Comparison of "Recalling War" by Robert Graves and "Mental Case" by Wilfred Owen.

Wilfred Owen's war poems central features include the wastage involved with war, horrors of war and the physical effects of war. These features are seen in the poems "Dulce Et Decorum Est" and "Anthem for Doomed Youth" here Owen engages with the reader appealing to the readers empathy that is felt towards the soldier. These poems interact to explore the experiences of the soldiers on the battlefields including the realities of using gas as a weapon in war and help to highlight the incorrect glorification of war. This continuous interaction invites the reader to connect with the poems to develop a more thorough

Wilfred Owen‘s poetry significantly conveys his perspectives on human conflict through his encounters amid the The Great War. Poems such as The Next War and Dulce et Decorum Est. Owen’s poetry is a representation of the conditions soldiers faced within the times of World War I, from 1914 to 1918. These poems depict these perceptions through the use of poetic techniques and features, to communicate serve as a commentary on the human condition as experienced by Wilfred Owen in relation to the violence of war during World War I. There is a distinguished shift from a romantic view of war to a disenchanted, distorted and disillusioned broken man. This is due to his experiences in the war, emphasising on such conflicts, involving, war and disaster,

Poems written about World War One during the time of Wilfred Owen’s life would generally romanticize the war, leaving their readers with a sense of patriotism to their country and admiration for the soldiers it described. Owen’s poetry differs drastically from that of other war poets of his time, as his aim was to communicate the inhumanity of war by telling the truth of the brutal and agonizing experience in the trenches, instead of glorifying war in attempts to gather more recruits. His poems Anthem for Doomed Youth, The Sentry, The Last Laugh and Dulce et Decorum Est all contain the same angry outcry against war, and make their point by using complex and innovative forms of poetry, showing the desulte state of the soldiers, and bringing the atrocities of war alive for the audience.

Wilfred Owen, having participated in the war, sought to express his own experiences to everyone. In his poetry, Wilfred Owen expresses the outrages and horrors of war and the compassion for soldiers who sacrifice their lives. Throughout the use of poetic techniques, Owen manages to convey the barbarism of the war with extreme realism and evoke in the reader much more than disgust and sympathy. Through the use of poetic techniques, he allows the reader to empathize with his situation, thoughts, and emotions. Owen expresses himself with a dramatic and memorable voice; he manages to render imagery that is startling and emotionally-profound and convey horror and dismay of war. These poetic techniques can be seen in the three poems ‘Anthem for Doomed

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.

Throughout history, poetry was often used in conflict with glorified or ambiguous images of war being presented to the people at home, revealing the truth and brutality of war. Bruce Dawe, Kenneth Slessor, Carol Ann Duffy and Wilfred Owen are well-known anti-war poets who express their concerns ad objections of war through poetry. Dawe’s ‘Homecoming’ and Slessor’s ‘Beach Burial’ explore the vastness of war and the futile magnitude of soldiers who had fallen in battle, never to return home. Contrastingly, Duffy’s ‘War Photographer’ and Owen’s ‘Arms and the Boy’ comment on the disability of psychologically returning home, exploring the corruption of innocence and youth, with those involved in war never to return home as the same person.

In addition to the content of the poem relaying the message of the importance of memories and their driving force and their ability to allow an individual, or a group, to lay claim to immortality, the form in which the poetry was written subtly alludes to the same concepts of heroism and memories. This is demonstrated in everything from the subtle changes in tone that occur throughout the poem. An example of this change of tone affecting the mood of the poem could be demonstrated while studying the character’s loss of humanity throughout the poem. In the second stanza the narrator presents war in an

Wilfred Owen’s Anthem for Doomed Youth and Bruce Dawe’s Homecoming are thematically connected poems which explore the futility of war and the treatment of deceased combatants. Both Owen and Dawe served in the military and were controversial condemners in all that they penned on World War One and the Vietnam War respectively. Despite this, these texts do not explicitly state these views, but rather evoke the sympathy of the audience utilising subtle poetic techniques including contrast, flesh imagery and death imagery.

“Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality.” Poetry throughout the ages has influenced change in society and given voice to controversial topics. Wilfred Owen influenced his nation and became a powerful and significant agent of change through his literature as he demonstrated throughout his poetry how war is not something to be glorified yet is a horrific injustice suffered by many. By analysing Dulce Et Decorum Est and Anthem Of The Doomed it can be said that Owen’s significant message is to confront the idea of glorifying war and the patriotic sentiment of trench warfare.

The poet tells us, the glory of war is just an “old lie”. Owen shows the indignity of death in war as the dying man was “flung” in a wagon instead of being honored for his bravery and duty as the way they were told. The last stanza goes into sickening detail of the dying man, “at every jolt the blood – come gargling from his froth-corrupted lungs”, the “white eyes writhing” in his face. The use of alliteration and assonance emphasizes how the memory has a powerful impact on those who witnessed the scene. Owen’s vivid imagery consumes the reader in horror, pity, shock, even disgust and is enough to sear the heart and mind. The cruel reality of war can be clearly seen as men lose their lives in the most pointless futile manner as they are just “flung” aside during death. Just by reading, the readers can perceive Owen’s bitter and disparaging tone towards war, the propaganda and sectors of society who glorified it.

In the year 1914, Europe began to tear itself apart, man fighting man, neighbor fighting neighbor. In Britain, there were posters everywhere, proclaiming the glory and importance of the fight. Very few stood against this notion, but their voices and words were strong. One of these few was a young man, who had recently returned from the line of duty. This man’s name was Wilfred Owen, and he is now known as one of the most talented British poets to emerge as a response to the so called Great War. Born on the 18th of March in 1893, Owen served on the front lines of World War I and brought back mental scars that would not heal. He served in France and saw horrors that he later spoke of in his poems, which he wrote from August of 1917 to September of 1918. Shortly before the end of the war, which he fought so hard to bring, he was killed in action at the age of twenty five. He left behind him a legacy and a warning for the world to read (“Wilfred Owen.”, Poetry). Wilfred Owen’s service during World War I greatly influenced the imagery and the subject matter of his poems, both of which show the horrors of war.

The powerful use of similes allows the reader to experience the realities of war. Honourable men who once stood tall and proud were "bent double like old beggars" (1), men who once ran into the face of danger now "marched asleep… drunk with fatigue" (5,7), and healthy men were now "blood-shod…lame [and] blind" (6). The second section of the poem, comprised of the second and third stanza, continues to build the setting established in the first eight lines. The speaker accomplishes this using metaphorical speech depicting the death and suffering of a soldier. The soldier, "yelling… and stumbling," (11) through waves of green gas, died helplessly "guttering, choking, [and] drowning."

When you hear the word 'war', do you think of an endless road to death and suffering, or the glory of the fallen soldiers? Wilfred Owen, who wrote the best British poetries based of his experiences from World War I, is recognised for evoking various raw emotions with his realistic depictions of the gruesomeness of war. After he was injured during the 1917 World War, he evacuated to Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh after being diagnosed with shell shock, and found himself composing many of his masterpieces including the 'Anthem for Doomed Youth'.

In the first stanza, the author uses the words ‘move’, ‘whispering’ and ‘gently’ to create a calm and quiet atmosphere. This draws the reader’s attention to the death of the soldier, rather than the cries and violence of the trenches. In the poem the author seeks refuge and refers to the sun as ‘kind’ and ‘old’, relying all his hope on it as he prays that the sun will wake his dead comrade. This stanza contrast strongly with the propagandas back home and gives the audience an insight into the pain of loss that comrades have to experience due to war.

The first paragraph of this poem tells of the slow death of a soldier as the sun rises. Sassoon has skilfully manipulated language and his choice of words in order to create a visual image that is slowly sculptured as the first four lines are read.