Similarities Between Dulce Et Decorum Est And Anthem For Doomed Youth
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Wilfred Owen wrote about the suffering and pity of war from his firsthand experience at the Somme. The overwhelming and senseless waste of life appalled him. In both ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ and ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ he writes with intense focus on war as an extraordinary human experience. The poems also document other experiences. As an early twentieth century poet, Owen is careful in his attention to structure, rhyme and meter to convey meaning, and in his use of figurative language, especially in images conveying the sights and sounds of the battlefield and of trauma. Whichever way he chooses to portray the pity of the war the end result is always the same.
The focus of war is greatly disputed as innocent lives of the young are exposed…show more content… ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is an ironic poem emphasising the horrendous circumstances experienced by the fighting men. Owen clearly explains the suffering of the fighting men who are ‘drunk with fatigue’, metaphorically implying that the soldiers are shocked and overwhelmed by the gas attack as a result of their extreme fatigue. The fighting men are exhausted and are unaware of their surroundings of being ‘deaf even to the hoots of gas shells dropping softly behind’. Owen evokes sympathy through the use of graphic imagery depicting a soldier’s suffering from the gas attack, coughing ‘blood from froth corrupted lungs’. Owen draws the reader into the suffering of the soldier whose ‘eyes are withering in his face’. These images assist the reader to appreciate the suffering and the pain inflicted on the soldiers during war. These images expose the ironic sentiment in the title. ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ (It is fitting and Glorious to die for your Country), makes the reader comprehend how incorrect the stereotype image of war being glorious is. This becomes clearly evident that Owen convinces the reader to agree with the ‘pity of…show more content… This brings the stanza to a soft end. "Gas! GAS! Quick boys! -An ecstasy of fumbling"
This is a very sudden start to the next stanza. The word "gas" is onomatopoeic and the sound of the word brings alarm. It is also a real word that would have been used in that situation. The word "ecstasy" means the men are in an extreme state of delusion.
Wilfred Owen’s important analysis of the killing of a generation of young men in World War 1 is arrestingly compressed in this sonnet. The title, appearing to promise an ‘anthem’, is purposely ironic for an anthem is usually a long song of praise, such as a patriotic writer might have written for a nation’s young fighting heroes.
The title can either be thought of as ironic, or in actual respect of the youth who gave their lives. This poem shows Wilfred Owen's anger and bitterness towards the war and the church. It is written in a personal way because through out the first stanza he ironically links a list of the sounds of the war, the weapons of destruction, guns, rifles, shells, with religious imagery. In the second stanza the focus changes to the mourning people in