Compare and Contrast How Owen Presents the Horror of War
Compare and contrast how Owen presents the horror of war.
In this essay I am going to compare and contrast how Owen presents the horror of war. We are going to be looking at two of Wilfred Owen’s poems “Dulce et decorum est” and “Anthem for doomed youth” Two very dark poems laced with the horror of war, Both poems are dark and disturbing and use persuasive language such as metaphors, rhetorical questions and alliteration to get their point across, that war isn’t great and glamorous like all young men were told at that time.
In “Dulce et decorum est” there is no structure to the stanza’s, as if Wilfred Owen is describing how there is no structure to war, no need for it. In the first stanza the pace is very slow and a painstaking rhythm is established through Owen's use of heavy, long words. This illustrates how painstaking and slow the war was, Whereas in “Anthem for Doomed Youth” it is written in a sonnet formation, love poems are usually written in a sonnet formation, so it is quite ironic that a poem about war, funerals and dehumanising conditions was written in a sonnet formation.
In “Dulce et decorum est” Wilfred uses emotive language to describe how bad the conditions are in the trenches at that point of time. He uses the painfully blunt verb ‘Writhing’ to highlight how their friend appeared as he was dying, eyes rolling in the back of his head. In “Anthem for doomed youth” Owen uses the gruesome rhetorical question ‘what passing bells for those who die as cattle?’ to highlight how inhumane war is, like men being sent to a slaughter house to die, and then just being left on the ground for the next huddle of naïve men to trod on.
In “Dulce et Decorum est” Owen describes in graphic detail how the physical look of the soldier had changed, obviously trying to shock the reader and get through to them how war is such a devastating business. 'Watch the white eyes writhing in his face,' uses alliteration to emphasise how grotesque the scenario was. Following
In this essay I am going to compare and contrast how Owen presents the horror of war. We are going to be looking at two of Wilfred Owen’s poems “Dulce et decorum est” and “Anthem for doomed youth” Two very dark poems laced with the horror of war, Both poems are dark and disturbing and use persuasive language such as metaphors, rhetorical questions and alliteration to get their point across, that war isn’t great and glamorous like all young men were told at that time.
In “Dulce et decorum est” there is no structure to the stanza’s, as if Wilfred Owen is describing how there is no structure to war, no need for it. In the first stanza the pace is very slow and a painstaking rhythm is established through Owen's use of heavy, long words. This illustrates how painstaking and slow the war was, Whereas in “Anthem for Doomed Youth” it is written in a sonnet formation, love poems are usually written in a sonnet formation, so it is quite ironic that a poem about war, funerals and dehumanising conditions was written in a sonnet formation.
In “Dulce et decorum est” Wilfred uses emotive language to describe how bad the conditions are in the trenches at that point of time. He uses the painfully blunt verb ‘Writhing’ to highlight how their friend appeared as he was dying, eyes rolling in the back of his head. In “Anthem for doomed youth” Owen uses the gruesome rhetorical question ‘what passing bells for those who die as cattle?’ to highlight how inhumane war is, like men being sent to a slaughter house to die, and then just being left on the ground for the next huddle of naïve men to trod on.
In “Dulce et Decorum est” Owen describes in graphic detail how the physical look of the soldier had changed, obviously trying to shock the reader and get through to them how war is such a devastating business. 'Watch the white eyes writhing in his face,' uses alliteration to emphasise how grotesque the scenario was. Following