In 1599, William Shakespeare wrote a play called “Henry V”. Within the play, many speeches would be explored. Also, I would be using a selection of war poems to compare and explore the ways that war is presented in a positive and negative way. “The Soldier” was written by Rupert Brooke in 1914 in a traditional sonnet form. The key themes of this poem are love and death which is the two most powerful things that recall the feeling of readers. Death, as he is a soldier going into World War One, and love in the sense of loving his country. Brooke’s poem “The Soldier” is often compared with Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est”, written in 1917, just before the end of the war. “Dulce et Decorum Est” was not patriotic and some people believed that …show more content…
There is nothing difficult about the word choice or its sentence structures. “I knew a simple soldier boy” could almost be the opening sentence for a children book: it is cheerful, pleasant, and appealing. The use of the word “boy”, rather than using “soldier”, helps to make the youth sound particularly young and vulnerable. However, in line 2 where the writer uses oxymoron of “empty joy”. His joy is “empty” in the sense of that it arises from no particular provocation. He also sleeps soundly “through the lonesome dark”. This could mean that he is undisturbed by worries, nightmares, or fears of any kind. The last line in the first stanza, “And whistled early with the lark” creates an image of the boy who wakes up bright and early, and was happy to be awake and living. However, in the trenches, men were not happy to be awake and to them, living might be mean a pain. Also, “lark” is a spring bird, it seems to represent youthfulness. Soon after this stanza, the image of a happy boy is destroyed by the dark, and we begin to feel the depression of the boy. This present the war as a thief and steal youth from every young boy that joined the …show more content…
Sassoon uses the pathetic fallacy of “winter” to represent the boy’s personality as dark, dull and gloomy. It could point out that as the season has changed, so has he. “Cowed” tells us that he is intimidated and scared of war “Glum” sums up his emotion; he is depressed. This stanza ends with “No one spoke of him again”. This line shows us how many soldiers who fought and died in the trenches were forgotten. It could also show that all the suffering were forgotten too; as death was such a common event in the trenches. The juxtaposition of the first two stanza helps Sassoon to make the reader feel the reality of war, and the image of a boy driven to suicide due to war. This supports the idea of not patriotic in “Dulce et Decorum
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
Wilfred Owen establishes and displays his thoughts and opinions on war and conflict rather plainly. He writes about the dehumanization of very young and innocent soldiers, as well as the grotesque and painful deaths that awaited them. Also, the impact this has on the families at the Homefront
War is a scandalous topic where peoples’ views differ as to what war is. Some people see it as pure evil and wicked while others think that it is brave and noble of what soldiers do. Looking at poems which had been written by people affected by war help show the messages which are portrayed. The two sets of poems which show different views of war as well as some similarities are “the Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred Lord Tennyson, “To Lucasta, on Going to the Wars” by Richard Lovelace and “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, “The Song of the Mud” by Mary Borden. Both these poets use linguistic devices to convince the reader of their view of what the war is. Tennyson and Lovelace show how war is worthy
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.
The title itself alludes to “The Unknown Soldier,” almost parodying it. According to Georgia Virtual School, an unknown soldier died in battle, however, the body is unrecognizable. It is also known that soldiers are tagged. The fact that the title is the way it is and the subtitle mimics a tag implies that the lives of common folk is so insignificant and uneventful that they might just as well be unknown since they are just another face in the vast crowd of people. This relays a metaphor in the eyes of the reader.
The poem starts with similar word choices as ‘The Soldier’ but written in the perspective of the mother. The mother tells his son that when he dies he will be in a place of ‘quietness’ and free from the ‘loss and bloodshed’. This reinforces the fact that the battlefield was full of horrors and death. The poem then moves onto how ‘men may rest themselves and dream of nought’ explaining that the soldiers do not have to fear for their lives after their death. This illustrates how they feared for their lives and had negative connotations.
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
World War One poets Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen both use poetry to examine their differing perspectives surrounding the idea of heroism in war. Brooke’s The Soldier depicts an idealistic, patriotic view towards fighting for his country, whereas Owen’s Dulce et Decorum est demonstrates a realistic view of the senseless horrors of war. Both poets utilise similar poetic techniques of imagery and sound devices to express their contradictory views of the atrocious events of the greatest war that the world had ever seen at that time.
