Compare and contrast the poem The Drum by John Scott and the extract

            Although there are many similarities between the poems if you were to read them each shows an entirely different aspect of war. Tennyson glamorises the war. His views of the war are very positive and he sees it as an opportunity for a man to prove himself. He speaks of the qualities of these men, of their bravery. They are charging in to almost certain death but yet they still follow orders and fight on in the “valley of death”. He doesn’t speak of the fact that this was a huge mistake by the general to send his men into almost certain death. He reflects the popular and widespread opinion of the time, which was that war was a great thing and all young men looked forward to being able to serve and die for their country. The main reason for this belief was that there hadn’t been a major war fought in Britain for the past two hundred or so years and people didn’t realise the horrors that war brought. Tennyson’s poem has none of the gory details of "Dulce ET Decorum EST”. “Tennyson’s poem is removed from the sordid

The author of “Anthem for Doomed Youth” leads his reader through his personal struggle and frustration of war. Owen has an abrasive approach when describing the death all around him and clearly expresses his anger with the “hasty orisons” for the dead. He speaks directly of battlefront in the first octet and then includes the home front in the second half of his sonnet. Owen’s purpose is not a commemoration of fallen soldiers. Rather, he divulges the disgust and disappointment of war. Like McCrae, Wilfred Owen paints a picture of the multitude of deaths. Back at the home front, “…each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.” We can construe that the author is not simply talking about preparing for bed in the evening, but rather lowering the blinds in a room where yet another dead soldier lies, as an indication to the community and out of respect for the soldier. There is a lack of “passing-bells for these who die as cattle….no prayers nor bells; Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs.” Owen writes as though he feels that there is indifference among the death of his fellow soldiers.

First, one should focus on the language and Henry's ethos. The soldiers are burdened with the thought of a

Lovelace’s diction helps to develop the theme that war requires a passionate commitment from soldiers and can be as consuming as a relationship with a person the poet uses many dictions throughout the poem that suggests going to war such as ‘chaste, mistress, embrace, inconstancy, adore and love’. Likewise, Tennyson’s diction helps to develop the themes that war places soldiers under extreme stress, and soldiers can fight bravely and honorably even if the result of the battle is unsuccessful. In contrast, the word choices in Owen’s poem supports the theme that war is destructive, bitter, and violent, not the romantic efforts praised by those outside of it. Diction that has a strong impact on Borden’s poem is ‘satin, ermine, chic’, or words that have strong negative connotations such as ‘obscene, putrid, monstrous’. Equally important, The Diction in Borden’s poem support the theme that war is indifferent to human life. Words that display The Diction in “The Song of the Mud” are ‘cursed, sludge, haunting, trudge, blood-shod’. Whereas The tone of Lovelace’s poem is romantic and slightly playful along with Tennyson tone, which establishes a serious and respectful tone that also acknowledges the stress and confusion of war. Unlike the tone in the first set of poems, A great example of irony in Owen’s poem is “Ecstasy” (line 9), which usually associated with positive feelings of joy or intense

The soldiers who had attended the war were shown to have died brutally, like “cattle”, yet when reaching the home front, it is seen that they are laid to rest in a much more civil and dignified manner. The concept of this can be seen as an extended metaphor throughout the entire poem, with the battle front seen as a world filled with violence, fear and destruction, where as the home front is perceived as a place marked by order and ritual, a civilized world. The second sonnet opens with “What candles may be held to speed them all?”, invoking a more softer and compassionate tone towards the audience, more specifically through Owen’s use of a rhetorical question. It captures the readers’ attention, engaging them to feel empathetic and notice the shift of energy from anger and bitterness to a sadder and more somber tone. Owen’s use of descriptive language, as simple as it seems, such as ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ provokes the audience to view the horrors of the war as if they had been placed onto children, because in reality the ‘men; who had signed themselves into war to fight in glory for their country had really only just been boys themselves.

Para-rhymes, in Owen’s poetry, generate a sense of incompleteness while creating a pessimistic, gloomy effect to give an impression of sombreness. Strong rhyming schemes are often interrupted unexpectedly with a para-rhyme to incorporate doubt to every aspect of this Great War. Who are the real villains and why are hundreds of thousands of lives being wasted in a war with no meaning? In ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, the consistent sonnet rhyming scheme is disturbed by a half rhyme, “guns … orisons”, to show how the soldiers all died alone with only the weapons that killed them by their side, and a visual rhyme, “all … pall” to indicate that the reality of war is entirely the opposite to what it seems - no glory, no joy and no heroism, but only death and destruction. Owen occasionally works with this technique in a reverse approach to create similar thought. For instance, the assonance, consonance and half rhyme based poem, ‘The Last Laugh’, contains an unforeseen full rhyme, “moaned … groaned”, to emphasise that nothing is ever fixed in war except the ghastly fact that the weapons are the true winners. Different forms of Para rhymes often work together with common schemes to ably bring out the main ideas of Owen’s poetry.

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.

In the excerpt we are given, King Henry V rose to the occasion and spoke words of encouragement that rallied his troops. In his speech he says “I am not covetous for gold, Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost...such outward things dwell not in my desires.” Henry tells his men that he does not

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.

The poet then presents a scene of patriotic relevance as he describes a scene of a regiment marching into battle with their “flag” and “Eagle with crest of red and gold” (17-18). When people think of flags, they think of patriotism and representing their country. Eagles also symbolize freedom but as readers can witness in the work, the poet makes it seem as if these men were created not to enjoy the gift of life for one moment by him saying “These men were born to drill and die” (19). This comes across to the reader as almost inhumane. Then by illustrating an image of a field of thousands of dead corpses makes any reader wonder why people even go to war. The whole fourth stanza paints a picture of living human being going into a battle with most, if not any, making it out alive. Like stated before, the speaker in the poem builds a case for those people that opposed to war even though the title of the poem might

Throughout the poem, Owen makes clear two major tones. Anger and Disgust. To establish this point, the poet says “ Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge” (lines 2 & 3). This reveals how the poet was angry about being in the war because he wasn’t experiencing the romanticism of war he was experiencing suffering of fighting. An additional example is when Owen adds “ But limped on, blood shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots” (lines 6-8). These lines imply Owen’s disgusted tone towards the war because the soldiers were worked to death. However the title has a completely different tone. The translated title states “ It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.” This is a huge contrast to the rest of the poem because all the poet describes is the horror of being in the war, when the title puts a glorified image in your mind that serving is heroic and honorable. For instance, Owen states “ My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, the old Lie: Dulce et decorum

“In his poetry, Wilfred Owen depicts the horror and futility of war and the impact war has on individuals.”

this, such as: "Cannon to the left of them, / Cannon to the right of

Owen’s poem has the clear intention of showing the true nature of war to the reader, which is mainly achieved by contrasting reality against the ways in which war is so

Poems using strong poetic technique and devices are able to create a wide range of emotions from the readers. Wilfred Owen’s poetry effectively uses these poetic techniques and devices to not only create unsettling images about war but to provide his opinion about war itself with the use of themes within his poem. The use of these themes explored Owen’s ideas on the futility of war and can be seen in the poems: Anthem for Doomed Youth, Futility and The Next War. The poems provide unsettling images and belief of war through the treatment of death, barbaric nature of war and the futility of war.