Compare Owen’s differing presentation of the nightmare in Dulce Et Decorum Est, Anthem and The Sentry
Compare Owen’s differing presentation of the nightmare in Dulce Et Decorum Est, Anthem and The Sentry, consider how is it presented and whether the focus is on the subjects or the poet.
Owen’s presentation of the First World War in Dulce Et Decorum Est is achieved by direct connotations of the metaphor ‘nightmare’. By doing this, he implies that the audience will never be able to relate to the poem and really understand the horrors during WW1. For example, ‘till on the haunting flares we turned our backs’, ‘haunting’ suggests that something will not go away, it is always present and constantly a dark cloud above you. It may also have connotations of recurrence and therefor implies that the images and memories from the First World War will forever be in the soldier’s minds, or dreams. Another example of the theme of nightmares would be ‘men marched asleep’, proposes that the soldiers were living inside a nightmare as they were actually asleep, or at least they wished that they were. The expression ‘never in my wildest dreams’ may be brought to mind when reading the third stanza, ‘in all my dreams’, hints that the sights that Owen would have experienced are unimaginable, not even dreamt of before the real lie situation occurred. ‘Smothering’ implies that something is almost suffocating, that you cannot get away from it, the word is actually uncomfortable and being followed by ‘you too could pace’ would perhaps make the audience feel guilty that these soldiers would have gone through these terrible circumstances. The whole poem is based upon Owen’s recollection of the war, and some critics might say exaggerated and unrealistic, especially I the fourth stanza when describing graphic imagery such as ‘his hanging face, like a devils sick of sin’ or ‘the blood come gargling from the froth corrupted lungs’. I believe that Owen intentionally used visual and painful language to express to the audience how awful wars really are, and embellish the fact that it is nothing
Owen’s presentation of the First World War in Dulce Et Decorum Est is achieved by direct connotations of the metaphor ‘nightmare’. By doing this, he implies that the audience will never be able to relate to the poem and really understand the horrors during WW1. For example, ‘till on the haunting flares we turned our backs’, ‘haunting’ suggests that something will not go away, it is always present and constantly a dark cloud above you. It may also have connotations of recurrence and therefor implies that the images and memories from the First World War will forever be in the soldier’s minds, or dreams. Another example of the theme of nightmares would be ‘men marched asleep’, proposes that the soldiers were living inside a nightmare as they were actually asleep, or at least they wished that they were. The expression ‘never in my wildest dreams’ may be brought to mind when reading the third stanza, ‘in all my dreams’, hints that the sights that Owen would have experienced are unimaginable, not even dreamt of before the real lie situation occurred. ‘Smothering’ implies that something is almost suffocating, that you cannot get away from it, the word is actually uncomfortable and being followed by ‘you too could pace’ would perhaps make the audience feel guilty that these soldiers would have gone through these terrible circumstances. The whole poem is based upon Owen’s recollection of the war, and some critics might say exaggerated and unrealistic, especially I the fourth stanza when describing graphic imagery such as ‘his hanging face, like a devils sick of sin’ or ‘the blood come gargling from the froth corrupted lungs’. I believe that Owen intentionally used visual and painful language to express to the audience how awful wars really are, and embellish the fact that it is nothing