war poems - 1348 Words

Question: Wilfred Owen’s poetry is shaped by an intense focus on extraordinary human experiences. Select TWO poems set for study and explore Owen’s portrayal of suffering and pity. Prescribed text: War Poems and Others, Wilfred Owen Wilfred Owen wrote about the suffering and pity of war from his first -hand experience at the Somme. He was appalled by the overwhelming and senseless waste of life, the â€Å"human squander† and detailed its devastating effects on young men. In both ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ and ‘Mental Cases’ he writes with intense focus on war as anextraordinary human experience. The poems also document other experiences, the living hell of shell-shock in ‘Mental Cases’ and a cruel and grotesque death from mustard gas in†¦show more content†¦The use of the continuous present participle form in â€Å"smothering† and â€Å"choking, drowning† suggests the continuity of the actions which will replay in the soldiers’ minds long after the event. ‘Mental Cases’ also evokes pain and suffering through visual and aural imagery. On the battle-field the soldiers are â€Å"treading blood†. They see the â€Å"shatter o f flying muscles† and â€Å"human squander / Rucked too thick†. In the hospital ward, these same men’s â€Å"eyeballs shrink tormented / Back into their brains†. The physical pain of the battlefield is now the mental pain of shell-shock. They have waded through so much blood, flesh and carnage they cannot free their minds from the horror of it. Owen reminds us that we have treated our soldiers shamefully and are complicit in their misery and suffering. This is the final point in ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’. The title itself works ironically, playing with the expectations of the audience who would have known the phrase, ‘It is a sweet and fitting thing to die for one’s country,’ and would have expected a poem about the greatness of war. Having described the appalling death from mustard gas, he addresses his audience directly to state that it is not at all a great and glorious thing to die for one’s country. He likens the deadsoldier to a child, an innocent doing an adult’s bidding and implies that his death is based on propaganda and deceit, perpetuated forShow MoreRelatedWar Poems : War Poetry1443 Words   |  6 Pagesleaves a nation with a vein of guilt deep within the core of the country. War poetry immortalizes the death of these soldiers in an attempt to forget about the brutal ity of conflict and to remove the grief that comes from sending your nation’s sons and daughters into combat. War poetry immortalizes soldiers in an attempt to keep the nation moving forward, to gain closure, and to paint a heroic image of their fallen warriors. War poems immortalization of heroes helps the nation move forward by giving theRead MoreThe Consequences of War in the Poem, Children in Wartime529 Words   |  2 PagesIn the poem Children in Wartime, the poet presents the ways of the dreadfulness of warfare and what people, particularly children, have had to suffer the consequence of the war. We can see this through the quote where the author writes â€Å"Sirens ripped open/ the warm silk of sleep/ we ricocheted to the shelter† this suggests to the reader how the use of imagery right in the first lines shows how uses of powerful verbs such as the words ‘ripped’ and ‘ricocheted’ is to present the violence and damageRead More ESSAY O N 3 WAR POEMS1160 Words   |  5 PagesESSAY ON 3 WAR POEMS No man wants to go to war and no government wants war but there are many different circumstances that lead to the action of war. Those involved in war will have political and personal views towards it. The First World War was greeted with great enthusiasm and patriotism; however it was the war in which millions died compared to the wars after. In the past 200 years warfare has changed and with this change the ideas on war have changed too. Wilfred Owen, Rudyard KiplingRead MoreWar Poems954 Words   |  4 PagesWar is a time of violence, protest, death and pain for many people around the world. With this conflict, a lot of poetry is written because poetry is one of the most common ways for people to put across their feelings about situations. War is one of these situations for which many people have very strong feelings. A common theme in war poetry is the transformation that war brings about in a person. Many poems reveal boys going into war and becoming young men after the experience. Another dominantRead MoreWar Is Kind, And The Poem, Anthem For Doomed Youth1714 Words   |  7 Pagesat war. Everyday loved ones wait at home waiting for news or their loved one to come home, hopefully unharmed both physically and mentally, safe from the wrath of war. War and violence can affect many people directly or indirectly in quite different ways. These effects on people involved with war and violence can be found in the movie Hacksaw Ridge, the poem â€Å"War is Kind,† and the poem â€Å"Anthem for Doomed Youth.† In the movie Hacksaw it can be found throughout the entire movie the effects war canRead MoreBruce Weigl ´s Poems on Vietnam War874 Words   |  4 Pagesthis day the Vietnam War is still considered to be one of the most devastating wars in history and has been a topic of resentmen t to the American culture thirty-three years after its end. For the American public it’s marked as being the point in history where distrust in our government was at an all-time high, mainly because most of the war’s carnage was witnessed on television for the first time. For all the bloodshed American and Vietnamese soldiers suffered through, the war has left a perpetualRead MoreWar Takes Over Everything in Walt Whitman’s Poem, Drum Taps645 Words   |  3 Pagesabout the way war consumes everything and monopolizes every facet of life; particularly the land the war is fought on. When analyzing the poem, the first stanza talks about the movement of war from the farms, the second stanza talks about the progression of war from the farm to the city. In stanza three this journey continues through the battlefield, through the halls of power and finally into the homes, moving from the public to private spheres of life. Throughout the entire poem there is an emphasizedRead MoreSongs and Poems Written on Wars: Imagine by John Lennon 793 Words   |  3 PagesPoetry is a way to express opinions and ideas and this can often be more effectively achieved through song. The Vietnam War also known as the American War was the longest major conflict that Australians have been involved in. It began in 1962 and ended in 1975. The Vietnam War was the cause of the greatest political and social dissent in Australia since World War 1. In 1959 war broke out between communist North Vietnam and democratic South Vietnam. America and there allies, which include AustraliaRead MoreThe Different Aspects of Conflict in a Selection of Four War Poems1217 Words   |  5 PagesThe Different Aspects of Conflict in a Selection of Four War Poems Many poems have been witnessed throughout history that show different views on war and the glory and sacrifices made. Everyone was affected, from the men in the front lines to women and children working back at home. Men involved in the war effort often wrote poems to record their thoughts and feelings, or simply to pass the time. Poetry was an outlet through which they could express great depthRead More Analysis of Bruce Dawes Anti-War Poem, Homecoming Essay1425 Words   |  6 PagesAn anti-war poem inspired by the events of the Vietnam War, Homecoming inspires us to think about the victims of the war: not only the soldiers who suffered but also the mortuary workers tagging the bodies and the families of those who died in the fighting. The author, Australian poet Bruce Dawe, wrote the poem in response to a news article describing how, at Californian Oaklands Air /Base, at one end of the airport families were farewelling their sons as they left for Vietnam and at the other end