Wilfred_Owen_Essay

Wilfred Owen "Wilfred Owen’s poetry is shaped by an intense focus on extraordinary human experiences." Wilfred Owen’s poetry definitely has an ‘intense’ focus on extraordinary human experiences and this reoccurring theme is seen throughout his poems. Wilfred Owen was a war poet who enlisted in the war in 1915 because it was considered ‘brave’, ‘courageous’ and ‘honourable’ to fight and die for one’s country. His poetry is all about the suffering and pitiful experiences of men who go to war. Owen’s poetry is very graphic, comprising substantially of descriptive imagery and political connotations. Owen portrayed the harsh reality, suffering and brutality of war. The aims of his poetry were to inform, awaken and enlighten the reader about the truth of war. Throughout his poems, Owen uses a wide variety of language techniques to enhance the message being conveyed. Techniques such as similes, metaphors, imagery, irony and personification can be seen in Owen’s poems “Dulce Et Decorum Est” and “Disabled”. Within "Dulce Et Decorum Est" the poet utilises a variety of powerful poetic devices in order to depict death in war as a brutal and horrifying experience. Owen was writing to protest against the atrocious conditions to which “children ardent for some desperate glory” were being sent to war, and for this, he used extremely graphic and striking imagery to evoke emotions of disgust and repulsion into the reader, which would hopefully bring them to understand and appreciate Owen’s viewpoint. Alliteration serves to draw the attention of the reader, as expressed in: "And watch the white eyes writhing in his face," which creates a stark and confronting image within the reader's mind. Further, in "his hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin" it is through the use of simile that the poet arouses the sympathy of the responder as they witness the grotesque nature of such a death. Owen attacks any preconceptions of war being a “walk in the park”. The use of explicit verbs such as “guttering, choking, drowning” present the readers with an alternative reality of pain and suffering, only found in the bloodstained pits of war. The reader now, after only the first stanza, is confronted with the forcefulness of Owen’s ideas and is taken aback, yet enthralled with these blood-chillingly, almost unreal, images. The fact that the soldiers suffered is continued in the poem, with Owen covering all the senses, for example, ‘all went lame; all went blind’, ‘drunk with fatigue’ and ‘deaf even to the hoots’. These images continually convey to the reader the terrible state these soldiers are in. The calm tone of the first stanza of the poem quickly changes to that of panic in the line, ‘Gas! Gas! Quick boys!’ The repetition of the word ‘Gas!” emphasises the urgency of the situation and the use verbs ending with ‘ing’ such as ‘fumbling’ and ‘stumbling’ demonstrate heightened emotions and quick, rapid movement. By referring to the helmets as “clumsy” Owen is also making reference to the fact that the gas masks were impractical in the event of an actual gas attack and that the blame for the soldiers death is a result of ‘faulty’ equipment issued to them by the government. We notice a change of language and verbs in the following line “But someone still was yelling out and stumbling” as Owen is no longer using universal terms that could apply to anyone but is specifically focusing on this one soldier and detailing the pain he is experiencing. Owen uses military jargon to make reference to the condition of the man who was “floundering line a mine in fire or lime”. ‘Lime’ is in reference to a chemical gas, which can burn exposed flesh. Owen is comparing the actions of the gassed individual to someone who is being burnt alive. Again in these lines we notice the repetition of the ‘ing’ sound in the words ‘yelling’, ‘stumbling’ and ‘floundering’. The repeated assonance in these words creates a heightened sense of urgency and further emphasises the futile efforts of the soldier to try and relieve himself of the now unbearable pain. Owen then goes on in the following lines to say, “Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, as under a green sea, I saw him drowning”. Owen is referring to the sight he is seeing through his gas mask. The effect of the gas and the gas mask would of created a greenish tinge to Owen’s sight. This greenish tinge would of gone hand in hand with the soldier’s actions (floundering, stumbling and yelling) to stimulate the sensation of the soldier drowning. It also further emphasises the helplessness in which Owen feels as he is forced to stand idly by and watch one of his friends be horrifically murdered. The repetition of the word “green” allows our sense of the scene to fold in on itself, almost as if the fog of green gas is surrounding us as well. The poem continues to get more graphic as Owen describes how hard it was to “… pace behind the wagon that we flung him in, and watch the white yes writhing in his face, like a devil’s sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs…” These very disturbing lines are there to confront the reader and indicate that war should not be promoted to children as something that is “Sweet and Right” but it should be shown for what it truly is, a horrible thing which is responsible for the loss of thousands of innocent youth. Owen try’s to convey the same message, of war being detrimental and consequential to the lives of innocent soldiers, in his poem ‘Disabled’. The poem eloquently depicts the disassociation and detachment from self  and society felt by this solider who has become disabled. Owen uses the term “queer” to show that the soldier’ s losses have made his body alien. These injuries have also removed his social masculinity. This poem is an example of Owen trying to often dishearten the reader of the ‘glory’ of war by his realistic depictions of military combat. For the poet, the condition of shell shock from which he was suffering during his stay at Craiglockhart Hospital was an important physical and poetic position for his writing.  Owen wrote in opposition to the war and yet supported the men he served with his poetry by bringing the discomfort and horror of war to the eyes of the public. Disabled is one of the poems written during his period at Craiglockhart that develops the disassociation and detachment from self and society felt by most soldiers. In the poem, the concept of what the poet terms “queer” implies the alienation caused by the loss of the soldier’ s legs. In response to the recognition the soldier receives from the formerly interested “girls,” the speaker notes “All of them touch him like some queer disease.” The implications of this line imply that the injuries of this war have made the male body strange, unfamiliar, undesirable, and unknowable. Owen further enhances the image by withdrawing the traditional association of touch by connecting it with dissociation. The soldier in the poem was just a young, strong, athletic and popular kid once who had joined the war because “Someone said he’d look a god in kilts”. He didn’t consider the implications of his actions. Now he is a lonely, disabled man who greatly regrets his decision to go to war as it has essentially cost him his life. Wilfred Owen’s poetry is shaped on the intense focus on extraordinary human experiences. Owen portrays these pitiful and painful experiences throughout all of his poems and rights from experience. His aim with all his poetry is to convince the responder that war is not ‘glorious’ and that the government and the politicians are to blame for the hundreds of thousands of young, innocent boys killed for a pointless and futile cause. Sadly, Owen himself died in battle but his point has been heard, and his message still lives on to this day.