The Destructiveness Of War In Wilfred Owen's Poetry

Wilfred Owen is a remarkable figure who expresses his thoughts and experiences of the unspeakable war and the decimation of youth in his passionate poetry during WWI. His exploration of human cruelty highlights the ramifications, suffering, and the pointlessness of warfare that explores the unbearable agony endured by the brave young soldiers. "Futility" and "Dulce et Decorum Est" are two poems that perfectly epitomise Owen's first-hand experience on hardship and uselessness of war. Here, he expresses the true meaning of war by exploring the dehumanising consequences through the extensive support of dramatic imagery. As an influential poet, Owen is strictly precise and attentive in his structure of both poems where he conveys the vision and sounds of the excruciating battlefield that he personally
He uses vivid imagery to depict the terrible mental effects that the war had on young men in the first stanzas. Here, he compares the young soldiers to elderly people due to their physical condition. "Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge." The metaphor is used to show that the soldiers’ heavy bags are weighing them down to the level of the 'beggars', portraying their weakened and unhealthy state despite being young and energetic soldiers. Owen also emphasise the soldier's condition through simile. "Coughing like hags" explains how these young men were suffering from illness due to the sludge and fumes from the decaying bodies of their fallen comrades as they have been exposed to diseases. As a result, this highlights how men have been prematurely aged when returning to the trenches for a period of rest where they didn't felt like proud military men marching in uniform, depicting the suffering and exhaustion that the soldiers have undergone during the excruciating