War in Owens Dulce et Decorum est and Sassoons Base...

War in Owens Dulce et Decorum est and Sassoons Base Details World War I brought about a revolution in the ideas of the masses. No longer would people of warring nations apathetically back their governments and armies. A concerted and public effort on the part of a literary circle turned soldiers attacked government propaganda. Questioning the glories of war and the need for nationalism, an anti-war literary genre developed in the trenches of Europe during World War I. Gruesome imagery juxtaposed with daily events brought war to the pages of literature. Despite the formation of this new anti-war literary genre, few popular poets chose to tackle the theme of war and its purpose. Of the few poets, only two, Siegfried†¦show more content†¦Through this facilitation of Horaces quote, Owen subtly and objectively splits the romanticism and the reality of war. Owens use of slant rhyme, his mastery of alliteration, and his employment of consonance and dissonance highlight his poems (Magill 2157). Owens mastery of sound in Dulce et and the use of the s sound in the line Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! - An ecstasy of fumbling,(9), creates the effect of gas hissing out of a canister. Repetition of the word drowning in the lines, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning./In all my dreams my helpless sight/ He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning (14-16) objectively forces the death of the young soldier onto the reader. Owens gruesome, unbiased imagery, presents a realistic story; the mixing of the deadly and the beautiful, the green sea(14) of chlorine gas to drown the soldier, represents an aspect of this brutal realism (Magill 21 à »60). This realism serves to warn the reader, without indoctrinating him, of the dangers of war. The devices in Dulce et, as in Owens other poems, flexibly adapt his to any form of poetic interpretation (Magill 2156). Through his continued efforts to master the form of poetry, Owen learned to escape the parody apparent in Sassoons work while still holding onto the intensity of war as a subject m atter. The ability to present the story in the true modernist style, rising above subjectivity to include the audience in the story, characterizes OwensShow MoreRelated‘’the Experience of the Great War Stripped Men of Their Masculinity’’Explore the Ways in Which Barker, Sassoon and Owen Portray This in Their Writing.2204 Words   |  9 Pages‘’The experience of the Great War stripped men of their masculinity’’explore the ways in which Barker, Sassoon and Owen portray this in their writing. Sassoon and Owen as poets and Barker as a novelist, explore through their works of literature the changing and challenging notions of masculinity experienced as a result of The Great War. Furthermore, all three writers suggest that the often overlooked reality of the conflict was the creation of a subversion of the stereotypical ‘heroic soldier’.Read MoreA Comparison of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoons War Poetry1665 Words   |  7 PagesA Comparison of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoons War Poetry Lieutenant Wilfred Edward Salter Owen M.C. of the second Battalion Manchester Regiment, was born March 18th 1893 in Oswestry, Shropshire. He was educated at the Birkenhead Institute and at Shrewsbury Technical school. Wilfred Owen was the eldest of four children and the son of a railway official. He was of welsh ancestry and was particularly close to his mother whose evangelical Christianity greatly influenced