Comparing World War I And Robert Frost's Out, Out

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.

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

“He was drafted in drums and cheers...some cheered him home, but not as the crowd cheers goals. Only a solemn mad thanked him” Owen shows the irony of the poem by showcases the perspectives of the people. Owen compares the casting of war to a football game. Usually when going off to war or starting a game the soldier is drafted out in cheers by thousands of people and you would expect the same level of cheers to return to or finish with. However in this case only one person thanked him for the hard work which he produced at war. The quote then showcases the irony of the poem. The readers then begin to realize how insensitive people are to completion of war. The insensitivity of people then causes the readers to feel enormous pity and compassion towards the subject on showing bestowed respect and honour towards

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

Owen successfully evokes the ideas of truth in the poem “Dulce et Decorum est” the line “You would not believe with such high zest, to children ardent for some desperate glory, the old lie” through the use of metaphors and personification Owen demonstrates that the reality of the individual’s experience in war meant that they ended up challenging their sense of duty, their blind patriotism and understood that the true meaning of war is futile. The unimaginable suffering they lived through further highlights this reality. Also in the poem “Anthem for doomed youth” Owen explores the truth of war in the quote “Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.” Owen uses the technique of symbolism to link the glimmers of goodbyes to a funeral. Many soldiers did not receive proper funeral rights and were just buried in mass graves. Owen also shows the truth of war through the mortality of war in his oxymoronic approach of the colossal loss of life. Essentially Owen explores the truth of war through the themes of psychological scars and the horrors of

In war ,many terrible tragedies occur, leaving many people scarred and in grief and who can never forget the nightmare of war.This paper will discuss“ In, Flanders fields by John Mccrae’s,Dulce et Decorum EST by Wilfred Owen and I sing of Olaf glad and big by ee cummings.This paper will be discussing the different points of views that poets have about war and how it shapes our own opinion ,of it because none of us have experienced war firsthand and have only heard about the nightmare from those who have survived and lived to tell us their story.

With the opening stanza, Owen starts off with a simile in line one, “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks”. The poet is trying to stem away from the ideal that people believe soldiers are suppose be fresh, strong, and healthy because of how propaganda influenced them to think that way. Through the use of the first line, he shows the true, harsh reality by presenting the boys as filthy beggars and not the strong willed and handsome men they were thought to be. Another simile used to show the harsh reality of World War 1 is, “coughing like hags”, as it “indicates a state of severe fatigue and serious illness” (Benson 43) that the men suffered through in the trench warfare. Finally, Owen uses the simile, “Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud”, to help allude to the “vileness of a disease

Owen demonstrates how naive the minds of young boys were during the period of the war. Quotes such as "Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jilts" or "Someone said he'd look a god in kilts" suggests that he joined the army to impress others and to maintain this popular image that he seemed to possess. Then the quotes "Germans he scarcely thought of he had no fears" and "He thought of jewelled hilts for daggers in plaid socks of smart salutes" further demonstrates that the young soldier clearly has no real view on what war

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.

Life in the trenches during WWI was miserable. There seem to be no words that could truly match the horrific experience, but soldiers tried to conjure images using literature to come close to their experience. As stated in The World’s History, Europe had not warfare on such a scale since the Napoleonic wars (Spodek 664). Even watching the American Civil War from afar could not have prepared Europe and the young men that served for the devastation WWI brought. The poems described the war as a collection of numbed men, simply waiting to die, “lines of grey, muttering faces.” Men who had joined to serve their country had now become disillusioned with the nobility of dying for their country, wondering if the suffering both in and out of the trenches

During World War I, a collection of poems were written by soldiers serving in the war. The poems include If I Should Die by Rupert Brooke, In Flanders Fields by John MacRae, Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen, and On Passing the New Menin Gate by Siegfried Sassoon. The poetry differs in opinion on the war and dying for one’s country from soldier to soldier, with If I Should Die and In Flanders Fields romanticizing heroic death and glory, and Dulce Et Decorum Est and On Passing the New Menin Gate showcasing the gritty truth of war and the feelings of the soldiers who experience it.

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

His tone implies that he didn't know what he was getting into when Uncle Sam beckoned for him to join the war effort. Owen uses words like “Obscene” (Owen 23), “Incurable” (Owen 24), and to add a satirical bite, “An ecstasy of fumbling” (Owen 9). Owen’s diction makes it clear what his position on the war is, and tries his hardest to describe the brutality of it. Owen concludes his poem with “you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory…” (Owen 25-26). Owen drives his point home with his bitter tone and honest message. “The old lie” (Owen 27) Owen exclaims at the end of his poem. Death is not a romantic thing, even to die for your country.

In the poem ‘Disabled’, poet Wilfred Owen portrays the horrors of war and the brutal aftermath by using powerful imagery, dramatic contrasts of pace and time, overwhelming irony and by creating a strong sense of sympathy for the soldier of this poem. The contrasts between health and illness, life and death feature greatly in the poem; this gives the reader a ‘before and after’ picture of the soldier’s (subject’s) life.

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