English Practise essay
Through his personal insight and experience Wilfred Owen offers a realistic view of the war like the one in which the acts of war are seen as inhumane, and gruesome. Owen also integrates concepts of the sacrifice, despair and even innocence involved in was and it is the combination and contrast between the brutal and emotional aspects which are often portrayed through emotive language and strong visual imagery in his war poetry, is what this paper will explore. Additionally in Futility and Dulce Et Decorum Est.
In Futility the repetition of ‘this’ creates a fast pace and an intense feeling which recaptures the frequency of pain and the sudden death that came upon the soldiers in the war. The use of the present tense in the line “Think of all the fields unsewn” highlights that all the young soldiers have died at war leaving the children to be unborn, and the man in which the loss and suffering associated with war stretches far beyond the battlefield both geographically and generationally. It also symbolises that it was a waste for all the young soldiers to die at war as they has a lot of potential. This captures perfectly the idea of sacrifice and the way in which the young soldiers gave ultimate sacrifice.
The irony in the title Dulce Et Decorum Est represents that “it is sweet and right” to die for your country, but Wilfred Owen shows that war is not pleasant at all as he tells us how the young soldiers were betrayed by the people of their own country. The monosyllabic commands in the line “Gas! Gas! Quick boys!” shows the urgency for the placement of the mask. Also the exclamation marks help to portray the idea of how quick it can take for a person the die in war. The betrayal and sacrifice that the soldiers have faced have been that are going to be unforgettable. Here we see the relation between the brutality of war which occurs in the moment during war and the long lasting emotional consequences.
The metaphor of “sun” in Futility...