Dulce et Decorum est †Anthem for Doomed Youth Essay

Dulce et decorousness est and anthem for Doomed Youth ar two meters written by Wilfred Owen during the First World War. Owen, like most soldiers, joined up later on being convinced that war was fun by propagandistic posters, poems and stories, and once he had realised that the truth was quite the opposite of this, he trenchant that it was his responsibility to oppose and protest against poets like Jessie Pope through rhyme itself. People were not prep ard for the sheer scale and manner of destruction and the mechanised nature of trench warfare, and had dour expectations of the heroic endeavour, but olive-sized awareness of the realities.However, compared to Dulce, the wrath portrayed is dramatically understated. Dulce is an outrageous protest, displaying the haunting and stinging effects of war, and after describing in great detail the horrific boloney of a soldier drowning and choking in gas, Owen reveals his passionate hatred for the false and misleading idealisms o f heroism in war using particularly forceful imagery in cancer and froth corrupted lungs.The fact that anthem is a sonnet, is ironic in that they are usually close love, and because it is rattling about grief, it somewhat lulls the reader into a false sense of security, thereof making the poem more effective. Both poems seem to talk about the vile and painful conditions in war, Dulce using onomatopoeia in trudge, expectant the impression that war is truly appalling, immediately going against the common intuitive feeling that it is a game from poems like Whos for the game?. Also, true to two poems is the idea of undignified and casual death, rather than the heroic, glorious death promised by governmental propaganda. For example, in Dulce, Owen talks about the way they flung the dead soldier in a wagon with such brutal nonchalance.Furthermore, Anthem introduces a characteristic Victorian funeral with singing choirs, and juxtaposes it with the shrill, demented choirs of wailin g shells on the battlefield, and with the constant end-stopped lines, this conveys a sense of solemn grief rather than the vicious anger in Dulce, which tends to use enjambment more frequently. Also, Anthem discusses the lack of observance and dignity in which people are honoured after their death on the battlefield, and Owen reveals his anger for this using the powerful, hyperbolic alliteration in rifles rapid sound. In addition, the fact that the sound of machine gun fire is reflected in the phrase rifles rapid rattle presents to the reader that the raspy realities of war are indeed more than just frightening.In addition, a sense of prod and immediacy is portrayed in the bet on stanza of Dulce, when Owen uses direct speech and exclamations in Gas Gas, while the epizeuxis and use of the present continuous try gives further emphasis to this desperate urgency .On the other hand, Anthem has a strong sense of sympathy and general tranquillity throughout the second stanza, which i s juxtaposed by something quite the opposite in the first. As healthful as this, the light lexis used in words such as glimmers and tenderness in the second stanza, give the impression that it is a poem of mourning and respect rather than anger and hate.In general, Dulce uses fairly crude and crude language, conveying his disrespect for propagandistic poets, as tumesce as his anger at the unawareness of the dangers of war of the British publicHe plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.Owens use of the words guttering, choking and drowning, has numerous implications and effects. Firstly, a gutter represents the bottom of society, and therefore shows how soldiers dying is in fact not a respectable act, but rather an act that is hardly discover by society. Also, the onomatopoeic sounds of guttering and choking, give an even more forceful image of death on the battlefield, portraying Owens desire for the awareness of the harsh realities of war in youth culture as well as in eve ryday men. Finally, the fact that Owen uses three separate adjectives to make out the horrific scene, in addition to the tri-conic feel it gives, the phrase implies that Owen could not erect what he was seeing into words, and therefore persuading the reader that war is simply a catastrophic, desperate excuse for a fight, sacrificing millions of men in the process.Unlike Dulce, Anthem brings out the mournful, respectful side of Wilfred Owen through the melanc divine atmosphere he creates through the modulation of harsh imagery to a more resigned beef upThe monstrous anger of the gunsbut in their eyesShall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.This dramatic contrast between coarse and frightening imagery in monstrous anger of the guns and the solemn melancholy in the holy glimmers of goodbyes is a very moving one. This is not only because the phrase refers to tears in young mens eyes, which in itself is a saddening image, but as well as because it refers to goodbyes, forcing a more personal image of saying goodbye to close friends or relatives as they go to war upon the mind of the reader, again, creating a dingy mood. In addition, the end-stopped line following goodbyes is very effective in that it makes the goodbye seem all the more sudden, harsh, and hurtful.In conclusion, Dulce and Anthem, although they are both written in protest against the deceiving propaganda made by various people, they go about it in different ways. Dulce is an outright outrage at individuals, which we know from Owens draft that it was targeted at Jessie Pope, using coarse and harsh language to do so. Anthem on the other hand is a more solemn and moving poem, although it starts as if it were to be an outrage, before we watch out that in fact, it is only grieving for the dead and their lack of ceremony, and it becomes literally, an anthem for doom youth.