Is Wilfred Owen's Contradiction To The Glorification Of War

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

One is to think of war as one of the most honorable and noble services that a man can attend to for his country, it is seen as one of the most heroic ways to die for the best cause. The idea of this is stripped down and made a complete mockery of throughout both of Wilfred Owen’s poems “Dulce Et Decorum Est” and “Anthem for Doomed Youth”. Through his use of quickly shifting tones, horrific descriptive and emotive language and paradoxical metaphors, Owen contradicts the use of war and amount of glamour given towards the idea of it.

Wilfred Owen’s poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” makes the reader acutely aware of the impact of war. The speaker’s experiences with war are vivid and terrible. Through the themes of the poem, his language choices, and contrasting the pleasant title preceding the disturbing content of the poem, he brings attention to his views on war while during the midst of one himself. Owen uses symbolism in form and language to illustrate the horrors the speaker and his comrades go through; and the way he describes the soldiers, as though they are distorted and damaged, parallels how the speaker’s mind is violated and haunted by war.

Another tool in developing the effectiveness of the poem is the use of compelling figurative language in the poem helps to reveal the reality of war. In the first line, the metaphor, ?Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,?(1) shows us that the troops are so tired that they can be compared to old beggars. Also, the simile "coughing like hags"(2) helps to depict the soldiers? poor health and depressed state of mind. Owen makes us picture the soldiers as ill, disturbed and utterly exhausted Another great use of simile, ?His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,?(20) suggests that his face is probably covered with blood which is the color symbolizing the devil. A very powerful metaphor is the comparison of painful experiences of the troops to ??vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues.?(24) This metaphor emphasizes that the troops will never forget these horrific experiences. As you can see, Owen has used figurative language so effectively that the reader gets drawn into the poem.

Wilfred Owen’s porter vividly depicts the horror and futility of war and the detrimental impact of war upon the soldiers. Owen’s poem, ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’, written in 1917 depicts the horror of war as the physical and mental damages on the solders. Most importantly, the context of the poem subverts its title. In his other poem, ‘Futility’ written in 1918, conveys war as fatal and that war is pure wastage of human lives.

Owen’s poem starts with two similes in lines 1-2, “bent double, like old beggars” and coughing like hags.” The soldiers are compared to old beggars who are unable to stand up straight due to their fatigue (bent double,

Through the use of dramatic imagery in Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est,” Owen is able to recreate a dramatic war scene and put the reader right on the front lines. The use of language is very effective in garnering the readers’ attention and putting the dire images of war into the mind. He emphasizes that war is upsetting and appalling at times. There is nothing sweet about it. He only strengthens his argument by the use of strong descriptive words and vivid figurative language. The utilization of these techniques gives the poem a strong meaning and provides the reader with a vivid portrayal of the events that took place during this grisly occurrence.

Owen vividly describes the death of the soldier and his attempts to cry out for help. He describes the body’s “white eyes writhing,” “[its] hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin” to stress the devastation war causes (Owen 18-19). The author shows the reader how the soldier’s blood “[came] gargling from [his] froth-corrupted lungs” (Owen 21-22). Through his use of grotesque, visual

The poem “Dulce et Decorum est” by Wilfred Owen is an appalling and thought provoking poem that depicts the horrors of the First World War, focusing on a horrific gas attack. The latin words “Dulce et Decorum est” translate to “It is sweet and proper”, the first words of the phrase “It is sweet and proper to die for the fatherland”. Owen effectively uses the poetic technique of irony to disprove this statement, by graphically describing atrocious scenes of war. Through these descriptions, the poet creates vivid , effective imagery for the reader and conveys a powerful message – that there is nothing glorious or honorable about fighting and dying for your country.

