On the other hand, the poem ‘The Send- Off’ written by Wilfred Owen was set in World War I and is about the departure of soldiers to war. This poem is similar to The Shoe-Horn Sonata as it reflects a shameful image of the operation of war as ‘too few’ will return. Through the use of visual and aural imagery, Owen is able to depict the excited and anxious anticipation of the soldiers at the beginning of the poem through the use of the oxymoron ‘faces grimly gay’. Through the use of juxtaposition, Owen portrays society’s disapproval of sending men off to war to their pointless death; “so secretly, like wrongs hushed up”…
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…
The recollection of Wilfred Owen’s poetry epitomise the true depiction of war and consequently the dehumanising ramifications of warfare. Influenced by the extremities and first hand experiences on the battlefield, Owen’s poetry encapsulates the extraordinary human experiences to the degree of unbearable suffering and extreme states of dehumanisation. Owen’s vivid portrayal of war corresponds to his personal endeavour in condemning the misconceptions of war; where he manifests the brutal reality and the detrimental aspects of warfare- the powerful and destructive entity of war; the dehumanising consequences of slaughter; and the abhorrent physiological, psychological and emotional trauma suffered through modern warfare. These aspects are incorporated into the texts which correspond to Owen’s portrayal of suffering and pity; revolving Owen’s poetry on the basis of extraordinary human experiences.…
By using such strong visual imagery, Owen burns the scenes of horrible warfare into our brains. The writer pulls us along as we follow the ‘knock-kneed, coughing’ (line 2) soldiers as they battle to stay alive with chaos all around them. He experiences this terrible first hand as he and the other troops marched ‘bent-double, like old beggars under sacks’ (1). We get this vivid sense of fear and pain as ‘if [we] could hear, at every jolt, the blood / come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs’. This is an experience most soldiers face and one we should be aware of and removing this powerful work of poetry from The Bedford Introduction to Literature would be taking a step in the wrong direction.…
Discuss how composers have used distinctively visual elements to convey a particular point of view. Distinctively visual elements have enabled composers to convey particular points of views, through the vividly portrayed images on the topic of war. John Misto’s ‘The Shoe Horn Sonata’ captures the past experiences of 2 Japanese prisoners, Sheila Richards and Bridie Cartwright during the horror of World War 2. Misto’s use of distinctively visual elements highlights the power of friendship and emotion as the two most necessary aspect to survive the atrocity of war.…
Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est is a forlorn poem of his experience in the First World War. Owen recounts his story as he and fellow infantrymen march ‘knock-kneed, coughing like hags’ across the wasteland that is the battle front(line 2). Most of the focus is on the exhaustion from battle, but changes attention when ‘hoots’ of gas-shells rain down on their position. Weariness quickly turns to ‘An ecstasy of fumbling’ (line 9) as the soldiers fit their gas masks, but one soldier is not fast enough. Owen then relates his first hand tale and demise of the footman chocking to death from mustard gas. The reader is forced to witness this horrid death and ask ourselves; ‘Dulce et descorum est,/Pro patria mori’ (line 27-28).…
Wilfred Owen was not only a soldier exposed to the horrific realities of war, he was also a talented poet who addresses important themes within his poetry such as the false glorification of war. His vivid and visceral descriptions of the horrors of war also strongly addressed the futility of war that people should not have to endure in any lifetime. When exploring his poetry, the audience is compelled to question ‘Was Owen aware that he would never return to…
1 Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knife us ... 2 Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent ... 3 Low drooping flares confuse our memory of the salient ... 4…
