India's Diverse Wildlife and Their Conservation

English Christmas Homework: Redraft Task 1 Essay
In Wilfred Owens poems Anthem for Doomed Youth and Dulce ET Decorum EST Owen uses an array of techniques both aural and literary intending to undermine the conventional glorification of war believed throughout society by exposing the terrible, atrocious conditions that soldiers faced as they were ravaged physically and psychologically by the exertions of war. Owen effectively communicates this central idea of the suppressed realism of war through the use of alliteration, metaphor, simile and other various techniques.
In Owens poem Anthem for Doomed Youth he uses a synthesis of aural techniques designed to convey the central idea of the misconception of war. In the first line of the poem “What passing-bells for those who die as cattle?” the rhetorical question implemented by Owen is designed to hint to the responder the reality of war, which is further reinforced by the conjunction of the simile “as cattle”. This signification part of the extract compares the young, for healthy men as perceived by society to cattle who are being slaughtered in great masses as alluded to in the “passing-bells” which are used in funerals to signify the death of a person. The lack of human dignity in this extract further encumbers the idea that the desolation, inhumane act of war had stripped the soldiers of their burial rights and is now being viewed as commodities of war, reinforcing the central idea of the poem to the reader being the concealed reality of war.
The Half-rhyme present throughout the poem is profound specifically in the use of “cattle, rattle” “bells and shells” the use of this half-rhyme is intended to create a beat emulating the drumming of booms and shells which was an ever-present background noise in the war. Owen attempts to submerge the responder into the reality and circumstance faced b the soldiers, contradicting that of the prior social assumptions of war.
Furthermore in the first stanza the use of alliteration, consonance and onomatopoeia in the extract “only the rifles rapid rattle can patter out their hasty orisons”. The use of these aural techniques is designed to create a cacophony of sounds emulating the sounds of war. The cacophony of sounds created by Owen is then further juxtaposed with the mellifluous tone of the poem as Owen reinstates this abrupt reality of war, unspoken to those untouched by the war.
In Anthem for Doomed Youth Owen communicates the idea of lost humanity, innocence and the nature of death through the extract “what candles may be held to speed them all?” the rhetorical question used in the extract in conjunction with the first line intends to provoke emotions of shame, pity and sadness as Owen alludes to the ever-present face of death found in war as the young men die with little morning or grief, representing the stripping of the innocence of young men as they are massacred. Only the dropping of shells and bombs are left to morn those who die as cattle further reinstating the concept of the lost humanity and innocence to the responder.
Another of Owen’s poems Dulce ET Decorum EST is a poem attempting to undermine the social acceptance that young men are dying mercilessly as they face the horrors of war, contradicting societies assumptions that the men are dying noble deaths as it is sweet and fitting to die for ones country.

The title of the poem Dulce ET Decorum EST in itself creates a sense of irony as the title translates from the Latin phrase by Horace to “ it is sweet and fitting to die for ones country” this idea is undermined immediately at the beginning of the first line as Owen reduces the young fit men to “old beggars under sacks knock-kneed, coughing like hags we curse through sludge” the first person narrator creates a sense of irony to the prior social assumptions and the title of the poem as the extract contradicts preceding beliefs by reducing the perceived young, fit, strong men to old hags who are vulnerable as they have lost their semblance of humanity as they are wearied to the bone and desensitised to all but their march, effectively communicating to the audience of the circumstance that the soldiers faced as they lived and often died by the horrors of war.
The loss of innocence and humanity is a profound motif in this poem as through the extract “many men lose their boots but limped on, blood-shod” the repetition of the sounds in the extract is designed to extend the experience of reading the poem as Owen communicates the bloodshed by the soldiers engulfs them transforming the soldiers though chaos of war. This concept prevalent throughout the body of work is further reinforced through the indignant colloquial language of the extract “the wagon that we flung him in” this extract refutes the communal beliefs that all men die noble deaths to where in reality the corpse of the former soldier is “flung” into a wagon and drove off never to be seen again. The lack of emotion expressed in the language of this extract highlights the lost sense of humanity as their death was a foregone conclusion that will never be spoken of again.
The horrors of war in society was something unknown and unspoken, only falsities were told to the public in order to increase public morale and the glorification of war, a misconception that Owen effectively undermines throughout both poems as he highlights the suppressed realism of war and the lost semblance of humanity as the soldiers are stripped of their innocence and become desensitised to the chaos that is war, ultimately transforming their being. This conveying of inner transformation is efficiently achieved through the use of alliteration, metaphor and simile and other various aural and literary techniques communicating the purpose and central concerns of his body of work in Dulce ET Decorum EST and Anthem for Doomed Youth.