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My Subject is War and the Pity of War. (Wilfred Owen) Wilfred Owen is considered as one of the greatest war poets of all time. His poems speak of the viciousness of war. Looking at the poems, “Dulce Et Decorum Est” and “Anthems for Doomed Youth”, it will be evident that Owen uses various techniques such as vivid imagery, compelling similes and irony to shock his readers and get his point across. Owen engages his audience and doesn’t hesitate to describe vividly the ugliness and waste of war. I value Wilfred Owens poetry because he writes from a personal perspective, as he was in trenches, experiencing firsthand the trauma and brutality of was on a daily basis. “Dulce Et Decorum Est” is a magnificent and gruesome description of a gas attack suffered by a group of soldiers during World War 1. At the start of the poem, Owen introduces us to the utter exhaustion felt by the soldiers, through the use of the simile “like old beggars under sacks” not only does this illustrates the difficulty of the soldiers advancing through the sludge, but also shows the dreadful conditions that war brings. We feel sympathy for the soldiers who are exhausted that they “marched asleep” and were “drunk with fatigue”. Owen creates the impression that war is like a nightmare as he starts the second stanza with an explosion of warning and command: “Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!” the frantic rush to place on the masks that will ultimately save them from certain death, those who have been quick enough are forced to watch the agony of one who was not. The sheer horror of what unfolds is created by a vivid description and graphic detail. “Guttering, choking, drowning” describing the horrendous and appalling sights before their eyes and those of the audience, as the soldier inhales the toxic gas. The pace accelerates and the tone sharpens as Wilfred Owen dramatically re-encounters the scene. Owen ends the poem with “The old lie: Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori” meaning it is sweet and fitting to die for ones country, There is some irony in this concluding stanza. He uses the saying as a warning and a final attempt to persuade the reader that war is ugly. He describes the saying as 'The old Lie,' implying that it is a trick. This poem is extremely effective as an anti-war poem, making war seem absolutely horrid and revolting, just as Wilfred Owen wanted it to. The aim of this poem was to shock the reader, to let them feel the sense of disgust and frustration felt by all the soldiers as they witness their own friend struggle to breathe. I value Wilfred Owens poetry because with the use of techniques such as imagery he uniquely describes what war was like. “Anthem for Doomed Youth” ironically 'Anthem' is a song that is sung in churches by choirs or could mean a celebration. The word 'Doomed' is used to suggest that the soldiers are alive but have an inevitable death, it symbolises death and summons up the image that the soldiers are on their journey to hell. The word 'Youth' is used to remind the reader that these soldiers were only “boys” , with their whole lives ahead of them, but this has now been ruined. It creates the image of lively young people that are full of energy and enthusiasm. Personification, alliteration and onomatopoeia are used in the opening stanza to describe the terrifying sounds of conflict as “the monstrous angers of the guns, the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle” In such a frantic atmosphere a “proper” funeral was impossible and young, naive men were forced to die as “cattle”, the victims are not specified but simply referred to only as “these” or “their” or “them”. The imagery used in the first stanza, tends to concentrate on the battle and subsequent death, whilst the imagery in the second stanza tends to focus more on the mourner’s faces, tears and thoughts. Imagery transforms the light of the candles into the glimmer of tears in mourner’s eyes. Owen has used a dull, critical tone that changes context from the misery of the battle, to the grief experienced by mourner’s at home, the audiences response to this is feelings of horror to despair. During the poem the major point that is emphasised is that the soldiers that died did not receive a dignified ending and even after death, battle still continued around them. The meaning of the poem is that each soldier will not be remembered because they are one in so many and have no elaborate funeral. I value Wilfred Owens poetry because he uses the idea of irony of war in both of the poems that I have studied, as he saw misery, destruction, and pain and wanted people to be more aware of the cruelty of war and hopefully to stop it from happening again.