, the soldier is described as ‘younger than his youth,’ and has an ‘artist silly for his face.’ Suggesting that his beauty is worth capturing permanently in paint. The words ‘younger ‘and ‘youth’ emphasise this man’s innocence and boyishness, the tautology places emphasis on how young he is thus outlining his immaturity before the war and making his loss at war even more tragic. The contrast once he has returned where Owen

In the poems “Disabled” by Wilfred Owen and “The Bright Lights of Sarajevo” by Tony Harrison, both poems present the realities of war. However, both differ in terms of setting and contrast that help depict the similarities of their theme. Disabled takes place within World War I as Owen vividly describes the subject’s amputation. The sounds of the children playing hysterically causes him to reflect back to when he once was whole. However, within the Bright Lights of Sarajevo although Harrison discusses the consequences of partaking in war within the town, he illustrates the way in which life goes on regardless the horrific impact which has been left behind. Through use of setting and contrast, both poets contribute in presenting the theme

The article, Understanding Critical Disability Studies, written by Geoffrey Reaume, illuminates his grandfather’s horrific experience in World War 1 and how he was dismissed as psychologically unfit due to sickness that was subsequently confirmed as shell shock. According to Reaume, World War 1 haunted his grandfather for the rest of his life like several veterans. Reaume further solidifies that his grandfather’s experience in the war can only be described as mud-spattered, noisy and deadly which triggered his symptoms of shock, and individuals who suffered psychological distress were seen as outcasts rather than heroes and fighters. Chiefly, the value of this article is gripping because of the terrors men faced in the war and ignorance they

Wilfred Owens captivating poem ‘Disabled’ relates to the after effects of what war can be responsible for. The poem depicts an ironic contrast between a strong limbed, handsome youth hero in battle and a wrecked body in a wheelchair which occurs when a man becomes horribly wounded. His themes are clear that there is no glory in war and war strips men of their youth.

Owen, in his war poetry reveals the awful reality of war and its effect on the young men involved. Given that these men are suffering in treacherous conditions, Owen expresses empathy towards the wretched soldiers who are fighting in a battle which they have little hope of surviving. Owen discloses his sympathy towards these young men by revealing the harsh conditions they live in and exposing their suffering both physical and mental. He exposes the reality of the war in an attempt to reveal the lives shattered to the unknowing public who do not know the true war conditions.

Throughout all of the poetry, movies, and novels we have watched thus far in the course we have encountered a variety of types of shell shock, or as we call it today Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. We have had a chance to read poems written by Siegfried Sassoon Wilfred Owen who both spent time at Craiglockhart, a well-known mental hospital in Scotland, for suffering from symptoms of shell shock. We also had a chance to see for what shell shock was like during World War I when we watched a small series about it and got to see that it consisted of odd ways of walking, stammering, mutism, blindness, and so on. Through reading novels such as Regeneration, Return of the Soldier, and Mrs. Dalloway we get a chance to see the different types of shell shock and treatments. Furthermore, we get a chance to see how society sees these shell shocked soldiers. At the time shell shock was something new that had come about due to World War I and the treatments were less than ideal and the stigma attached was very real. By using these novels and other sources I will explore shell shock in its entirety by how it’s portrayed in the novels compared to the real thing from symptoms, treatments, to the view society had on it.

War is not heroic. War is sickness, struggle, and death. This is the message that poet and World War I soldier Wilfred Owen wanted to instill in his people back home. Those back home talked of glory and national pride and rooted for their soldiers, however, they were unaware of the horrors these soldiers witnessed and experienced. The soldiers and their people back home were not only separated by distance but by mental barriers, which Owen showcases in his poetry. Owen’s use of personification in “Anthem for Doomed Youth” degrades the soldiers to objects to show how the war dehumanized them to intentionally create a disconnect between the audience and the soldiers.

Owen utilizes contrast of time (before and after the war) to create sympathy for the subject. Prior to the war, the subject in the poem had played football as seen in the lines, “After the matches.” “It was after football” and now, this same person does not even have the equipment to play football. He no longer has legs.

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

Throughout Wilfred Owen’s collection of poems, he unmasks the harsh tragedy of war through the events he experienced. His poems indulge and grasp readers to feel the pain of his words and develop some idea on the tragedy during the war. Tragedy was a common feature during the war, as innocent boys and men had their lives taken away from them in a gunshot. The sad truth of the war that most of the people who experienced and lived during the tragic time, still bare the horrifying images that still live with them now. Owen’s poems give the reader insight to this pain, and help unmask the tragedy of war.