Analysis Of The Poem ' Anthem For Doomed Youth ' Essay

From a simple ribbon affixed on the back of a pick-up truck with the words “SUPPORT OUR TROOPS” to tough-as-nails, stern Uncle Sam, war propaganda has always been present throughout history. But this type of propaganda differs from the actual experience of war; it glamorizes the entire idea to instill support. However, in the novel A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah, his experience with war as a boy soldier is anything but glamorous. Young and with fleeting innocence, his form of propaganda came from the corporal of the army, ingraining the idea to “visualize the enemy, the rebels who killed your parents, your family, and those who are responsible for everything that has happened to you” (Beah 112). As his experience

The glorified act of war is often staged in historical literature by idolizing the soldiers who partake in the event. Soldiers are made to seem intrepid, ruthless and muscular, each with a ceaseless desire to fight valiantly for their countries. Timothy Findley and Kurt Vonnegut discard this typical hero archetype in their anti-war novels by portraying the soldiers who fight in the war as the men they are, not as the templates of heroes they are expected to fit, in furtherance of strengthening their anti-war stances. Findley and Vonnegut illustrate their protagonists as a tragic hero and an anti-hero, respectively, in order to juxtapose the atrocities of war with the flawed humanness of man and to challenge the stereotypical image of a

Firstly, Owen uses some language features to appeal to my imagination such as personification to emphasise the idea of humankind in conflict with nature. In the first stanza, Owen mentions "our brains ache in the merciless iced east winds that knife us" this suggests how painful war is from the exposure to the extreme cold. Owen uses the word "merciless" to suggest

The poem by Wilfred Owen, “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” the descriptive language used can give readers a view of how detrimental war is for young men. “Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, -- The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells.” (Owen) This quote means that nothing can restore these men back to their original selves.

Throughout the poem, Owen makes clear two major tones. Anger and Disgust. To establish this point, the poet says “ Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge” (lines 2 & 3). This reveals how the poet was angry about being in the war because he wasn’t experiencing the romanticism of war he was experiencing suffering of fighting. An additional example is when Owen adds “ But limped on, blood shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots” (lines 6-8). These lines imply Owen’s disgusted tone towards the war because the soldiers were worked to death. However the title has a completely different tone. The translated title states “ It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.” This is a huge contrast to the rest of the poem because all the poet describes is the horror of being in the war, when the title puts a glorified image in your mind that serving is heroic and honorable. For instance, Owen states “ My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, the old Lie: Dulce et decorum

There are several image groups used in this poem, two of which I will be reviewing. The first image group is “Sleep or Dreams”. Owen often refers to many subconscious states like the afore mentioned one, the reason why he uses these references so frequently is that war is made apparent to the reader as being a subconscious state as the realities often seem to be too hard to except, an example which backs up my opinion is: “Men marched asleep”. The poet often refers to dreams. I believe part of the reason for this is that by dreaming you are escaping from the physical reality and surroundings and due to the horror and constant threat of death the soldiers would constantly be dreaming of home and their loved ones. However,

<br>Owen uses simile to explain better the situation faced by the men. Simile is often used by poets and is used mainly for description in Dulce Et Decorum Est. The poet provides us with these similes as he has simplified them to a state in which we would understand them. An example of this would be: "flound'ring like a man in fire or lime…" this example makes us aware of the movement which this soldier would use during the gas attack "flound'ring". Another implication this simile has is that the soldier would not be in control of the situation as if a man was on fire he would not be able to put it out simply and this would be similar with the soldier used in the example as this would be an unusually helpless situation for him to be in. Owen does not use simile as much as the previous kinds of imagery.

Owen’s poem has the clear intention of showing the true nature of war to the reader, which is mainly achieved by contrasting reality against the ways in which war is so

Furthermore, Owen’s Dulce also communicates to reader about the futility of war by showing war is futile because it is simply massacre, it is pointless because soldiers are dying and suffering. Through the simile, “His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of

Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” is a poem made of four stanzas in an a, b, a, b rhyme scheme. There is hardly any rhythm to the entire poem, although Owen makes it sound like it is in iambic pentameter in some lines. Every stanza has a different amount of lines, ranging from two to twelve. To convey the poem’s purpose, Owen uses an unconventional poem style and horrid, graphic images of the frontlines to convey the unbearable circumstances that many young soldiers went through in World War I. Not only did these men have to partake in such painful duties, but these duties contrasted with the view of the war made by the populace of the mainland country. Many of these people are pro-war and would never see the battlefield themselves. Owen’s use of word choice, imagery, metaphors, exaggeration, and the contrast between the young, war-deteriorated soldiers and populace’s favorable view of war creates Owen’s own unfavorable view of the war to readers.

line with the way that Owen is conveying the 'Pity of War' but he also

In majority of Owen’s poem, he demonstrates the true image of war and the impact it has on the soldiers rather than masking it with the lies of pride

The manipulation by Owen’s superiors expose tragedy, as soldiers are being used like cattle to fight a battle with no cause. Throughout his poems, Owen does not portray anger as the enemy, but he is angry at those who are sending men over to fight the war. These who are affectively his superior and his rulers of the country, he is angry at the people who are

Owen manifests the soldiers’ ferocious emotions through their guns to demonstrate the dehumanization they experienced when killing someone. When Wilfred says “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? / - Only the monstrous anger of the guns,” it strips the soldiers of their identity and humanity just as killing someone in war did to them (1-2). By taking away the soldiers’ identities and channeling their emotions through their weaponry and deeming them “monstrous” it makes it more difficult for the audience to develop a personal connection to the soldiers and their feelings, which is exactly what Owen wants. People back home during the war could not possibly relate or put themselves in the shoes of these soldiers, which Owen highlights to the reader through this method. To be able to kill someone, they had

This technique serves to emphasize the solemn and serious content. In stanza one, Owen describes the soldiers as they set off towards the army base from the front line. The simile "Bent double, like old beggars"(1) not only says that they are tired, but that they are so tired they have been brought down to the level of beggars who have not slept in a bed for weeks on end. Also, the simile "coughing like hags"(2) helps to depict the soldiers? poor health and depressed state of mind. Owen makes us picture the soldiers as ill, disturbed and utterly exhausted. He shows that this is not the government-projected stereotype of a soldier, in gleaming boots and crisp new uniform, but is the true illustration of the poor mental and physical state of the soldiers. By telling us that many of the platoon are barefoot, Owen gives us an idea of how awful the soldiers? journey already is; it then gets even worse. Owen tells us that the soldiers, although they must have been trained, still do not notice the deadly mustard gas shells being fired at them from behind; such is the extent of their exhaustion.