Literary Devices In Easter 1916

Wilfred Owen’s Anthem for Doomed Youth and Bruce Dawe’s Homecoming are thematically connected poems which explore the futility of war and the treatment of deceased combatants. Both Owen and Dawe served in the military and were controversial condemners in all that they penned on World War One and the Vietnam War respectively. Despite this, these texts do not explicitly state these views, but rather evoke the sympathy of the audience utilising subtle poetic techniques including contrast, flesh imagery and death imagery.

The speaker desires for the spirit and God’s will from the clothes to enter her life and for them to affect many different aspects, from abstract parts of her being such as her will and emotions to physical things such as actions and words. In the last two lines of the poem,” Then mine apparel shall display before ye That I am Clothed in Holy robes for glory.”, the ending of the lines is near rhyme which causes the reader to break pattern and adds emphasis to the lines. The lines draw everything together and bring the motivation for the puritan way of life to the forefront. The speaker wants to use all the work God does in her life to bring glory to him and to finally meet him in heaven when she has shown she is worthy.

On 21st October 1915, ladies and gentlemen, board of the ‘Poetry Now Festival’, you and I, have enlisted in the Artists ' Rifles Officers ' Training Corps. As honourable soldiers we’re aware that as time passes, our imaginative existence has changed dramatically by a number of traumatic experiences. We, are ALL Wilfred Owen. One of the most enduring phenomena spawned The Great War created a literal response which evoked from its immediate participants, the soldiers. Owen writes with intense focus on war as an extraordinary human experience. The poems also document other experiences, such as human cruelty and suffering which are carefully structured to convey meaning, and through the use of figurative language conveying the sights and sounds of the battlefield and of trauma. With reference to ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’, ‘The Next War’ and ‘Anthem Of Doomed Youth’, Owen’s intention were to arouse an awareness of the fluctuations of fortune and mood during war and to promote an understanding that a these shifts were reflected in an enormous body of literature. Owen successfully portrays the relationship between the changing perceptions of authority/government, as the young soldiers begin to feature in the delightful and

While Yeats becomes conscious of the violent truth of nature which results in death, by watching the swans, he is able to comfort himself by admiring how the swans are “unwearied” and “their hearts have not grown old.” When

Throughout many literary text the themes of courage and sacrifice are commonly displayed. Laurence Binyon's poem is one great example that demonstrates this as he writes in dedication to the ‘fallen’ from World War One. Through a respectful and constantly calm tone he focuses his writing on the remarkable sacrifices made by soldiers as well as writes to express the idealistic point of view towards war many people had including himself. The authors image of the soldier's death is being reflected in the poem as “They fell with their faces to the foe”. This line adds an alliteration effect explaining that the soldiers fell in ‘harsh and abrupt’ ways, as well as granting the reader a pure image of what war was really like. The repetition of the f’s adds an artistic style to the poem and therefore it creates a line of text that is more entertaining and appealing to read. The whole poem relates to the many soldiers who died during World War One and the third stanza being the most well known and rehearsed in today's society; “They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them.” embodies the profound sense of respect, admiration and grief that shapes the true meaning of remembrance. These lines are situated at the heart of the poem as they are the most valued by the author and present an argument that the dead are immortalised in the memory of the living.

William Butler Yeats is one of the most esteemed poets in 20th century literature and is well known for his Irish poetry. While Yeats was born in Ireland, he spent most of his adolescent years in London with his family. It wasn’t until he was a teenager that he later moved back to Ireland. He attended the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin and joined the Theosophical Society soon after moving back. He was surrounded by Irish influences most of his life, but it was his commitment to those influences and his heritage that truly affected his poetry. William Butler Yeats’s poetry exemplifies how an author’s Irish identity can help create and influence his work.

Heaney’s poems ‘The Early Purges’ and ‘Midterm Break’ deal with the macabre theme of death in similar ways in terms of structure but the techniques he uses by way of form and language to articulate his feelings about the loss of life are vastly different. They were both written about youthful naivety and childhood experiences ad his transition to pragmatism, or rather the speedy voyage he had to make into adulthood in rural Ireland.

"And with great power the Apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all."

It is known that the First World War was one of the most lethal conflicts in history. Attack a poem written by S. Sasson and Anthem for Doomed youth written by W. Owen are both poems that touch on the sensitive topic that is the War and its hidden veracities that manifests in various forms. Not only were both of the writers inspired by the same matter, but they were in fact, friends. This is very important because similarities are established within the two poems, as one inspired the other as a form of therapy from the consequences of the war on mental health. The writers through their talent uniquely incorporate their viewpoints and personal experiences that is ultimately projected onto their poems, whilst still maintaining a level of resemblance from one another.

Poems using strong poetic technique and devices are able to create a wide range of emotions from the readers. Wilfred Owen’s poetry effectively uses these poetic techniques and devices to not only create unsettling images about war but to provide his opinion about war itself with the use of themes within his poem. The use of these themes explored Owen’s ideas on the futility of war and can be seen in the poems: Anthem for Doomed Youth, Futility and The Next War. The poems provide unsettling images and belief of war through the treatment of death, barbaric nature of war and the futility of war.

Throughout Wilfred Owen’s collection of poems, he unmasks the harsh tragedy of war through the events he experienced. His poems indulge and grasp readers to feel the pain of his words and develop some idea on the tragedy during the war. Tragedy was a common feature during the war, as innocent boys and men had their lives taken away from them in a gunshot. The sad truth of the war that most of the people who experienced and lived during the tragic time, still bare the horrifying images that still live with them now. Owen’s poems give the reader insight to this pain, and help unmask the tragedy of war.

In contrast, the poems “To Ireland in the Coming Times” and “Easter 1916” carried the theme of unity. In the

     “The Stolen Child”, a poem by W.B. Yeats, can be analyzed on several levels. The poem is about a group of faeries that lure a child away from his home “to the waters and the wild”(chorus). On a more primary level the reader can see connections made between the faery world and freedom as well as a societal return to innocence. On a deeper and second level the reader can infer Yeats’ desire to see a unified Ireland of simpler times. The poem uses vivid imagery to establish both levels and leaves room for open interpretation especially with the contradictory last stanza.

This poem is also about Art, and the Irish people's response to it. It is structured around the contrast between the Yeats' dream to write for the Irish people, and the reality.

Tone’s privilege – he was “well-bred and impervious” – condemned him to be distant from “the shouts of men” and to be imperiled by forces overwhelming any steerage afforded by his position. This poem, though reaching back to a historical personage and to the complex historical events of the Irish 1790s, refines both personage and events into a few bold strokes.