Attitude of World War I Poets Towards War Essay - 1630 Words

It is interesting when discussing WW1 poetry to examine how attitudes to war at the time may have influenced the poets. Before WW1 war was generally viewed as a positive thing. Many young men followed a career in the army and saw it as something of an adventure. The horrors of WW1 changed many people’s attitudes to war, the mechanisation of warfare led to millions of casualties and this resulted into a general realisation that war wasn’t a glorious adventure. Many soldiers wrote powerful poems about the reality of war as they wanted the truth to be known. Wilfred Owen was one of these and one of his poems I’m going to discus is ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’. Nevertheless there were some pro-war poems such as Fall In. The first poem I am going†¦show more content†¦The second stanza describes the aftermath of a gas shell bombardment that hit Owen’s trench and it conveys an image of one of Owen’s men drowning in the depths of the gas. He used the simile â€Å"As under green sea, I saw him drown,† he also used direct speech such as â€Å"Gas! Gas! Quick, Boys!† The simile Owen used is very powerful because it is a very good description of what actually happened to the man and that Owen could not help him. This causes despair amongst the comrades of the soldier because they want to save him but they cannot. The second quote is poignant because it transports the reader to the horrors of the trenches, thus making it an authentic experience. The third stanza is mostly about the dreadful experience Owen endures in his dreams and that he is emotionally scared. â€Å"In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, he plunges at me guttering, choking, drowning,† this tells me of the recurrent nightmares endured by the writer caught up in the horrors of war. It also tells me that Owen had changed when he went to war and undoubtedly he would have come back a changed man. Owen uses a few powerful poetic devices such as the power of three, which makes the words more memorable. He also uses many powerful adjectives; he does this to make the reader receive an authentic experience. The second poem I am going to discuss is ‘Breakfast’ by Wilfred Gibson. This poem is moreShow MoreRelatedExplication of Dulce Et Decorum Est1268 Words   |  6 Pageseyes of an innocent and shell-shocked soldier. It is told through a WWI veteran’s point of view in second person. By examining this â€Å"war† poem and Wilfred Owen’s background, it is reasonable to believe that Own is talking about his experience during war. Therefore making the speaker, he himself. Owen is talking to everyone that does not know the realistic feeling of war up in the frontlines. He painfully expresses all the horrific scenes he had to go through. 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