World War 1 was the bloodiest war, and was a very important part of history, yet so many people only know one side of the war. Most people know the side of Jessie Pope and the Armchair Poets. Jessie Pope and the Armchair poets wrote poems about war, sitting in the comfort of their own home. Jessie Pope praised war; she made war sound so wonderful and encouraged young men to join the war efforts. Wilfred Owen did not like that those poets did not truly know what was going on, yet pretended that they did know. Wilfred Owen’s poem is very significant in the way that the poem shows what war is really like. Owen’s poem quickly became my favorite poem ever written. Therefore, I recommend that you keep Owen’s poem “Dulce et Decorum Est,” because he uses imagery and alliteration to effectively relay that war is cruel, and war is lied about.…
In “Exposure,” Wilfred Owen depicts the fate of soldiers who perished from hypothermia, exposed to the horrific conditions of open trench warfare before dawn. Often, before death, soldiers would enter a delusional state in which feelings and memories of warmth clouded their minds; Owen portrays this through the imagery of “sunk fires” and other home comforts. The mood is sombre and heart-rending. There is a repeated refrain which represents the boredom of waiting for action experienced by soldiers during long extended battles. Therefore, Owen repeats the phrase ‘But nothing happens’ at the end of several stanzas; ironically as the most significant event does happen; their…
Owen portrays the soldiers in both poems in ways that are very unlike the glorified image of a young soldier presented by the society of the day. In mental cases they are mentally ruined, their minds destroyed by the sight, sound and memories of the battlefield. Owen suggests that war has changed these young men. They now “leer” with “jaws that slob” unable to control their facial expressions, stripping them of their youth and making them seem like aged characters with no life in them due to their wartime experiences.…
In the poem ‘Exposure’ one of the main ways that Owen shows the awful, extreme situation the soldiers are in is by using strong, powerful imagery of nature and weather. The poem itself is about the awful situation the soldiers face who are out on the front line under freezing weather conditions. In the title alone ‘Exposure’ Owen is referring not only to the men being out at war but also to the way they are being exposed to the elements of nature as they are stuck all day in the trenches. Right at the beginning of the poem Owen uses powerful personification with imagery to leave the reader in no doubt of the awful situation the soldiers find themselves up against ‘merciless iced east winds that knive us’, he talks of the wind being like living force against the soldiers ready to knife them. The wind is as sharp as any knife going through them. Personification is used throughout when referring to the weather condition, in the second stanza personification is used ‘mad gusts tugging on the wire’ showing that powerful winds are fighting against the men. The soldiers not only have the opposition to fight but their situation has become extreme as nature as also turned against them. In the fifth stanza Owen gives life to the snow, ‘Pale flakes with fingering’ which reach out for the soldiers faces until they become ‘snow-dazed’, hypnotised by the snowy conditions. In the…
There is a sense that Owen is describing reality as a nightmare rather than a dream, and he effectively accomplishes his goals in depicting a horrific event and the challenges that soldiers face in their lives on the front lines. It is also evident that Owen's choice of words is meant to allow the audience to remember that war is not a pretty event, and that it requires a level of strength that might not have been present before. First, the poem describes the various aspects of war and the challenges that the soldiers face ahead in their…
A poem written by the World War One poet, Wilfred Owen, is 'Exposure'. This poem is set out to show the reader what the conditions were really like during the First World War and to make it clear that the events that surrounded him, were not pleasant. In this essay, I am going to write about how Owen exposes the pointlessness of War, throughout this poem.…
Throughout the several poems Wilfred Owen wrote throughout his experience during the First World War, he explores many themes in relation to the war and the emotions associated with these. One of the most prevalent ideas Wilfred Owen chooses to emphasise in many of his poems is that of the sense of horror associated with war and all the consequences of it such as those including death, disability, pain and gore and this emphasis can be clearly seen in 2 of Wilfred Owens most famous poems: Dulce Et Decorum Est and Mental Cases.…