Owen’s synesthesia swirling throughout the whole poem. For example, “Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots?” It explained how exhausted the soldiers were during the war. Moreover, Owen uses drunk compare to sleepy or tired to make the readers think that the fatigueness is unbearable to all the soldiers. In the end the soldiers put everything on the line, emotionally as well as physically for what? The war is not to protect the people so then what is the reason? War is a lot to put up with and there is a lot of weight put on the soldiers to be a certain idol for the people, but the truth is that war is problematic and there is no heroism in the

Owen lashes back at the men and women who sent the soldiers to their dooms whilst they are peacefully sitting within their homes unaware of the wars reality, brutality. Owen, sees again the wagon that the man’s body was thrown into. The fact that the bodies were just thrown onto the wagon with other decomposing bodies creates the sense that life was meaningless when it comes to war. If you die, you die, there’s nothing that can be done. This poor soldier who could’ve went on to getting married or have kids, is just thrown onto a wagon where other soldiers are going to be tossed on top of. To the war he meant nothing. The death of the soldier is almost being compared to a possession. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, leaving nothing but white filling his eyes. The pain is contorting the face of the victim – ‘Like devil’s sick of sin’. Owen may have used the idea of the devil to compare the soldiers experience of war to hell. The soldiers face is literally ‘hanging’ as the flesh has been burnt and corroded causing it to exfoliate from his face. His blood gurgled from his ‘froth-corrupted lungs’. They may have been cancerous leading to him coughing up his guts. The ‘vile incurable sores’ are bitter memories that will remain imprinted in the soldier’s minds in such a manner that they will never be healed and the experience will forever be unbearable. Owens disdain for the war and the horrors that the soldiers experienced become evident throughout his poetry (e.g., The Send Off and Dulce Et Decorum Est). Owen mocks the fact that ‘its sweet and right to die for your country’ – ‘Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori’. He ends the poem by trying to reach out to the reader that fighting for your country at war isn’t going to bring you glory, but

“The poem’s opening lines drop readers into the middle of battle, using a quick, densely delivered series of images that pile onto each other like the burdens of the soldiers” (Jackson 170). We get images right away in the poem that we are experiencing heavy events that have happened in history, and Owen successfully takes us there. The first two lines of the poem start off with a simile, “bent double, like old beggars under sacks” (Owen l.1). There is a comparison between the soldiers that are in the war and old beggars under sacks, suggesting that the soldiers are weak and poor. With the whole first stanza, we can get a visual interpretation of soldiers that are viewed as “beggars,” “coughing hags,” “blind,” and “drunk with fatigue” (Owen l.1-7). “Drunk with fatigue” (Owen l.7), “exists on the boundary of conscious and unconscious” (Jackson 170) mind state. Giving us, as readers, a sense of how these soldiers were living and what they were going through by this gruesome description of this war. Later on in the poem, we see that “someone still was yelling out and stumbling, and flound’ring like a man in fire” (Owen l.11-12). The use of the simile in that line, gives us the image of how this man was stumbling, he was stumbling like someone trying to get out of a fire. We can see that in our minds as someone struggling, someone very

For thousands of years mankind has been obsessed with the subject of war, from the clash of swords to the bitter thunder of artillery mankind has brought upon itself an immense amount of suffering. Good evening teachers and students I am here today with the aim of convincing you on why Wilfred Owens poetry must not be ignored but instead explored to find the deeper meaning of his poems. The poetry of Wilfred Owen was different to that of other war poets of his time as it revealed the horrors and agony of the so-called Great War which were concealed by the Church and British Authorities for the purpose of deceiving the youth. The idea of romanticising war goes strongly against Wilfred Owens moral purpose, thus his Poetry is didactic and condemnatory. Throughout his short life he had first hand experience with the scourge of war. From this he aimed to debunk those romanticised notions of the glorification of war that were present at the time by challenging poets such as John Keats who glorified war. Owen effectively conveys the truth of war through his use of techniques such as imagery, ambiguity and many others in his poems of "Dulce Et Decorum EST" and Anthem For doomed youth.

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

From the first stanza itself, it is evident that Owen was writing to uproot the false indications of war being “sweet” and “noble” that had been implanted into the heads of millions due to the effective wide spread of propaganda. By using images such as “drunk with fatigue” and “All went lame; all blind”, he aims to portray war as an epidemic that not only dehumanises the unfortunate souls who were caught in its path, but as something that strips them from their dignity and freedom as well. The first two lines of this poem “Bent double...old beggars...sacks...Knock-kneed,coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge” shows that war seems to have reduced these men into nothing but “beggars and hags” leaving them with no choice but to “curse”