‘Who’s for the Game?’ and ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’
Q: Compare the attitudes to the war and its presentation in the 2 poems ‘Who’s For The Game?’ and ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’. Include an analysis of the language used and its structure.
In the two poems ‘Who’s For the Game?’ and ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’, there are many fundamental differences which set the two poems in two different places in a reader’s mind – the way they interpret the poem. I will be explaining how these essential differences make the reader ponder in different ways.
The first difference is that both poems were written by the opposite gender, which to me is a fundamental difference because it shows how they think about the war – ‘Who’s For the Game?’ was written by
…show more content…
These three ideas are portrayed throughout the poem and Jessie Pope uses cunning to show them off as if the war is like a chess game – the poem uses strong euphemism and undermines the war in its full extent (including all the fighting, death and torture). However the second poem completely contrasts Jessie Pope’s poem except with the title. Like Jessie, Wilfred Owen used ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ as a rhetorical phrase – the title when translated from Latin, it suggests the glamour and nobility of war. However Owen completely contrasts the idea of this phrase throughout the poem. Wilfred Owen is an eye-witness and this poem was written as a beacon to show people how the war actually was through his eyes – Wilfred was a soldier in the war and had died fighting, but wrote this poem during his time recovering from his injuries. All the cruelness and disgust in the war was poured out into the poem, harking heavily on the propaganda poems. Wilfred uses his poem to show people the real cruelty of the war and shows how the war is not a chess game, but is a real concern that is costing millions of lives to be destroyed.
The way the two poems have been written could not be anymore different and really help portray the meaning behind it all.
Firstly in ‘Who’s For the Game?’ Jessie Pope uses rhyming sentences in couplets:
Who’s for the game, the biggest that’s played
The red crashing game of a fight?
Who’ll grip and tackle the job unafraid?
And who thinks
Not only do these poems share differences through the speakers childhood, but also through the tones of the works.
In conclusion, “Dulce et Decorum” by Wilfred Owen is a poem written with the clear purpose of destroying the heroic tradition by telling the truth about war. It doesn’t sugar coats the ugly reality of war, but describes in vivid disturbing details. Even if the poet died during the battles of the Great War, we can be very grateful that some of his works survived to tell the tale as it is. Not noble, regal nor godly, but
War is a scandalous topic where peoples’ views differ as to what war is. Some people see it as pure evil and wicked while others think that it is brave and noble of what soldiers do. Looking at poems which had been written by people affected by war help show the messages which are portrayed. The two sets of poems which show different views of war as well as some similarities are “the Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred Lord Tennyson, “To Lucasta, on Going to the Wars” by Richard Lovelace and “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, “The Song of the Mud” by Mary Borden. Both these poets use linguistic devices to convince the reader of their view of what the war is. Tennyson and Lovelace show how war is worthy
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.
Wilfred Owen’s poetry effectively conveys his perspectives on human conflict through his experiences during The Great War. Poems such as ‘Futility’ and ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ portray these perceptions through the use of poetic techniques, emphasising such conflicts involving himself, other people and nature. These themes are examined in extreme detail, attempting to shape meaning in relation to Owen’s first-hand encounters whilst fighting on the battlefield.
Both poems give a different impression of war. Wilfred Owen writes about the pity of war and his responsibility to warn other generations of the horror and propaganda of it, whereas Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem is about the honour, courage and glory of fighting in a war.
There are lots of things in the poems that are similar and different both of the writers are different and similar in many ways .In the poem’s “When You Are Old” By W.B Yeats, and “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” By Dylan Thomas.They have a bunch of similarities and differences.For example in each of the poems the theme of the poems are death and the narrator’s message in the rhyming pattern poems are both similar in the poems ,and the writing style of the poems are rhyme schemes and therefore they use different rhyme scheme in each of the poems.
In the poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, it is very tragic and full of anti-war thoughts. In “Who’s for the Game?” by Jessie Pope, the author is pro-war because she talks about feeling the rush in war. The poems are very different from each other and both have a lot of good points. The mood and tone are very different and the author's ideas differ. They are both going to give you a different side on the war, weather you should or shouldn't go to war.
Both the poems have the theme of love, written from a man’s point of view, and explores the way men treat woman in relationships. The former does this by a male narrator writing a poem to a female, using imagery to entice her. The latter by using a duke, explaining the story of what happened to his previous wife whilst looking at her picture. Both the poems use imagery and other poetic devices but in different ways. The first uses them more often to impress her. The second uses them in a
The poems I have chosen to compare in this essay are Wilfred Owen's “Dulce Et Decorum Est” and Jessie Pope's “Who's For The Game?”. The two poems I have chosen to compare are both about the first world war. Yet the two poems have very different opinions on the Great War. My first poem, Dulce et decorum, is against the war and the injustice of it all. It is narrated by one of the soldiers who is fighting in the Great War and having to face the horrors of war. On the contrary my second poem, Who's for the game, is a recruitment poem.
“Dulce et Decorum Est” is a poem written by English soldier and a poet, Wilfred Owen. He has not only written this poem, but many more. Such as “Insensibility”, “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, “Futility”, “Exposure”, and “Strange Meeting” are all his war poems. (Poets.org) His poetry shows the horror of the war and uncovers the hidden truths of the past century. Among with his other poems “Dulce et Decorum Est” is one of the best known and popular WWI poem. This poem is very shocking as well as thought provoking showing the true experience of a soldiers in trenches during war. He proves the theme suffering by sharing soldiers’ physical pain and psychological trauma in the battlefield. To him that was more than just fighting for owns country. In this poem, Owen uses logos, ethos, and pathos to proves that war was nothing more than hell.
In the essay I am going to compare and contrast the way in which different attitudes to war are presented in the poems ‘Dulce et Decorum est’. And ‘Vitai Lampada’. Both poem are a bout war but they are wrote in completely different ways.
One similarity between the two poems is that they both have titles which express positive feelings about war. However, the titles are both used in different ways; 'Who's for the game?' is an extended metaphor, as it is repeated again during the poem, ‘Who’s for the game, the biggest that’s played…’
These two poems are both still popular in the twenty-first century, which may be because of the fact they are not aimed at a single war, the can both be related to any war that has gone on or that is currently going on in the twenty-first century.
When considering the structure of the poems, they are similar in that they are both written loosely in iambic pentameter. Also, they both have a notable structured rhyme scheme.