COMPARE AND CONTRAST “DISABLED” BY WILFRED OWEN AND “OUT, OUT-”BY ROBERT FROST. IN WHAT WAYS DO THEY EXPLORE THE THEME OF PAIN AND SUFFERING? These two poems are very different in terms of syntax, structure and actions, but the tone is the same in each. Both poems make us pity the young boys who were forced to grow up before their time, not understanding the possible consequences of their actions. They are connected in this way despite being thrown out of life differently (and because of different reasons) but because both were moved by the desire to be seen as better or older in the eyes of others. This is ironic as they are simply forgotten by the people they wanted to impress, be they the girls with the “slim waists” or the anonymous …show more content…
Furthermore this continuity highlights the actual point of they boy’s accident, together with his death, as caesuras and harsher sounds are being used in the words to make it all more dramatic. “Disabled” also uses language to make the poem more moving or to get a point across, such as how neither the soldier’s nor the boy’s names or details are given so that we understand that these kinds of disasters can happen to anyone (that they are not the exceptions). These uses of diction let us understand the tragedies of both poems’ characters better. The structure helps show us how “Disabled” is allowing the soldier to dwell on the problems and feel regret, while the boy never has the chance. This is what I meant when I mentioned the different kinds of pain present in the poems - the soldier actually feels the world’s indifference that makes everything so much worse to him, while the same is happening to the boy but he never actually has to feel the dispassion and disinterest towards his death. That is what makes the poems so cruel, not the physical injuries themselves and Owen uses that by avoiding any graphic description of the wound, but focusing on everything he has lost in terms of human contact. He never mentions regretting the power to walk, but he sees how “the women’s eyes passed from him to the strong men that were whole” - he has had the time to notice that he is incomplete. The realization that it is his fault that
what the nature of war and creating a sense of 'them' and 'us' this is
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.
His poetic theme, the horror and the pity of war is set forth in strong verse that transfigured traditional meters and diction . In his poem, "Disabled", consists of 7 stanzas, which Owen remarks in a letter to
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.
Compare how the theme of loss is communicated in the poems ‘Disabled’ by Wilfred Owen and ‘Out, out-’ by Robert Frost
Explore the Use of Contrast in Wilfred Owen’s ‘Disabled’ and Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour.’
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
"Out, Out," by Robert Frost is a gruesomely graphic and emotional poem about the tragic end of a young boy's life. It is a powerful expression about the fragility of life and the fact that death can come at any time. Death is always devastating, but it is even more so when the victim is just a young boy. The fact that the boy's death came right before he could " Call it a day" (750) leads one to think the tragedy might have been avoided and there by forces the reader to think, "What if." This poem brings the question of mortality to the reader's attention and shows that death has no age limit.
In both poems the men had respectable lives. Generally, they were pleased and had fun with what they were doing.
This image is definitely not the glamorous picture of glory that, say army recruitment presents; worse, the soldiers are doing worse than civilians. As soon as the next stanza “[m]en marched asleep. Many had lost their boots” (5). They have lost their usual awareness and move mechanically; that doesn’t sound appealing! It gets worse: “[b]ut limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind” (6). So now they’re limping, apparently wounded, covered in blood, and can’t even see? It worsens further, “[d]runk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots/ Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind” (7-8). The soldiers are so exhausted it incapacitates them, and they can no longer hear the bullets being fired. This poem sounds like a distorted nightmare, except the speaker is living it, and even reliving the torment of the soldier’s death while he is unconscious. Owen’s wording expresses that the soldiers are merely men, deteriorating and inconceivably overwhelmed the opposite of positive war poetry containing glory and honor.
In Robert Frost’s poem “Out, Out” an overwhelming theme of agony can be sensed as
The authors(Robert Frost and Wilfred Owen) of ‘Out, Out-’ and ‘Disabled’ use imagery to show that a nonideal world is more prominent than an ideal one. 'Disabled' shows how the war has changed him to look non-ideal this is evident in the text when Owen describes the victim's disabilities ‘Legless, sewn short at elbow.’This quote is very effective in showing how the war victim after his battle body has become disabled.The author of ‘Out, Out-’ also shows that the boys looks are not to his ideal; ‘Don’t let him cut my hand off.' Frost uses this quote to illustrate how much the boy wanted to keep his hand that no matter what happens, even if he has an arm that is hanging off that was better than having no hand at all. The authors Frost and Owen, also show that the victims had a feeling of anguish, that why did this have to happen to them when they were only trying to do something good.They both use imagery to express this, the War victims feelings are shown in this quote ’And put him to bed? Why don't they come?.' This statement shows his feeling of anguish and regret because he had done so much for them and they won’t help him and how he is longing for companionship after the war. Owen explains this by showing the reader that the soldier is not attracted to his body and woman aren't either because his body is non-ideal,’as he noticed how the women's eye's passed from him to the strong men that were whole.’It Makes the reader sympathise on a personal level with the victim because he didn't deserve this after all that he had done.In
Compare how the theme of loss is communicated in the poems “Disabled” by Wilfred Owen and ‘Out, Out –‘by Robert Frost
‘In the poem “Out, Out-,” the primary character is exploited by his family, and in ‘Disabled’, the war veteran is exploited by the government. A good example of how the government takes advantage in ‘Disabled’, is “Smiling they wrote his lie,” in this quote recruitment officers, working for the government, recruit the boy, knowing he is under age. The word ‘smiling’ shows that they were happy to recruit him, this is injustice as they did not take the required legal action to stop him, but happily allowed it. This shows injustice because the government failed to tell the people the truth about war. He thinks war is fun because the government has not told him the truth, here the government is culpable. Because Wilfred Owen was writing at the