Preview

Wilfred Owen Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1211 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Wilfred Owen Essay Example
How does Wilfred Owen convey his central concerns about war in his poetry?

Powerful poetic devices allow one to convey his or her themes strongly. Wilfred Owen uses poetic devices in order to allow him to convey his central concern, the terror of war. Both “Dulce Et Decorum Est” and “Mental Cases” conveys concerns of pity towards human torture by the horrifying events in war. His poems show a journey of how many children had lost their lives which horrified him. It is evident that poetic devices allow one to convey his or her themes effectively by the way poets use them.

Owen uses poetic devices in all his poems to convey his pitiful concerns leading to the theme of horror. “Dulce Et Decorum Est”, Latin for ‘it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country’ gives a sense of pity as governmental politics enrols unexperienced children to a field where only the fittest survive. Owen use techniques to generate a graphical journey in our minds to draws us into his poem physically. He uses simile to describe the youth ‘like old beggars under sacks’, ‘coughing like hags’ as they are ‘cursed through sludge’. Owen conveys his concern of pity about the youth through simile as these ‘old beggars’ are the young generations of Australia that had been sent to war. He then metaphorically describes them as ‘drunk with fatigue’, ‘men marched asleep’, to highlight their exhaustion and their physical status, unable to keep up. Owen descriptively says that they ‘limped on’ cause of ‘blood shos’ which highlights the graphical image. In result these images convey the pitiful concerns about the youth, by use of descriptive techniques.

Similarly in “Mental Cases”, Owen conveys the concern of pity for the youth that was sacrificed in WW1 for no result, just lost of self control. Owen uses oxymoron to describe the surviving youth as ‘hilarious, hideous’. Oxymoron highlights the image of these mentals as ‘hilarious’ but ‘hideous’ almost ironic. Owen then rhetorically ask ‘but who

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Wilfred Owen Essay

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Wilfred Owen successfully creates the truthful and terrifying image of war within his poems. The loss, sacrifice, urgency and pity of war are shown within the themes of his poetry and the use of strong figurative language; sensory imagery and tone contribute to the reader. This enables the reader to appreciate Owen’s comments about the hopelessness of war and the sacrifice the men around him went through within his poems, ‘Dulce et Decorum Est.’ and ‘Futility’.…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is a poem that shows the real meaning of war in from OWen’s experience. In this poem he describes the deaths and the horrible images that had stuck in his mind. One of the imagery in on the first line, he is showing how terrible the soldiers were looking, they were just like ‘old beggars under sacks.’ There is a juxtaposition in the line,he compares the boys who were in the war to the old beggars on the street, showing how the war had affected their lives forever. The word ‘beggar’ shows that they were in a low status and that they were destroyed by this dreadful war. He explained how they died by using various persuasive devices including metaphors and similes to create a better vision for the reader. This helps the…

    • 147 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    2009 HSC QUESTIONS 1

    • 1435 Words
    • 1 Page

    The recollection of Wilfred Owen’s poetry epitomise the true depiction of war and consequently the dehumanising ramifications of warfare. Influenced by the extremities and first hand experiences on the battlefield, Owen’s poetry encapsulates the extraordinary human experiences to the degree of unbearable suffering and extreme states of dehumanisation. Owen’s vivid portrayal of war corresponds to his personal endeavour in condemning the misconceptions of war; where he manifests the brutal reality and the detrimental aspects of warfare- the powerful and destructive entity of war; the dehumanising consequences of slaughter; and the abhorrent physiological, psychological and emotional trauma suffered through modern warfare. These aspects are incorporated into the texts which correspond to Owen’s portrayal of suffering and pity; revolving Owen’s poetry on the basis of extraordinary human experiences.…

    • 1435 Words
    • 1 Page
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    How does Owen’s portrayal of the relationship between youth and war move us to a deeper understanding of suffering?…

    • 1020 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “In the selection of Owen’s poems, compare the ways in which he reflects on the price paid by soldiers during wartime. You should look for connections across the poems studied, in relation both to the situations and feelings described and the way in which Owen has used language for effect.”…

    • 942 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wilfred Owen

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Owen reflects on the price paid by soldiers during wartime as he shows how the war takes away the soldiers lives. Owen describes the soldiers as being “Bent double like old beggars” this shows the price paid by soldiers as war has aged them. Owen then goes on to describe the soldiers as hags and wearing sacks. Instead of wearing smart uniforms they are now dressed like beggars in sacks. This again shows the price paid.…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wilfred Owen was born at Plas Wilmot, a house in Weston Lane, near Oswestry in Shropshire, on 18 March 1893, of mixed English and Welsh ancestry. He was the eldest of four children, his siblings being Harold, Colin, and Mary Millard Owen. At that time, his parents, Thomas and Harriet Susan (née Shaw) Owen, lived in a comfortable house owned by his grandfather, Edward Shaw but, after the latter's death in January 1897, and the house's sale in March,[1] the family lodged in back streets of Birkenhead while Thomas temporarily worked in the town with the railway company employing him. In April the latter transferred to Shrewsbury, where the family lived with Thomas' parents in Canon Street.[2]…

