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Wilfred owen Essay - draft
Wilfred Owens poems present a convincing and vivid portrait of the cruelty and horrors of war.
How does Owen convey this portrait in his poetry?

Wilfred Owen was a World War 1 poet that expressed his contentious depiction of War leading him to become one of the most influential anti-war voices of the War. He uses personal first hand-experiences along with a unique writing style to highlight the truth of the pity, horror and cruelty of War that was otherwise masked by the other war poets. Owen uses of a variety of techniques and poetic devices to demonstrate the ideas of the lifelong effect of the war, the pointlessness of war and life itself and the cruel dehumanisation of individual soldiers. These are examined in the following poems; Dulce Et Decorum Est, Spring Offensive and The Send Off.

Wilfred Owen explores the horrid notion of the lifelong effect of war and though a man may have made it back home they are still haunted by their experiences of war causing PTS. His use of concise In the send off we see how that even though a few have returned they have evoked an idea of a loss of innocence “may creep back, silent,...Up half known roads” That they will be able to resume life from where they left it.

Owen also explains cruel mistreatment of the soldiers by displaying a vivid image of the individual soldiers becoming dehumanised. Through his adept use impersonal nouns, avoiding of names, dates or places. Along with metaphorical language and personification to convey the anonymity of the soldiers as seen in the poem of ‘The Send off’ more specifically when he says “close darkening lanes...to the sliding shed” portraying the men as cattle.

Wilfred Owen emphasises his central concern of the pity of war and life itself throughout his poems to criticise those who agree with it. His use of tone is used to express meaningless of war. Which is demonstrated using confronting vivid imagery displaying how the soldiers have been prematurely aged by war

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