Wilfred Owen, Poetry, College Term Papers.com


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Back to Subjects - Poetry

Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen Assignment: ‘My Subject is War and the Pity of War’. How does Owen show the horror as well as the pity of war in his poems? The poems written by Wilfred Owen are about the horrors, the ugliness, the suffering and the countless tragedies that war has brought. The anti-war them and serious tone used in his poems is extremely effective at portraying ear as horrid and devastating. The detailed descriptions of blood, guts and death are overpowering. In the poem ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’, Owen stresses how war should not be glorified or glamorised. The title meaning ‘It is sweet and becoming to die for one’s country’ is used satirically because the poem describes the horror and agony that the soldiers endured during their time in the trenches. The title is used in contrast with the first line. It is a shocking description of once young and healthy boys. ‘Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knocked-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through the This line shows the reader that the men are so tired and worn out by the war that they can be compared to ‘old beggars’. The emotion that illuminates from these statements is powerful and intense. It is now clear that one, who has survived through the war, could not possibly glorify it in any way. ‘His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin’ This is another great use of simile. It suggests that the soldier’s face was probably covered in blood, which is the colour symbolising the devil. Owen vividly describes the hell the soldiers endured, desperately trying to stay alive. Exhausted, injured and ‘Drunk with fatigue’. The word ‘Blood-shod’ explains how the men had been on their feet for days without rest. Their feet were so damaged that they no longer had the protective covering of their boots but their feet were covered in blood. Also words like ‘guttering’, ‘choking’ and ‘drowning’ show the reader that the men were suffering in extreme pain and misery. ‘…Vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,’ This very powerful metaphor is the comparison to the painful experiences of the soldiers. It emphasises that the men will never forget those horrific experiences. This poem does not only oppose the saying ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ but gives the reader detailed descriptions of the insufferable conditions and reveals some very ugly realities. However, it encourages thinking and feeling, while removing ignorance. The intensity grows as the length of the poem grows. Owen first speaks of many men, and how they all tried to survive the hellish conditions. Further into the poem he singles out one man. This one man is unable to get his gas mask on in time and so dies ‘guttering, choking, drowning’. ‘…Someone still yelling out and stumbling And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime…’ During this passage it cannot be helped but to visualise the one young soldier who was left ‘flound’ring’ in the burning gas. These graphic images are very disturbing but play a very effective role in the development of the poem. The images drawn in this poem are so graphic that it could make a reader feel sick. ‘If you could near, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud…’ These three lines alone shows the reader that so many soldiers were brutally and undeserving killed during the war. Owen uses intense graphic imagery to persuade the reader that war is absolutely atrocious and horrific in every way. ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ is one of his poems that is extremely effective in showing the gruesome, heatless and horrifying effects of war. In Owen’s poem ‘Futility’, he questions the pointlessness of war in this short poem. With this poem, Owen conjures feelings within the reader that often are more horrific than graphic images and vile descriptions. He describes the death of a fellow soldier from the cold, bitter and harsh winter rather than from the terrible destruction of war. In the first stanza, Owen anthropomorphises the sun with the qualities of a human being. It is about faith that the speaker has in the sun hoping it could warm his friend and bring him back to life. ‘If anything might rouse him now As the poem develops, he realises that not only is he fighting a war against man but against nature as well. The speaker has so much hope and faith but he soon understands that the soldier cannot be woken from the sleep he is in. In the second stanza, the attitude in the poem develops from hope to despair and helplessness. It is in this part of the poem that the speaker realises that nothing will save his comrade from death and questions: ‘Was it for this they clay grew tall?’ In this poem Owen offers the reader so much more insight into the horrors of war by showing the pity. The reader feels sympathy for the speaker and for the dying soldier, therefore feels pity and becomes more involved. ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ is a mournful expression of grief for the men killed in the war. ‘What passing-bells for those who die as cattle?’ Owen asks this angry question, reflection the fact that the soldiers were humans who has families that they reluctantly left behind. The question Owen asks in the first stanza is what type of funeral do the dead soldiers receive? The poem works through a series of contrasts. Each Christian ritual is negated by a monstrosity of war. ‘Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons.’ The Sounds of the firing bullets take the place of the hasty funeral prayers and the ‘passing-bells’ that usually toll at a funeral are annulled by the ‘monstrous anger of the guns’. The ‘voice of mourning’ choirs were replaced by the sound of ‘wailing shells’. ‘Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,- The shrill, of demented choirs of wailing shells’ The first stanza ends with the mournful bugle call from their homelands. A bugle is usually played at a military funeral but so many men were lost in the war that they did not receive the proper burial they deserved. The second stanza tells the reader not of the ungodly deaths and ‘burials’ of the soldiers by of the silent suffering of their families. ‘What candles may be held to speed them all? Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.’ Tears glimmer in the eyes of those who grieve like candles held by acolytes at a funeral would flicker and glow. The young sweethearts that patiently waited are the funeral cloths for their loved ones lost at war. ‘The pallor of girls’ brow shall be the pall;’ With the fall of each dust on the soldiers at war, the blinds are drawn. This symbolises the tradition of the drawing of blinds in a room where the coffin of a dead person lies, as a sign to the world and as a mark of respect. The coming of night is like the drawing of the blinds. ‘And as each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.’ In this poem the reader can feel both the horrors of war in the first stanza and the pity and sympathy for the family in the second stanza. The diction used in the first stanza such as ‘stuttering’, ‘rapid rattle’, ‘shrill’, ‘demented’ and ‘wailing’ are the sounds that the soldiers had to hear in their dying moments. The reader can almost imagine those sounds of war. These words are also examples of cacophony, which are words with harsh and discordant sounds. It is hard not to feel the pain and suffering of the families that have been described in this poem. Owen attempts to connect the war with other aspects of human suffering. He makes images and actions recognisable, even to those who have never experience war. Owen shows us the physical horrors of war very effectively yet his poems stretch beyond that and delves into the unspoken feelings and emotions of those who are effected by the war indirectly. He tries to bring the horrors of war to the reader in the last verse of each poem. Simply, in war there is the horror and there is the pity. Owen offers the reader so much more insight into the horrors of war by showing the pity. With this the reader empathises with the speaker and therefore becomes more involved. Owen’s poetry questions so much more than the visual atrocities that enable his poems to have an effect on people today. As Wilfred Owen said ‘My topic is war and the pity of war, the poetry is in the pity’. Bibliography:

Word Count: 1467