Anthem For Doomed Youth Comparison

The Underlying Truth about War War—sometimes portrayed frivolously—may be more that the human expects it to be. It is filled with gruesome and intolerable scenes that may not even be appropriate to discuss. Wilson Owen, in transforming the mainstream ideas, branches out and discusses the horrific side of war that people would not expect. In “Anthem for Doomed Youth” and “dulce et decorum est,” Wilson Owen strategically manipulates diction to illustrate the theme of the reality of war, and in doing this, sheds a light on the dreadful impact that war has. Wilson utilizes strong connotations of words in both of his poems. In “Anthem for Doomed Youth” the title says a lot about its content. The title itself has significant use of assonance.
The title also indicates that this is a national thing, everyone is a part of it: “Anthem”. The word signifies a national anthem, where everybody joins in and takes pride from it. The poem does not parallel that the soldiers took pride to fight in the war. The word anthem connotates a sacred song or song of praise; which alludes to church where anthems are sometimes heard, and where funerals take place. This then shows that the poem in itself is an anthem as well. Wilson then goes on to further question the “passing-bells for these who die as cattle” (1). The use of the word cattle suggests a mass amount or a collection of people in a group. It also implies that the men in the war were treated like cattle, basically dehumanizing them as people. “Dulce et decorum est” also has words with connotative meanings.
In “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” Wilfred Owen tells that “only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle can patter out their hasty orisons” (3-4). The poet starts to reveal the realism of war through alliteration. As readers, one can visualize the sounds of the rifles as clearly as Owen intended us to. The rifles emphasize that the opposing troops did not take pity on the individuals they are trying to kill. In “dulce et decorum est,” Owen uses imagery by writing, “His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;” (line 20). In this part of the poem, Owen talks about his “fallen” friend. Here, we see how graphic his friend looked, thus confirming the fact of the gruesome nature of war. Sickening language is used to invoke the shocking image of a man literally drowning in his own blood as the blood came “gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs” (22). This grotesque language is used to express the distasteful nature of the