    • 447 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Wilfred Owen Research Paper

    • 2492 Words
    • 10 Pages

    World War I’s powerful and long lasting impact affected people all over the world. A significant figure from the literature of World War I, Wilfred Owen, expressed his powerful thoughts on the war in his writing. Owen had experience in the war as a soldier himself which made him particularly noteworthy. He noted many hardships that included suffering from illnesses and the changing weather conditions. His firsthand accounts demonstrate the truth about war. In one of Wilfred Owen’s particular poems, “Dulce et Decorum Est”, he wrote with extensive imagery of the war which showed his view point as a soldier and what occurred in reality. The stanzas have a darkening mood as they go on to make the war seem very real and…

    • 2492 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Wilfred Owen

    • 1268 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The horrific conditions and extraordinary experiences in which the men had to endure were unimaginable to any human who has not experienced it firsthand. We grasp a sense of the war participant’s vile experiences and physical demands through his extensive use of vivid imagery in Dulce et Decorum Est. “An ecstasy of fumbling”, “clumsy… stumbling…floundering”, Owen uses these powerful adverbs to highlight the frantic and stressful situation which arises as a result of a gas attack, an extraordinary experience to any normal being. These adverbs encourage the reader to read at a faster pace, generating a connection to the urgency of the situation. “Gas! GAS! Quick boys” generates a strong sense of immediacy and a fast pace to the stanza. The gas attack gives the reader a clear insight into the treacherous experiences surrounding these men. We empathise with the gas attack victim and its witnesses as a result of the metaphor “us under a green sea, I saw him drowning”. This shows us how the gas engulfs the men and causes great struggle. “Guttering, choking, drowning”, the description of the dying, suffering man is written in a dispassionate manner suggesting that this became a part of everyday life in the war. We learn that war, particularly through Wilfred Owen’s eyes, is dehumanising and immoral. “Bent double, like old beggars” opens this text in a negative tone. “Knock-kneed, coughing like hags” reinforces the poor state of the men; these similes compare these once bright young men to “old hags” and…

    • 1268 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Wilfred Owen Research Paper

    • 5157 Words
    • 21 Pages

    Few would challenge the claim that Wilfred Owen is the greatest writer of war poetry in the English language. He wrote out of his intense personal experience as a soldier and wrote with unrivalled power of the physical, moral and psychological trauma of the First World War. All of his great war poems on which his reputation rests were written in a mere fifteen months.…

    • 5157 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wilfred Edward Salter Owen was born on 18 March 1893 and died on 4 November 1918. He was an English poet and soldier, one of the leading poets of the First World War. His shocking, graphic poetry about the First World War was very heavily influenced by his friend, Siegfried Sassoon.…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The World War One poet, Wilfred Owen, wrote two poems named ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ and ‘Disabled’. The main themes running throughout both poems are that of the pain and worthlessness of war, and the crime towards the young soldiers it was. The beginning and ending of these two poems link these ideas through the use of imagery contrast and language features.…

    • 845 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Dulce Et Decorum Est

    • 1577 Words
    • 7 Pages

    In the poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, we see how the author presents powerful messages using irony with the translated title meaning sweet and fitting to describe the horrors of war. This, poem in particular, highlights the horrors of such a situation through the life of a soldier. In the poem, we are presented with the setting of a battlefield where the author uses metaphors and similes to describe the trepidations of war. It is this utilization of metaphors and similes - and its link to the theme of the poem – that makes this poem significant, and helps the reader to imagine what is being described.…

    • 1577 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dulce Et Decorum Est Essay

    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Owen suggests in this poem that only the soldiers that experienced war first hand can understand the hardship and trauma of fighting for their country and losing a fellow soldier feels like. The lines “in all my dreams, before my helpless sight, he plunges at me,” puts the reader in the same position of the soldier (1st person), and shows that the speaker’s dreams are as real as his waking experience; the war becomes more of a mental battle. As well as this the first two lines, “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks” creates two similes; the soldiers are ‘like’ ‘old’ ‘beggars’ and ‘hags,’ which Owen suggests that their reality is so surreal that he needs to find comparative ways to describe it so that the readers can understand how gruesome his experience has been. Therefore, the use of reality in Dulce Et Decorum Est creates a sharp and deeply ironic line between the civilians who prop up war efforts, and the men who fight their battle, thus being glorious towards…

    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” Wilfred Owen tells that “only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle can patter out their hasty orisons” (3-4). The poet starts to reveal the realism of war through alliteration. As readers, one can visualize the sounds of the rifles as clearly as Owen intended us to. The rifles emphasize that the opposing troops did not take pity on the individuals they are trying to kill. In “dulce et decorum est,” Owen uses imagery by writing, “His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;” (line 20). In this part of the poem, Owen talks about his “fallen” friend. Here, we see how graphic his friend looked, thus confirming the fact of the gruesome nature of war. Sickening language is used to invoke the shocking image of a man literally drowning in his own blood as the blood came “gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs” (22). This grotesque language is used to express the distasteful nature of the…

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays