Wilfred Owen Antiwar Poetry
Literary analysis: Deontology and the antiwar poetry of Wilfred Owen
"And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime/Dim through the misty panes and thick green light/As under a green sea, I saw him drowning."(Owen 12-14). In his poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" Wilfred Owen describes a scene he witnessed in the first world war. After writing about what he had seen, he then states his belief, that Horace's quotation (which is also the name of the poem) is untrue, and if even the most ardent hawk would have seen what Owen and his comrades had seen, they would gladly become a dove. The poem tries to tell the reader that war causes unneeded deaths and suffering. Unlike Horace, Owen sees nothing sweet or proper about dying. When distilled to its essence, …show more content…
"inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature - that baby beating its breast with its fist, for instance - and to found that edifice on its unavenged tears, would you consent to be the architect on those conditions?"(Dostovesky 259). Instead of asking us this question, Owen lays out the evidence and tells us that no moral man could say that the soldier's suffering was warranted, let alone sweet or glorious. The gruesome description of the anonymous soldier's suffering compels the thoughtful reader ask a lot of questions to himself. Do the ends justify the means? What are these ends and what do we want to achieve them? What is the point of human conflict and what drives us to fight against each other? Given his poem alone, there are very few who would find the death of an innocent young man sweet and proper. As a secondary piece of support, the content of the poem mentions no one in particular. No one is to blame, he does not implicate politicians or nations, he simply states what he saw. In this way, his piece is not controversial and does not spark any kind of violent reaction. Even if the reader still agrees with the war, he does not disagree with Owen. He is speaking from an elevated place, similar to the morality proposed by Kant and other deontological thinkers. Things like nationality, the ends of actions and practicality are all unimportant in a world of pure
"And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime/Dim through the misty panes and thick green light/As under a green sea, I saw him drowning."(Owen 12-14). In his poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" Wilfred Owen describes a scene he witnessed in the first world war. After writing about what he had seen, he then states his belief, that Horace's quotation (which is also the name of the poem) is untrue, and if even the most ardent hawk would have seen what Owen and his comrades had seen, they would gladly become a dove. The poem tries to tell the reader that war causes unneeded deaths and suffering. Unlike Horace, Owen sees nothing sweet or proper about dying. When distilled to its essence, …show more content…
"inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature - that baby beating its breast with its fist, for instance - and to found that edifice on its unavenged tears, would you consent to be the architect on those conditions?"(Dostovesky 259). Instead of asking us this question, Owen lays out the evidence and tells us that no moral man could say that the soldier's suffering was warranted, let alone sweet or glorious. The gruesome description of the anonymous soldier's suffering compels the thoughtful reader ask a lot of questions to himself. Do the ends justify the means? What are these ends and what do we want to achieve them? What is the point of human conflict and what drives us to fight against each other? Given his poem alone, there are very few who would find the death of an innocent young man sweet and proper. As a secondary piece of support, the content of the poem mentions no one in particular. No one is to blame, he does not implicate politicians or nations, he simply states what he saw. In this way, his piece is not controversial and does not spark any kind of violent reaction. Even if the reader still agrees with the war, he does not disagree with Owen. He is speaking from an elevated place, similar to the morality proposed by Kant and other deontological thinkers. Things like nationality, the ends of actions and practicality are all unimportant in a world of pure