The War Prayer By Wilfred Owen

The three narratives “Home Soil” by Irene Zabytko, “Song of Napalm” by Bruce Weigl, and “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen all have the same feelings of war and memory, although not everyone experiences the same war. Zabytko, Weigl, and Owen used shifting beats, dramatic descriptions, and intense, painful images, to convince us that the horror of war far outweighs the

The topic of war is hard to imagine from the perspective of one who hasn't experienced it. Literature makes it accessible for the reader to explore the themes of war. Owen and Remarque both dipcik what war was like for one who has never gone through it. Men in both All Quiet on the Western Front and “Dulce Et Decorum” experience betrayal of youth, horrors of war and feelings of camaraderie.

Throughout the ages, poetry has played--and continues to play--a significant part in the shaping of a generation. It ranges from passionate sonnets of love to the gruesome realities of life. One such example of harsh realism is Wilfred Owen 's "Dulce et Decorum Est." Owen 's piece breaks the conventions of early 20th Century modernism and idealistic war poetry, vividly depicts the traumatizing experiences of World War I, and employs various poetic devices to further his haunted tone and overall message of war 's cruel truths.

Penned during two distinctly disparate eras in American military history, both Erich Maria Remarque's bleak account of trench warfare during World War I, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Tim O'Brien's haunting elegy for a generation lost in the jungles of Vietnam, The Man I Killed, present readers with a stark reminder that beneath the veneer of glorious battle lies only suffering and death. Both authors imbue their work with a grim severity, presenting the reality of war as it truly exists. Men inflict grievous injuries on one another, breaking bodies and shattering lives, without ever truly knowing for what or whom they are fighting for. With their contributions to the genre of war literature, both Remarque and O'Brien have sought to lift the veil of vanity which, for so many wartime writers, perverts reality with patriotic fervor. In doing so, the authors manage to convey the true sacrifice of the conscripted soldier, the broken innocence which clouds a man's first kill, and the abandonment of one's identity which becomes necessary in order to kill again.

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.

‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is another of Wilfred Owen’s poems that conveys inner human conflict, in terms of past doings in World War I. The poem was written in 1917 at Craiglockhart (Owen’s first battle after his rehabilitation due to ‘shellshock’). It portrays an inner change in his approach to war and it’s gruesome environment:

“These are the times that try men’s souls.” Rarely have there been as powerful and as meaningful words as these from the pen of Thomas Paine. Paine was one of the many men who experienced the harsh effects of the war. The war was deadly, more deadly than ever could be expressed through words. The extremes of the war were felt by all, although some felt the cruelty the war more than others. Men from many different walks of life and men from different sides of the war all had their souls “tried” by this war. Some of the men, who joined the Colonial Army, could not take these “trials” once the going got tough.

In this essay, I will discuss how Tim O’Brien’s works “The Things They Carried” and “If I Die in a Combat Zone” reveal the individual human stories that are lost in war. In “The Things They Carried” O’Brien reveals the war stories of Alpha Company and shows how human each soldier is. In “If I Die in a Combat Zone” O’Brien tells his story with clarity, little of the dreamlike quality of “Things They Carried” is in this earlier work, which uses more blunt language that doesn’t hold back. In “If I Die” O’Brien reveals his own personal journey through war and what he experienced. O’Brien’s works prove a point that men, humans fight wars, not ideas. Phil Klay’s novel “Redeployment” is another novel that attempts to humanize soldiers in war. “Redeployment” is an anthology series, each chapter attempts to let us in the head of a new character – set in Afghanistan or in the United States – that is struggling with the current troubles of war. With the help of Phil Klay’s novel I will show how O’Brien’s works illustrate and highlight each story that make a war.

Many had lost their boots/ But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;/ Drunk with fatigue; dead even to the hoots…” (5-7). Owen uses intense imagery and even some hyperbole to present a complete expression of what exactly the soldiers acted like during war. If all men really did become blind and were overcome with a feeling of despair and fatigue, they would virtually be walking dead (by definition, zombies). With both Wilfred Owen and Erich Maria Remarque’s explanations of the actions of men during war, it is even easier to see how the dehumanizing effect of war impacts an active soldier’s

“Dulce et Decorum Est” is a poem written by English soldier and a poet, Wilfred Owen. He has not only written this poem, but many more. Such as “Insensibility”, “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, “Futility”, “Exposure”, and “Strange Meeting” are all his war poems. (Poets.org) His poetry shows the horror of the war and uncovers the hidden truths of the past century. Among with his other poems “Dulce et Decorum Est” is one of the best known and popular WWI poem. This poem is very shocking as well as thought provoking showing the true experience of a soldiers in trenches during war. He proves the theme suffering by sharing soldiers’ physical pain and psychological trauma in the battlefield. To him that was more than just fighting for owns country. In this poem, Owen uses logos, ethos, and pathos to proves that war was nothing more than hell.

With the knowledge of war you have today, would you be willing to volunteer to sign up for the front line?

The phrases “the country” and “in every breast” creates the sense that absolutely every American believes in these familiar concepts and to feel anything differently from the predetermined emotions picked out by the nation 's leaders should cause embarrassment and self-questioning among one. The personification of patriotism as a “holy fire [that] burned,” signifies that the embers are still building, as patriotism is still rising and the nation is getting stronger with the addition of every supporter. However this “burning fire” is contrasted in the “smothering dreams [that one] too could pace… his hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin”(Owen). These patriotic dreams are “smothered,” slowly fading and soon to be put out after society is exposed to what is truthfully going on amongst the soldiers on the battlefront. The faces that display excitement from the U.S. civilians at home contrast the “hanging faces, like a devil’s sick of sin.” The faces and attitudes of these soldiers are so lifeless and gruesome that they represent that of a “devil,” an image feared by a group derived from a strong religious foundation and who pray against “sin” upon such men.

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

Two prominent themes in these texts consist of people being physically and/or psychologically affected by something, in these instances war and depression, and the writers trying to distinguish truth from fantasy. The first poem analysed is "Dulce et decorum est", written by Wilfred Owen in 1917, which highlights how physically and psychologically crippled World War One soldiers were during battle, and conveys how young men were mislead into believing that it is honourable to die for their country. The second poem analysed is "Life is an illusion", written by Trisha Ward, which chronicles how she was feeling while suffering from depression and Post-traumatic stress disorder. The poem also describes how she tried to seek guidance and make sense

Carolyn Forché introduced the term ‘Poetry of Witness’ in ‘Twentieth Century Poetry of Witness’. She describes the writers of witness as “poets from all over the world who endured conditions of social and historical extremity during the twentieth century—those who suffered wars, imprisonment, military occupation, house arrest, forced exile, and political repression”. In their writings, the poets show not only that they were present at certain events of intensity, but it also allows them to display their emotions and thoughts about said events. This essay will explain the term ‘Poetry of Witness’ in greater detail, using ‘Smile, Smile, Smile’ by Wilfred Owen as an example.