The War I Was A Devastating Time For The End Of A Day

The overall message in this poem is a drill sergeant educating young soldiers and preparing them for the harsh reality of war. He is not playing ‘Mr. nice guy’, he is being tough and strict to give the soldiers no easy way out.

In this poem Owen's use of strong diction and vivid figurative language such as; "In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning", provides an indication of the horror endured by these soldiers, and also emphasises the ironic anti-war message that he is trying to convey: 'How sweet and fitting it is to die for one's country.' This message was exactly the kind of patriotic love promoted by Jessie Pope and other pro-war poets of the time. The central conflict of the poem is the futility of war and the dehumanisation of men. Stanza one is written in the past tense, and is laced with metaphors and similes, such as: "like old beggars under sacks", "Men marched asleep" and "Drunk with fatigue".

Many of the soldiers fighting for their countries in the First World War were young teenagers who volunteered to serve not knowing what was in prepare for them. The experience they went through was an experience a man should not have experienced. The war had left many soldiers scarred physically and mentally. Most of them suffered from serious cases of traumatic disorders like shell shock (2016). These traumas experienced through each senses from sight to hearing to touch and even smell can linger forever in their lives and minds. Many people also lost family and friends who were soldiers that fought for the war and are dear to them because of this horrific war. This war happened because of the greed of the countries and formation of secret allies. The war and tragic history could be avoided. The loss of so many lives would not happen

The effects of war are long documented, and range in their appearance and severity. Although it has been concluded as to what the obvious physical toll war has on an individual, the psychological effects are not as well documented. PTSD, one of the main psychological diseases associated with the experience of war, faced trouble in the early stages of its first diagnosis. The diseases’ first diagnosis was met with heavy opposition. Researchers collaborated with Vietnam War veterans in order to create a universal diagnosis that could be directly tied with the effects the war had had on these veterans. Early study linked the disease to nightmares and horrific flashbacks described by the veterans, which thus correlated the effects of war with the disorder that had been diagnosed. Many veterans who suffer from the disorder have an inability to be calm as well as uncontrollable bouts of rage. Another common symptom is a feeling of worthlessness or lack of interest or participation in life; and these symptoms haven’t just been documented in dispatched soldiers and veterans returning from combat. It has been found that nearly any sort of traumatic experience can trigger the disorder in varying forms of potency. Survivors of earthquakes, monsoons, tsunamis, and shootings have also been found to display these symptoms (Kolk, B., & Najavits, L. M., 2013). In conclusion, war has been found to have a distinct and explicit effect on the cognition,

An idea that is getting explored is that these men who are dying were not always soldiers they were once farmers and many other things this is shown in the line ‘At home, whispering of fields half-sown.’ These men who are dying are only here because there king ordered them while the trained soldiers who were in the army prior to ww1 were often in command tents far from the front lines. It also shows the ideas of suffering with the mention of limbs not working and bodies still war but unmoved. This is what the poem is focused on him and a group of soldiers in ww1 standing over the body of their dead friend contemplating about his death and the loss of potential.

World War I played a major role in shaping the Lost Generation because it killed many people that would have been part of the Lost Generation. Even after the war ended, people still referenced and talked about it, and it continued to affect many people, including veterans and others involved in the war, such as nurses. The first effect of the war was that it killed so many people, so the ones still alive had to live with the sorrow. Those who fought in the war and survived were also scarred, both physically and mentally. They had faced the worst war fought to date and saw the mass killing and destruction of humankind. The images seen by the veterans affected their everyday lives because they could not unsee the horrors. The veterans were

In the first stanza the young soldier is depicted in a dark, isolated state as he sits in his wheelchair. Almost immediately the reader learns that the soldier has lost his legs in a battle. Owen casts a pall over this young man with the depiction of sad voices of boys echoing throughout the park, perhaps as they echoed on the battlefield. The voices throw him back into his memories, which is what will constitute the rest of the poem until the last few lines. Words such as "waiting" and "sleep" reinforce the sense that this soldier's life is interminable to him

Before the war, the subject of the poem was a handsome and popular teenager who was excellent at football, however, his injuries have left him disfigured and completely dependent on others, which leads to a mental torment far subtler but almost as agonising as that of the subjects in 'Mental Cases' - he spends all his time thinking about the time before the war, and regretting that he signed up. This is the main tragedy behind this poem - the fact that the whole situation could have been prevented if he hadn't. The narrator of the poem recognises this, and expresses the subject's regret with lines such as "In the old times, before he threw away his knees". The use of the phrase "threw away" shows that the subject does not think that it was worth it - he feels that he lost his limbs for nothing; it was a waste. It also suggests that he blames himself for what happened. Another phrase which is very powerful in conveying the mental consequences of war on the subject of this poem is in the first line; when he is described as sitting and "waiting for dark". This shows how he empty his life is, because he has nothing to do but wait for darkness to come, so he can go to bed. The final phrase which powerfully portrays the mental consequences of war is when, describing how the subject was naive when he signed up for the war, the narrator writes "no fears of Fear came yet." By turning the second 'fear' into a proper

