Wilfred Owen War Poems Essay
Explain how particular features of at least two of Wilfred Owen's poems set for study interact to affect your response to them.
Wilfred Owen's war poems central features include the wastage involved with war, horrors of war and the physical effects of war. These features are seen in the poems "Dulce Et Decorum Est" and "Anthem for Doomed Youth" here Owen engages with the reader appealing to the readers empathy that is felt towards the soldier. These poems interact to explore the experiences of the soldiers on the battlefields including the realities of using gas as a weapon in war and help to highlight the incorrect glorification of war. This continuous interaction invites the reader to connect with the poems to develop a more thorough understanding of war.
Dulce Et Decorum Est uses strong imagery all through the poem which appeals to the readers imagination so that the reader can try to understand the experiences of the soldiers. At the start of the poem the imagery in the simile "like old beggars" and "coughing like hags" displays how the young soldiers are succumbing to the physical and mental fall due to war and now appear old. Here through the choice of words such as "beggars" which conjures the reader to think of the soldiers on their hands and knees followed by the word "hags" suggesting the soldiers are old. Continued imagery i used in the next line of the "haunting flares which we turned our backs" with the shells and gunfire continuing during the night behind them even though the soldiers have stopped to rest. A comparison made between the soldiers and robots is made in line six "Men marched asleep" implying that the men are walking around in a robotic way as if the y were "designed" to continue walking despite the pain and fatigue. This imagery urges the reader to reflect upon the soldiers awful experiences and to consider with this knowledge how they feel about war.
The action of the second stanza of the gas attack sees a change of pace and a
Wilfred Owen's war poems central features include the wastage involved with war, horrors of war and the physical effects of war. These features are seen in the poems "Dulce Et Decorum Est" and "Anthem for Doomed Youth" here Owen engages with the reader appealing to the readers empathy that is felt towards the soldier. These poems interact to explore the experiences of the soldiers on the battlefields including the realities of using gas as a weapon in war and help to highlight the incorrect glorification of war. This continuous interaction invites the reader to connect with the poems to develop a more thorough understanding of war.
Dulce Et Decorum Est uses strong imagery all through the poem which appeals to the readers imagination so that the reader can try to understand the experiences of the soldiers. At the start of the poem the imagery in the simile "like old beggars" and "coughing like hags" displays how the young soldiers are succumbing to the physical and mental fall due to war and now appear old. Here through the choice of words such as "beggars" which conjures the reader to think of the soldiers on their hands and knees followed by the word "hags" suggesting the soldiers are old. Continued imagery i used in the next line of the "haunting flares which we turned our backs" with the shells and gunfire continuing during the night behind them even though the soldiers have stopped to rest. A comparison made between the soldiers and robots is made in line six "Men marched asleep" implying that the men are walking around in a robotic way as if the y were "designed" to continue walking despite the pain and fatigue. This imagery urges the reader to reflect upon the soldiers awful experiences and to consider with this knowledge how they feel about war.
The action of the second stanza of the gas attack sees a change of pace and a