Stage 1 English
Poetry arouses great emotions in people. How have four poems “aroused emotions” in you? What have you learnt about war and the emotions associated with it?
War is a part of our world and has been since the beginning of time. Through war, men have been given the opportunity to fight for freedom, for their country and for their beliefs. Young men have marched into an abyss, some never to return again. They have faced death on a daily basis and the way in which some of these soldiers have responded is through verse. The four poems entitled “Dulce et Decorum Est” and “Disabled” by Wilfred Owen, “Conscript” by FA Horn and “The Photograph” by Peter Kocan have aroused different emotions in their reader including …show more content…
Owen uses different poetic techniques including metaphors in the first stanza which convey warning. He describes the men “fitting the clumsy helmets” as “an ecstasy of fumbling” and that many of them had great difficulty in putting their helmets on before being gassed. The prominent themes which are evident throughout the poem are war and death and these are portrayed through both similes and imagery. The emotions that are aroused in the reader are melancholy, trepidation, anguish and disgust. He especially achieves anguish when he portrays the horrific circumstances faced by all soldiers during the …show more content…
He uses similes to portray the negative affect war had on this soldier’s life and how his life was wasted “like bright oil down a gutter.” Horn also uses a clever play on words when he conveys how the soldier was a “puny chap” but through war “he’s broadened out.” The soldier broadened out not in terms of muscles or character but because he died in the field of combat and was laying there long enough for his body to swell. The theme which is prominent throughout the entire poem is that of death. The poet arouses different emotions in the reader which include anguish and