Throughout the twentieth century, many poets have written about war. They have protested against it, created propaganda in support, celebrated conflict, and questioned it. War in general tends to evoke emotion in everyone, whether it is pride in a country, grief of losing a loved one, fear of the unknown, or even happiness because of a victory. On page one of Philippa Lyon’s “Twentieth Century War Poetry”, she writes,“…much poetry has been written by individuals (both male and female) who were not necessarily in the thick of battle.” She is saying that a lot of them poems were written by individuals with a different point of view of the war than the soldiers. Not all of war poetry was written by soldier-poets, who offer a first-hand account of what it was like and their experiences. Lyons then continues and writes, “…the poetry poses direct questions about motivation, intent and fairness; that is to say, about the nature, morality and politics of war.” The individuals had many questions about the war and they present those questions through poetry. It is not always seen as an individual’s hardship and struggles turned into art. Amy Lowell’s “September 1918” and Carl Sandburg’s “Grass” both describe a common theme of war, which evokes a spectrum of emotions.

Wilfred Owen joined the corps in 1915, at the tender age of twenty-two therefore his poems are testimonial, reflecting the gullibility evinced by many of the other young soldiers who fought in the World War. Consequently, Owen’s poems allude to a theme of the loss of innocence in the young soldiers as they were unprepared for the reality of what they would encounter. He also illustrates that the soldiers joined for materialistic reasons (e.g. titles, patronage) spurred in by the fervent propaganda.

When we read the title of the poem we expect a poem about the honour of fighting and dying for your country since the meaning of the Latin words mean that “it is a wonderful and great honour to fight and die for your country” but when we read the poem we find the opposite. Owen juxtaposes the idea of war as devastating and the idea of war as heroic to illustrate the poem's ultimate irony – “Dulce ET Decorum Est, Pro Patria Mori”. The men who enlist are ‘innocent’ (Roberts, 1996 pg. 260 line 24), they are ‘children’ (Roberts, 1996 pg. 260 line 26) who have learned that war is full of ‘high zest’ (Roberts, 1996 pg. 260 line 25) and this makes them “ardent for some desperate glory” (Roberts, 1996 pg. 260 line 26). The innocents are willing to believe the Lie but they will, of course, learn differently once they experience the war first hand. By the end of the poem, the reader can fully appreciate the irony between the truth of what happens in the trenches and the Lie being told at home. ” (Roberts, 1996 pg. 260 line 26). We also find dehumanisation when Owen hurls the pain into the readers’ faceby picturing “old beggars under sacks” in the first line,which tells us these men are battle weary, but also gives us a hint that they are scared of what is ahead for them. Using graphic terms such as ‘blood-shod’(line 7) , Owen is not merely telling us of the hell of war, he is showing us. Dehumanisation thus comes to front in this

William Tecumseh Sherman said it best in 1870, when he said: “I tell you, war is Hell,” and the First World War gave truth to that statement. From over four years, the entire world was embroiled in the throes of war. The allied nations of Britain, France, Imperial Russia and later America seemingly fought a “just war” against the aggression of Imperial Germany and Austria-Hungary. The “War to End all Wars” may not have done what it’s epithet claims, it was the war that opened up countless boxes for the world to explore. One such box was the coinage of the term “shell shock” This crude and blunt term was the first to recognize what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. Millions of men came home from the front with broken minds and people had to find a way to “fix” something that seemingly could not be fixed. In her 1918 novel, The Return of the Soldier, British author Rebecca West tackles the issue of mental health in a time when the human brain was even still an elusive enigma. She takes the example of a shell-shocked soldier to explore the themes of how amnesia can touch the lives of not just the afflicted, the selfishness of those his ailment has affected, and the morality of their actions.

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”

The poem described the effects of WW1 on a soldier. For example this soldier in particular was apparently good-looking and he was attractive. Because of his injuries however, no longer. He’s also very depended on others which can be seen from the last line of the poem where he is wondering where the nurses are.

Moreover, this is the moment where he shows the readers how the soldier wears dreary depressive colors to represent his view of present and his future: “And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey, Legless, sewn short at elbow”, foreshadowing his future. Accordingly, this portrays his lack of will to change. Owen uses negative connotations to illustrate the harsh present, furthermore “waiting” conveys a sense of hopelessness rather than anticipation, portraying the association with the “dark” and cold. The ‘ghastly’, ‘legless’ suit, ‘sewn short at elbow’ relentlessly introduces us to the man’s sorrow.Opening the second stanza with the quotation: "About this time Town used to swing so gay", Owen demonstrates the difference in the way the man looks at life, with the past being happy and gay...The soldier enjoyed his past, being with lovely girls, however this has now changed as the girls "... touch him like some queer disease." Wilfred Owen grimly states how the man "will never feel again how slim girls' waists are" unlike in the past, "before he threw away his knees". Throughout the use of juxtaposition Owen portrays women’s revulsion, in addition, this has the effect of making female rejection of him more poignant. Furthermore, this quote presents us that the soldier has taken