Themes- Wilfred Owen - 947 Words

Wilfred Owen’s poems have numerous themes that explore the negativity of war. Owens poems talk about the truth of war. The poems focus on the fear of war, horror, sacrifice, glory and questioning life’s purpose. . In particular, the poems â€Å"Mental Cases† and â€Å"Dulce Decorum Est† both strongly emphasise the reality and horrific experiences of war. Dulce Et Decorum Est shows what it was like during the war and what the soldiers experienced. Mental Cases explores the aftermath of the war and the lives of those young soldiers. Mental Cases is a strong and powerful poem that concerns the aftermath of war. The poem alludes to many horrific memories that each soldier witnessed and shows that each memory is there forever. The poem builds up to the†¦show more content†¦War is so inhumane that Owen wonders what the purpose of life is. Millions of young men should not be fatigued, weary or old before their time and this is what war has done to them. Owen has used a similes to show this â€Å"Bent double, like old beggars under sacks† to emphasise how they had to live and â€Å"serve† their country. This is not humane for anyone and Owen wanted to convey this to warn people about the horrible events that happen to men at war. In the second stanza Owen has used repetition and grammar â€Å"Gas! Gas! Quick boys!† to emphasise the urgency needed to escape the deadly weapons being used. The fear of the â€Å"gas† is highlighted as a major threat because of its silent nature which contrasts to the loud sounds of artillery. The men are dying from this weapon and each solider has the fear of dying or knowing they are going to be watching their friends die. The suspenseful nature created by this grammar draws the reader in and evokes feeling. This horrendous event is shown in a simile â€Å"As under the green sea, I saw him drowning†. This suggests why monstrous images are kept in these soldiers minds forever. Wilfred Owens poems have a number of themes including the fear of war, horror sacrifice, glory and the questioning of life’s purpose. Whilst both texts explore different periods of the war they both are similar in accentuating how the individualShow MoreRelatedEssay about Wilfred Owen Speech891 Words   |  4 Pagesboth written by Wilfred Owen. I would choose these two poems to be in an anthology because I found the poems to be very dramatic and extremely detailed. Owen intends to shock us by demonstrating what a soldier might expect in a situation between life and death. He is not afraid to show his own feelings. Wilfred Owen is an anti-war poet and expresses his ideas and feelings through various themes and poetic devices which I will be discussing throughout this speech. Wilfred Owens’ themes portray his attitudeRead More Comparing Irony of War in Dulce et Decorum, Regeneration, and Quiet on the Western Front1165 Words   |  5 PagesThey were no longer boys but callous men. Wilfred Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est, Pat Barkers novel Regeneration, and Erich Maria Remarques All Quiet on the Western Front, all portray the irony between the delusive glory of war and the gruesome reality of it, but whereas Owen and Sassoon treat the theme from a British point of view, Remarque allows us to look at it from the enemys. The poem Dulce et Decorum Est, an anti-war poem by Wilfred Owen who was an English footsoldier, states thatRead More Examine and compare the ways in which Pat Barker in Regeneration and1313 Words   |  6 PagesExamine and compare the ways in which Pat Barker in Regeneration and Wilfred Owen in his poetry explore the nature of life in the trenches. Pat Barker and Wilfred Owen are both successful writers in delivering an insight into trench life from the perspective of a soldier, although in different ways. Owen, being a soldier himself, has had first hand experience of trench life and describes the pity of war, in that war is a waste of young, innocent lives, and the bitterness of the soldiersRead MoreEssay on Comparing The Soldier and Dulce et Decorum Est644 Words   |  3 PagesRupert Brooke and Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen were both written during world war one. War and death are the themes of both poems but they are written from different perspectives. Brooke seems to base his poem on myth because overall he says that it is good to die for your country while fighting at war is terrible and that it is every soldier for himself and not for your country. There are many reasons why Brooke and Owen have different attitudes to war. For exampleRead More A Comparison of Dulce Et Decorum Est and Exposure Essay2345 Words   |  10 PagesBrooke, death doesn’t last long and everybody shall die at one point, so why not die honorably for your country? Owen and many other ww1 poets were a contrast to traditional poems. They wrote about war realistically. They wrote from personal experience. They include horrific details of death and injury. They also criticized those who were running the war. Wilfred Owen was born in 1893 into a middle-class family. His family came under financial difficulties and his education was stuntedRead More The Healing Power of Poetry Essay1663 Words   |  7 Pages We see this specific form of self-help directly in the Hydra. The Hydra itself is a wartime journal of different genres of writing from poetry, to essays, to cartooning, to lettering (Lee). Wilfred Owen, the editor, lived from 1893-1918, and produced the journal during his time at Craiglockhart (Lee). Owen gained much progress in his writing at Craiglockhart, especially after he became friends with Sassoon. They ended up editing each others writing while working on the Hydra at the same time (Rusche)Read MoreWar and Death in Soldier Written by Rupert Brooke Essay1180 Words   |  5 PagesSometimes it has to happen for good to triumph over bad. War poets like Wilfred Owen, writer of Anthem for doomed youth focus on death in war and the dehumanization of solders. In contrast Soldier written by Rupert Brooke thinks that to die in war, to be the noblest death. And Siegfried Sassoon’s Suicide in the trenches focuses on the youthful soldiers deaths being the responsibility of war p romoters. Anthem for Doomed Youth Owens Anthem for Doomed Youth is written from a soldier’s perspective and isRead MoreComparing the Ways Michael Herr in Dispatches and Pat Barker in Regeneration Show the Effects of War2879 Words   |  12 Pageswho were there. As an autobiography centered around Herrs experience of Vietnam Dispatches provides a different reading experience to Barkers novel, which is loosely based on the real life meeting between Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen and Dr. W.H.R Rivers at Craiglockhart War Hospital during The First World War. Due to the different approaches the structure of the books is different and that affects how the effect of war is shown. Dispatches is a tapestry of Read MoreHow Does ‘Exposure’ by Wilfred Owen Tackle the Theme of War?1257 Words   |  6 Pagesdoes ‘Exposure’ by Wilfred Owen tackle the Theme of War? ‘Exposure’ is a war poem written by Wilfred Owen in 1917 which describes how it felt like to be a soldier fighting war in the winter season. Owen focuses on the weather and shows how they are suffering more from the cold than getting wounded and hurt from the enemy which is not typical in war poetry. He has used a lot of figurative language and literary techniques to portray the cold and the soldiers’ feelings. Firstly, Owen applies figurativeRead MoreCompare How Robert Frost and Wilfred Owen Communicate the Theme of Loss in ‘Out, Out-’ and â€Å"Disabled†.1650 Words   |  7 PagesCompare how Robert Frost and Wilfred Owen communicate the theme of loss in ‘Out, Out-’ and â€Å"Disabled†. In the two poems â€Å"Out, Out-† and â€Å"Disabled†, a similar theme of loss is portrayed. Both of these poems deal with the subject of physical loss, as both protagonists of these poems experience accidental amputation. Both Robert Frost and Wilfred Owen manage to captivate their audience’s attention, and also a certain degree of sympathy for the protagonists’ misfortune. They do this successfully