In your view, what is a distinctive idea explored in Wilfred Owens poetry?

Explain how this idea is developed in at least TWO poems you have studied.

Wilfred Owens poems focused on the men sent to World War One and aimed to
challenge public perceptions on the war. Owen wanted to inform, awaken and
enlighten his readers about what war was really like. His poems explore the emotional
and psychological impact on the men who forced to kill in order to survive. Through
the use of several poetic techniques in two of his poems, The Send-Off and Dulce
et Decorum Est, Owen conveys his main idea: the horror, pity and waste of war.

The words Send-Off in the title positive connotations of farewell although this
perception is immediately challenged in the opening lines. Images of close darkening
lanes are juxtaposed with singing soldiers. The poem is about the soldiers who are
shipped off to the war from which very few will return.

The departure is procedural and described largely as a mechanical process rather than
a cheerful send-off. Owen implies that the journey is pointless as most men will be
sent to their deaths. The personification of winking gives the hint to the responder
that the soldiers themselves are yet to find out their fate.

Compound terms such as siding-shed and train-loads create the concept of produce
rather than the soldiers being transported. Connotations of secrecy, furtiveness and
deceit are developed by the terms such as nodded and winked and the simile like
wrongs hushed-up. Inversion is found within the phrase As mens are dead is used
to reinforce what has been lost. Creep is an emotive word that denotes shame and
guilt.

The adjectives darkening, grimly, dull, casual, half-known help define the
pessimistic scene. The repetition of the word few reinforces readers the fact that
although many men were sent to the war, very few came back.

The phrase like wrongs hushed-up is a blunt accusation of the corruption that
surrounds the waging of war. The simile and onomatopoeic words hushed-up brings
to mind the furtive whisperings and deals being made where the mens live are forfeit.
Juxtapositions of happy/grim, alive/dead, sorry/unmoved, great bells/ silent become
haunting images of innocent victims.

Powerful inversion is found in the second and last stanza. The thought that the men
who participated in the war will soon be dead or silent is the undeniable reality of
war. The repetition of the word few in the third last line stresses one of the major
themes of horror and waste.

The poem Dulce et Decorum Est is made up of four irregular length stanzas, the
third being only two lines. This couplet stands out from the rest of the poem and
affirms that this scene continues to haunt the sleep of the narrator. The poem is written
in three main stages, namely before, during and after the gas attack. Each of the stages
vary in pace, tone and mood and a wide range of figurative methods and techniques
are found within them.
The first stanza sets the scene before the gas attack. The repetition of the word if in
Ifyou too could pace, If you could hear makes the reader place themselves

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within the scene and share the agony with the men who suffered. The hyperbole used
in the phrase Men marched asleep in order to stress the level of exhaustion the men
experienced. The pace is sluggish for the men are crippled beggars and hags.

During stage two the pace changes, it becomes a bit faster and more extreme. This is
supported by the phrase Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! The tone also sharpens as Owen
dramatically re-creates the scene.

There are three present participants found within the third stanza couplet, guttering,
choking, and drowning which define the horrific sights before their eyes and those of
the reader.

The simile like old beggars under sacks found in the beginning of the poem not only
evokes the difficulty of the soldiers movements through the sludge but also shows
how degrading war can be. The use of multiple similes such as like hags arouses the
responders pity for the men and gives the reader a sense of the soldiers weariness and
numbness.

Graphic similes are used extensively and metaphors such as drunk with fatigue
enhance the visual imagery. Emotive language is used to invoke the senses and
vividly describe sounds and feelings. Descriptive terms such as beggars, knock-
kneed, hags and wile are explicit in their negativity. In the phrase All went lame,
all blind, hyperbole emphasises their suffering. Visual imagery makes it simple to
imagine their physical condition and their fumbling, lurching movements.

Colour and water imagery is used to describe the attack itself. This helps create the
atmosphere of billowing green waves of gas and helps the responder visualise the
scene. More visual imagery is found within stumbling and floundering which is
used to help describe the mans movements. Emotive language such as corrupted,
obscene and innocent used within the same description heightens the imagery of
suffering and symbolises betrayal.

In conclusion, Wilfred Owned uses various poetic techniques in order to convey his
main idea, the horror, pity and waste of war to the readers of his poems.

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