Wilfred Owen And WH Auden's Refugee Blues And Disabled

An unsettling tone is furthered by Owen with his use of sensory imagery that is able to capture the dehumanisation of soldiers during the war. This manifests in Owen’s poem “Insensibility”, where Owen gives insight into the shocking way the soldiers are treated. Clearly depicted in the first stanza, “Men, gaps for filling”. The metonymy of the soldiers as gaps in the front line demean the men as they have become expendable. This horrific truth that the soldiers have been dehumanised to the point of being pawns gives the reader an unsettling sense. The next sentence of the poem further demonstrates this idea, “Losses, who might have fought longer; but no one bothers”. The collective pronoun neglects the soldiers as real humans by remembering them only as “losses”, this dehumanisation of the soldiers after they die further pushes this unsettling tone. Moreover, the fact that these “losses” may have been prolonged, but “no one bothers”, is extremely unsettling. Owen uses direct language to portray the indifference towards the soldier’s deaths. Their deaths are insignificant as they are expendable and because of this the soldiers have been dehumanised. Therefore, Owen further develops this unsettling feeling in the reader by displaying the dehumanisation of the soldiers.

In this free-verse war poem, the idea of 'journey' extends itself to cover both the physical and emotional aspects of the subject matter of the poem. Repetition and word

Wilfred Owens poem “Dulce et Decorum est” and Bruce Dawe’s poem “Homecoming” are poems from different wars, however both highlight the indignity of war. Owen’s poem is broken up into three sections, where he expresses the torture soldiers suffer

In the fifth stanza he uses imagery in a different instance where he describes how ignorant the veteran was about the reality as he is only thinking of the glorification of war. He portrays an image of “jewelled hilts”, “daggers in plaid socks;”, “smart salutes” and “Esprit de corps”. Throughout the stanza we hear of the glories and amusements of war but only on the last line does he mention the aftermath of the war where he was discharged due to his disability.

Looking at the different structures and forms used in both poems, they contrast the difference between one speaker being confused, and not knowing what’s happening, to a very loosely structured ballad.

Para-rhymes, in Owen’s poetry, generate a sense of incompleteness while creating a pessimistic, gloomy effect to give an impression of sombreness. Strong rhyming schemes are often interrupted unexpectedly with a para-rhyme to incorporate doubt to every aspect of this Great War. Who are the real villains and why are hundreds of thousands of lives being wasted in a war with no meaning? In ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, the consistent sonnet rhyming scheme is disturbed by a half rhyme, “guns … orisons”, to show how the soldiers all died alone with only the weapons that killed them by their side, and a visual rhyme, “all … pall” to indicate that the reality of war is entirely the opposite to what it seems - no glory, no joy and no heroism, but only death and destruction. Owen occasionally works with this technique in a reverse approach to create similar thought. For instance, the assonance, consonance and half rhyme based poem, ‘The Last Laugh’, contains an unforeseen full rhyme, “moaned … groaned”, to emphasise that nothing is ever fixed in war except the ghastly fact that the weapons are the true winners. Different forms of Para rhymes often work together with common schemes to ably bring out the main ideas of Owen’s poetry.

While in Wilfred Owen's poem, he talks all about the horrors of war that people have seen and how they can never forget it. For instance, when the poet is talking about the gas attack, he describes the person that couldn’t get the mask on how he

The novel and poem both express the central idea that the horrors of war suppress

Wilfred Owens captivating poem ‘Disabled’ relates to the after effects of what war can be responsible for. The poem depicts an ironic contrast between a strong limbed, handsome youth hero in battle and a wrecked body in a wheelchair which occurs when a man becomes horribly wounded. His themes are clear that there is no glory in war and war strips men of their youth.

Owen’s poems reveal tenderness and compassion towards those whose lives have been destroyed by the war. Discuss.

This Ab Sb cd cd rhyme scheme pattern used throughout to possibly suggest how soldiers march in complete sink and can maintain this synchronisation. The use of the iambic pentimeter adds tro this structured effect as it uses a 10 syllable limit a line. Line 10 has an extra beat which shows the poets anger at these nettles and really makes it stand out. The use of enjambment in the fourth, fifth and sixth line shows a narrative style and brings out an overall theme of emotion with the use of alliteration. This alliteration can be seen on the 6th line. The bold sound shows the pain that the child is suffering with the term “tender skin” used as a contrast to the child 's vulnerability.

Use of free verse in this poem creates a lack of structure that appears to parallel the soldier’s own lack of structure and direction in his own life after he leaves the war. The poem begins with the image of a soldier's and his squadron raiding a farmhouse:

In ‘Disabled’ Wilfred Owen turns a fit and healthy young man into a disabled soldier. He no longer fits into society as women’s eyes ‘pass from him to the stronger men who are whole’. This is ironic as he is the strong man for having survived war and receiving the wounds to tell the tale and it should be the weak that are looked after. This point conveys how he is alienated by his disability as he is whole on the inside but people are physically discriminatory and he is therefore neglected by society. The same is said for the Jews in ‘Refugee Blues’ as they are, as a race, excluded from society.

Compare how the theme of loss is communicated in the poems “Disabled” by Wilfred Owen and ‘Out, Out –‘by Robert Frost

Poems using strong poetic technique and devices are able to create a wide range of emotions from the readers. Wilfred Owen’s poetry effectively uses these poetic techniques and devices to not only create unsettling images about war but to provide his opinion about war itself with the use of themes within his poem. The use of these themes explored Owen’s ideas on the futility of war and can be seen in the poems: Anthem for Doomed Youth, Futility and The Next War. The poems provide unsettling images and belief of war through the treatment of death, barbaric nature of war and the futility of war.