Imagery In Homecoming

The title ‘Homecoming’ is a significant contrast to the traditional universal implication of the word with the reality of the dead soldiers being brought home, to their grieving families. The word “homecoming” usually implies a heroic or reception for a great achievement however Dawe has effectively placed it to represent the death, mourning and loss of a loved one. The poet uses powerful representation to emphasise the emotional damage caused to family or friends through the loss of a loved one. The striking personification used on lines 23-24: “telegrams tremble like leaves from a wintering tree and the spider grief swings his bitter geometry”, exemplifies the arbitrary grief that affects those who receive notices. Gaining an emotional distance through the use of a third person voice, the poem enables the reader to view the tragedy in its entirety. Repeating “home, home, home” accentuates the emotional ties of the soldiers, a technique indicative of the monotony of the experiences involved in warfare. By exposing the destructive aspects of war Dawe removes war from its falsely glorified

War has always existed. Although the purpose of war varies, the outcome is the same; many lives are changed and ruined. War is often used to gain power, resources, and land, but it disregards the lives of those fighting the fight. Martin Luther King stated, “The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.” In three selections, “Medevac Missions,” “A Journey Taken with my Son,” and “At Lowe’s Home Improvement Center,” readers come to understand the truths of wars’ impact on the lives of those surrounding the soldier. Their friends change, their physical and psychological states change, but the hardest truth is adjusting to life back at home. Soldiers experience many life changes during active

Firstly, Owen uses some language features to appeal to my imagination such as personification to emphasise the idea of humankind in conflict with nature. In the first stanza, Owen mentions "our brains ache in the merciless iced east winds that knife us" this suggests how painful war is from the exposure to the extreme cold. Owen uses the word "merciless" to suggest

Throughout human history, we have watched many men and women storm into combat to sweat, bleed, and die for a cause that they believe in. War is no secret to mankind, we have seen it hundreds of times, and we are aware of the mental and physical damage it has the capability of causing. We’ve learned of the gruesome damage caused by the first world war, and the numerous amount of lives it claimed. We’ve read the vivid stories authors wrote, using literature as a means to communicate the horrors experienced in war. Even in present day, we’ve seen, or known veterans who have returned from war with mental damage due to the terrible things they witnessed or partook in. Whether or not it is the smartest or most responsible idea, the human race uses

First, Owen uses logos to explain the horrible experience in WWI. The tile of this poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” means, it is honorable and sweet to die for own country, (Poetry Foundation), but the experience was too depressing. Owen uses the stanza like "But someone still was yelling…… man in fire or lime”, the ones who weren’t able to rich out their mask were choking and stumbling from toxic gas. Plus, a gas was all they needed to wipe out the field. (line 11,12) In line 5 and 6 he says, “Men marched asleep”, right before the gas blew off, some solders were men were sleep, as other limped their bloody feet as they lost their boots in battle

Wars are often glorified in tone to give praise and respect for those on the battlefields. There is an overall understanding that there are sacrifices needed in order to accomplish a larger goal. Excluded from this understanding is the realization that the effects of war

<br>There are several image groups used in this poem, two of which I will be reviewing. The first image group is "Sleep or Dreams". Owen often refers to many subconscious states like the afore mentioned one, the reason why he uses these references so frequently is that war is made apparent to the

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

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.

Owen personifies death, giving him readily identifiable human characteristics as spitting and coughing, but in a way that accords with the gruesome nature of death since he spits “bullets” and coughs “shrapnel.” What is really striking is that the soldiers welcome death's claim of their lives; they “chorused if he sang aloft” and “whistled while he shaved [them] with his scythe.” Although evoking the death-as-a-reaper conceptualization,

to show how quickly they had to react to the attack and to draw our

The purpose of war is again in question through the ironic titles evidenced in most of Owen’s poems. In ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’, the sweet and fitting death is contrasted against the bitter and

The mood and tone drops throughout the poem. The start is fairly sombre, using phrases such as ‘cursed through sludge’, ‘marched asleep’ and ‘limped on’. The mood darkens in the second stanza. Owen uses words such

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 these statements alone you can feel the exhaustion and sadness of the soldier speaking. Both of these poems showcase the realities of war, proving that war isn’t as glamorous as people make it out to be. War is exhausting hard work that is often overlooked to become a “hero” for ones country. The descriptive language used in each poem makes you able to feel as if you were in the soldier’s boots. When Wilfred Owen describes, “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks/Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through the sludge” (lines 1-2)