Passage 1 shows a young soldiers view on war. Its shows the view of how from war you can reach maturity. He goes from a boy who brags about war to someone who has reached enlightenment. He sees his action during battle as a betrayal but he comes to terms with it. “Followed by the somber phantom of desertion in the fields.”(Line 3) “...Put the sin at a distance ….his eyes seemed to open to some new ways”. (Line 6) He uses words such as “tranquility” and “sturdy” to show how the soldier has matured into a man. The author’s use of diction is a guide through the characters growth.
The poems I have chosen to compare in this essay are Wilfred Owen's “Dulce Et Decorum Est” and Jessie Pope's “Who's For The Game?”. The two poems I have chosen to compare are both about the first world war. Yet the two poems have very different opinions on the Great War. My first poem, Dulce et decorum, is against the war and the injustice of it all. It is narrated by one of the soldiers who is fighting in the Great War and having to face the horrors of war. On the contrary my second poem, Who's for the game, is a recruitment poem.
Thousands of young Europeans went to serve their country (draft) during the first world war and were met with death and destruction. In addition to having to witness comrades and friends being killed, they had to kill others which will undoubtedly change someone. It takes away your innocence to have to do and see things such as this. For those that survived these images haunted them for the rest of their lives changing their outlook on life and general disposition. Which such a large percent of the population having had such damaging effects it takes a toll on the entirety of Europe. Siegfried Sassoon, a British poet who fought during WWI, recounts his experience and the damaging effects of war. In Sassoon’s Suicide in the Trenches he writes about the effects of the war on the soldiers and the disillusionment people at home had about war. The first stanza of the poem has as cheerful tone. Sassoon writes “I knew a simple soldier boy,” choosing to use the word “boy” instead of man to put an emphasis on how young and youthful these soldiers were. There is a sharp change of tone between the first and second stanza in which Sassoon talks of the hardships of the trenches and has a an emphasis on winter. The boy who was spoken about in the first stanza as
Similar to Anthem for Doomed Youth, the idea of dehumanisation in 'Dulce ET Decorum EST Pro Patria Mori' is also introduced early in the poem. The first lines, "Bent double, like old beggars under sacks", and "Knock-kneed, coughing like hags" both describe the condition in which young people of the war suffered through. The similes allow the audience to visualise the soldiers more accurately. They are portrayed somewhat so weak and devaluated, look and feel much older than they are; in general, not at all possessing the qualities
Poetry is an effective art form used to express the many values within society. Throughout the ninetieth and twentieth centuries, poetry and the arts have been used as a significant media for communicating political propaganda, and as a means to encourage patriotism within young men to fight and die for their country. Alfred Lord Tennyson’s ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ underpins this notion, exemplifying the ‘glory’ and honour of dying in battle for one’s country, during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean war (1853 -1856). However not all war poetry signifies heroic propaganda, Wilfred Owens poem Dulce et decorum Est, provides a contrasting theme and illustrates the traumatic and distressing influence war has upon men, during the conflict
A Comparison of Dulce Et Decorum Est and Exposure Traditional war poetry gives the idea of patriotic idealism of war. This style of poetry implies that war is patriotic and that people who fight for their country are honorable. But many of the poets do not portray war as it really is, by glossing over the gory details with attractive images. Many traditional war poems were written before the war to persuade and encourage young boys to become loyal soldiers.
the notion of seeing your brothers die in front of your bare eyes, and not be able to do anything to save them. My poems ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ and ‘Dulce Et Decorm Est’ explains the conflict of life bereft of war, as opposed to that involved in it, they are also poems that i wrote from first hand experiences. ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ is a poem that describes the inevitable mass killing of soldiers at war whilst ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ brings to life the reality of combat in war - the physical and emotional state soldiers find themselves in before, during and immediately after a sudden gas attack. Both these poems will paint a vivid image how and what the soldiers had to go through every day, and make you all understand how the war is from the perspective of a solider that has been through gas attacks, whaling shells, gun shots, to see your brothers go to sleep and never wake up, and the struggles men have to go through after the war, assuming that they do