Wilfred Owens' poetry on war can be described as a passionate expression of Owen's outrage over the horrors of war and pity for the young soldiers sacrificed in it. His poetry is dramatic and memorable, whether describing shame and sorrow, such as in 'The Last Laugh', or his description of the unseen psychological consequences of war detailed in 'The Next War' and 'Anthem for Doomed Youth'. His diverse use of instantly understandable technique is what makes him the most memorable of the war poets. His poetry evokes more than simple disgust and sympathy from the reader; issues previously unconsidered are brought to our attention.…
Poetry places individuals minds in a state of imagination and emotion where words are thoughts of experiences branding into the minds of the readers. Dulce Et Decorum Est explore how the experiences create emotions for the readers mind to capture the essence of war whilst on the other hand the Anthem for Doomed Youth speaks about what war was like in conjunction to pitifulness and stupidity.…
Owen effectively uses figurative language within his poem so the reader is able to apprehend the state of the soldiers’ pains and sufferings through the use of hyperboles and similes. Within the first stanza, Owen describes the soldiers to be ‘coughing like hags’ using the simile of ‘like’ and imagery to make the audience picture the soldiers walking on and coughing horrendously trying to relieve their lungs during the war. The hyperbole ‘Men marched asleep’ heightens the struggle of the men as they trudge their way through war. They’re robots struggling to stay awake through their journey of survival and the pity of war. ‘All went lame; all blind’ is another hyperbole that symbolises the soldiers bodies not being able to respond and unable to see what was happening in front of them because of the gas.…
As you open your eyes, you see the sight of fallen comrades, enemies, muddy trenches, barbed wire and let’s not forget about the guns and bullets. This occurred on a large scale ranging from the east of Europe to the west of Europe. This was none other than World War One. Two poems, “A Mother’s Dedication”, by Margaret Peterson and “Into Battle” by Julian Grenfell, both convey varying tones and attitudes to war.…
Wilfred Edward Salter Owen was born on 18 March 1893 and died on 4 November 1918. He was an English poet and soldier, one of the leading poets of the First World War. His shocking, graphic poetry about the First World War was very heavily influenced by his friend, Siegfried Sassoon.…
Owen experienced the horrific nature of World War One. His vivid descriptions of the soldier’s conditions and the trauma of witnessing death compel the reader to look at the futile nature of war and the physical damage that is done to its participants. The Gas attack is the main event in this poem “GAS, GAS!” the repetition and use of the exclamation mark emphasises the dangerous nature of the gas, it quickens the pace for the reader this shows the frantic struggle they are faced with as they try to “fumble” to safety. The mass devastation of death and loss is shown as he reminisces in his dreams of his friend dying “Guttering, stumbling, Drowning” these polysyllabic terms make evident their helplessness. The vivid vile imagery “come gargling from the froth – corrupted lungs” describes the visual and audible sounds associated with the dying man help the reader visualize the confronting truth of the horrific nature of war. There is nothing glorious in their physical, emotional or mental state. We see this in the first stanza where their ill health is shown though similes such as “coughing like hags”…
Written in four stanzas, the poet conveys his feelings about the haggard soldiers, who experiences a gas attack and then has to watch as one of their friends dies in front of them. This poem is written using first-person narrative. The entire poem is composed of a soldier’s journey away from a battlefield and the appalling events they see on the way. One of the main events descriptions is of how the soldier and friend died on the battlefield. By using first person, Owen keeps the poem limited to only the speaker’s views. He describes how, “In all my dreams, before my helpless sight he plunges at me”, conveying how nightmares are haunted by what he has seen.…
Wilfred Owen was born at Plas Wilmot, a house in Weston Lane, near Oswestry in Shropshire, on 18 March 1893, of mixed English and Welsh ancestry. He was the eldest of four children, his siblings being Harold, Colin, and Mary Millard Owen. At that time, his parents, Thomas and Harriet Susan (née Shaw) Owen, lived in a comfortable house owned by his grandfather, Edward Shaw but, after the latter's death in January 1897, and the house's sale in March,[1] the family lodged in back streets of Birkenhead while Thomas temporarily worked in the town with the railway company employing him. In April the latter transferred to Shrewsbury, where the family lived with Thomas' parents in Canon Street.[2]…