The horrific conditions and extraordinary experiences in which the men had to endure were unimaginable to any human who has not experienced it firsthand. We grasp a sense of the war participant’s vile experiences and physical demands through his extensive use of vivid imagery in Dulce et Decorum Est. “An ecstasy of fumbling”, “clumsy… stumbling…floundering”, Owen uses these powerful adverbs to highlight the frantic and stressful situation which arises as a result of a gas attack, an extraordinary experience to any normal being. These adverbs encourage the reader to read at a faster pace, generating a connection to the urgency of the situation. “Gas! GAS! Quick boys” generates a strong sense of immediacy and a fast pace to the stanza. The gas attack gives the reader a clear insight into the treacherous experiences surrounding these men. We empathise with the gas attack victim and its witnesses as a result of the metaphor “us under a green sea, I saw him drowning”. This shows us how the gas engulfs the men and causes great struggle. “Guttering, choking, drowning”, the description of the dying, suffering man is written in a dispassionate manner suggesting that this became a part of everyday life in the war. We learn that war, particularly through Wilfred Owen’s eyes, is dehumanising and immoral. “Bent double, like old beggars” opens this text in a negative tone. “Knock-kneed, coughing like hags” reinforces the poor state of the men; these similes compare these once bright young men to “old hags” and…
Wilfred Owen successfully creates the truthful and terrifying image of war within his poems. The loss, sacrifice, urgency and pity of war are shown within the themes of his poetry and the use of strong figurative language; sensory imagery and tone contribute to the reader. This enables the reader to appreciate Owen’s comments about the hopelessness of war and the sacrifice the men around him went through within his poems, ‘Dulce et Decorum Est.’ and ‘Futility’.…
Wilfred Edward Salter Owen was born in Shropshire on 18th March, 1983, as the eldest of four children. His parents, Thomas and Susan Owen, lived in a house that belonged to Owen’s Grandfather. However, on his death in 1897, the family moved to Birkenhead.…
Owen's war poetry is a passionate expression of outrage at the horrors of war and of pity for the young soldiers sacrificed in it. It is dramatic and memorable, whether describing physical horror, such as in‘ Dulce et Decorum Est’ or the unseen, mental torment such as in‘ Disabled’. His diverse use of instantly understandable imagery and technique is what makes him the most memorable of the war poets. His poetry evokes more from us than simple disgust and sympathy; issues previously unconsidered are brought to our attention. One of Owen’s talents is to convey his complex messages very proficiently. In‘ Dulce et Decorum Est’–‘ If in some smothering dreams you too could pace / Behind the wagon that we flung him in’ the horror of witnessing this event becomes eternal through dreams. Though this boy died an innocent, war allowed no time to give his death dignity, which makes the horror so more poignant and haunting. This is touched on in‘ Mental Cases’–‘ Treading blood from lungs that had loved laughter / Always they must see these things and hear them’. Many of the sights which will haunt the surviving soldiers are not what the officials have ordered them to do, but what they have done to save their own lives. It is the tragedy of war that you are not able to stop to help a dying man. They then, not only physically scarred and mentally changed, carry remedyless guilt with them. They have survived, at the expense of others–‘ Why speak not they of comrades that went under?’ (‘Spring Offensive’). Another dimension is that even the enemy soldiers are just like them, it is the politicians and generals who have caused this war, not these ordinary men. This is explored in‘ Strange Meeting’ - the meeting of an enemy who is really a‘ friend’.…
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]…
3 The imagery provides important context for his writing and allows the reader to create a picture in their mind about what he experienced. Owen opens the poem with soldiers marching continuously without the ability to stop as they constantly fought for their lives and in fear of getting attacked. He provides the image of the soldiers suffering from loss of blood, fatigue, and deafness due to the strong and sudden explosions nearby. Owen portrays the powerful toll the war takes on the soldiers and it shows the negative viewpoint that he has from fighting as a soldier himself. A reporter commenting on the poem’s effect noted that it, 2 “Describes explicitly the horror of the gas attack and the death of a wounded man who has been flung into a wagon” and he further describes the war as a “walking nightmare” (“Dulce et Decorum Est”). The poem’s dynamic imagery allows the war to seem alive and overall very threatening to the soldiers risking their lives. Owen uses more imagery to display the horrors of the war throughout the poem, specifically in the second stanza. Wilfred Owen writes with a supernatural mood,2 “And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime… Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, as under I green see, I saw him drowning” (Owen…
Few would challenge the claim that Wilfred Owen is the greatest writer of war poetry in the English language. He wrote out of his intense personal experience as a soldier and wrote with unrivalled power of the physical, moral and psychological trauma of the First World War. All of his great war poems on which his reputation rests were written in a mere fifteen months.…