Wilfred Owen Speech Analysis

Compose a speech to an audience of senior students that examines the particular ways the poet has communicated ideas
Good morning senior students, if i gave each of you a pen and paper and gave you the question examine that particular ways the poet had communicated ideas in example Wilfred Owens War Poems and others how many of you could write a good HSC response? Not many well today i will be addressing this question for you and hopefully this will therefore assist you.
Wilfred Owen uses poetry to challenge public perceptions on the war as well as to inform, awaken and enlighten his readers about what war was really like, the horrors, the pity and the waste of war, through exploring the emotional and psychological impact on the men who
forced to kill in order to survive.
The strong poem “mental cases”, full of disturbing images of men who have come back from war with shell shock, horrible for us to imagine although through the strong imagery used as he wants us to be able to understand why these men are like they are and, in some way, feel what they have undergone. From the beginning of the first stanza strong imagery is used “dropping tongues from jaws that slob their relish” and “gouged these chasms round their fretted sockets” the hyperbole of “chasms” gives us a visual image of their frenzied appearances. Wilfred Owen asks us also to consider what makes the men look like what they do through the rapid fire rhetorical questions of “who are these? Why sit they here in twilight?” this connection with us obtained is exploited in the final stanza when are made to empathise with the young men who have been caught in “twilight” imagery creating being caught in a world from which there is no escape. The tone of these rhetorical questions, is demanding, the multiple term “these” also implies that there are many victims
The second stanza continues with “- these are men whose minds the dead have ravished” suggests the realisation of what they represent.
The repetition of “murders” in “hair of murders” and “multitudinous murders the once witnessed gives a moral emphasis to the agonies they have been forced to endure. The alliteration and polysyllabic word stressed the mass deaths that have triggered his mental case. The repeated “blood” imagery accumulates through out the poem, just alike the war, which further accumulates in our minds the horror of what was witnessed. The alliteration of “hilarious, hideous” and juxtaposition of similes make the image more confronting to readers. the internal rhyme of “batter” and “shatter” becomes reminisnent of the sounds of the battle field giving the reader further a visual into the war. Wilfred owen challenges the reader “therefore” to agree that the state of these men is linked to the war experiences. The pity of the war is shown in “dulce et decorum est” which examines on the exhaustion of soliders on the front and the horrors of a gas attack. The title “dulce et decorum est” latin for “it is sweet and proper” respresent the old world values he is not in favour of.
The use of imagery as spoken about is also vividly apart of this poem to explore the exhaustion of the soliders through the simile “bent double like old beggers under sacks” describing them to show their desperation and utter exhaustion through the irony in “old” as they are only young soldiers as well as “sacks” suggesting the poverty of life felt by these
youth.
The horrors are also clearly shown in the forceful lines “guttering, choking, drowning” when he could not fit the “helmet” in time. The sense of powerless further evokes our pity. This line alone is enough to convey the horrors of the situation don’t you agree? Through the emotive language it uses and the auditory decrease as well as the heavy Constance which refer back to the heaviness and the exhaustion. Owen wants to alert us, again, with the realities of war to counteract the idealised view of those at home through not sparing any graphic detail as he wants us to experience the horror of the mans prolonged death through “at every jolt, the blood came gargling from the froth corrupted lungs. The horrors are continued, sadly for the readers, as the other soldiers do not have time for compassion as the solider is “flung” into the wagon. Through the descriptive language “smothering” “writhing” “obscene” is overwhelming negative” as Owen wants us to understand not just the agony but the horror for everyone.
Although neither of owens poems finished on a good note, i hope i have through helping your understanding of how poets have communicated ideas through modelling Wilfred Owens poems, good luck for the year and thankyou