Poetry Of Witness By Wilfred Owen

Explain how particular features of at least two of Wilfred Owen's poems set for study interact to affect your response to them.

Wilfred Owen uses language and poetic devices to evoke sympathy for the soldier in the poem by using in-depth descriptions. An example of this is in the first stanza where the soldier in the poem ‘shivered in his ghastly suit of grey’. The ‘g’ sound in the words ‘ghastly’ and ‘grey’ emphasises the horror of ‘ghastly’ combined with the dreariness of ‘grey’, which are now the two main features of his life. The word ‘ghastly’ shows something that is strange and unnatural. The adjective ‘grey’, which has connotations of bleakness, portrays an image of darkness and monotony. Furthermore, the verb ‘shivered’ shows that he is vulnerable and exposed. In the phrase, ‘Legless, sewn short at elbow’, the sibilance at the end of ‘Legless’, and in ‘sewn short’ tell us that the short-syllable words are ruthlessly to the point, so it emphasises the fact that the soldier has no arms and legs because of his wounds.

Wilfred Owen’s poetry is shaped by an intense focus on extraordinary human experiences. In at least 2 poems set for study, explore Owen’s portrayal of suffering and pity.

In the poem Exposure by Wilfred Owen, Owen has used some language techniques to appeal to my imagination by using personification, repetition and alliteration. By analysing the poems language techniques in-depth to see a bigger picture of how traumatising their experience's during the war were like and how severely nature's wrath tormented the soldiers, and to see what the poem is trying to convey. Owens most important message in the poem is to avoid war at all cost because of the harshness of nature and how tormenting it

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

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.

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.

How does Owen’s portrayal of the relationship between youth and war move us to a deeper understanding of suffering?

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.

army when he was 22 years old. He was injured in a shell explosion in

Wilfred Owen, through his poems, challenges our thoughts and perspectives on war in order to show the true effects and to stop the glorification it receives in society. Owen does this in both poems Anthem for Doomed Youth and Dulce et Decorum Est as he contrasts societies views and depictions of war from societies views as a result propaganda and the harsh reality as a result of Owens personal experiences. Owen also demonstrates the true effects of war by showing the treatment of the dead soldiers and the lack of respect which they receive by contrasting the funerals the soldiers received to civilian ones. From both poems we gather the understanding of Owens negative perspective towards human conflict and his purpose which is to show us the true and unglorified reality of

Wilfred Owen, one of the world’s most renowned poets of World War 1, uses sensory imagery to emphasize the unsettling happenings of war. By presenting first-hand views on the challenges of life whilst on the battlefield, Owen delves into the emotional and physical hardships of soldiers during the war. Futility, Insensibility and Anthem for Doomed Youth are three of the five poems released during Owens lifetime with Anthem being released in 1917 a year before futility and insensibility. By using many poetic techniques throughout his poems, Owen presents the romanticised horrors of war which was brought upon by propaganda, by exploring the notions of men who had given up their emotions in order to deal with the trauma of life and death in the trenches.

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

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

Throughout Wilfred Owen’s collection of poems, he unmasks the harsh tragedy of war through the events he experienced. His poems indulge and grasp readers to feel the pain of his words and develop some idea on the tragedy during the war. Tragedy was a common feature during the war, as innocent boys and men had their lives taken away from them in a gunshot. The sad truth of the war that most of the people who experienced and lived during the tragic time, still bare the horrifying images that still live with them now. Owen’s poems give the reader insight to this pain, and help unmask the tragedy of war.