Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner By Wilfred Owen Analysis

Improved Essays
Political opinions are often shared on Facebook. With just a quick scroll through your newsfeed, it is easy to see that social media is a common outlet for political spam. Where did people express political views before social media? They used other forms of media. Through television, prose, theatre, art and poetry, individuals have cemented their names and opinions into history. “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell and “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen are selections of poetry that were deemed important enough artistically, politically, emotionally, or all of the above. Both authors have a clear political message. Both messages resonate through time in a way Facebook posts could never hope to. By learning more about the authors and analyzing the historical context surrounding each poem, the reader can better appreciate the messages and fully realize the political messages within …show more content…
Wilfred Owen was born in 1893 and was pressured into volunteering for the military. He wrote nothing of importance until he saw action in 1917. After experiencing the true horrors of war, his boyish demeanor changed entirely. He wrote home saying, "The people of England needn 't hope. They must agitate" (Owen, letter to his mother). This shows his attitude towards the war. He was terrified for himself and for France. This is important to keep in mind when reading “Dulce et Decorum Est”.
The entire poem has a dark, dismal, and horrific tone meant to capture the terrors and fast paced life or death moments Owen experienced. Everything up until the end sets up the point Owen makes in the last four lines.
“My friend, you would not tell with such high

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Wilfred Owen’s poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” is a scathing condemnation of war that uses vivid and visceral imagery to contradict the idea that battle is glorious. The title of the poem ironically refers to the Latin maxim promoting the sweetness and nobility of war, while the first stanza contradicts this in its depiction of the harsh conditions of the battlefield and the traumatizing aftermath of war. This jarring juxtaposition between the idealism of society and the reality of the soldier’s experience creates an ironic contrast that unsettles the readers but also forces them to reconsider their preconceptions about war.…

    • 329 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    At the beginning of the war many citizens were encouraged by the government to join the war and support their country. People enlisted and went off to support the war. During the war when troops wouldn’t be fighting there would be down time with your unit. Many soldiers played games and read books while some wrote poetry. There are many poems that express what the war was like in the soldier’s perspective.…

    • 1062 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    War is disturbing and cruel; Crane understands that. Also, in the poem, “ Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, irony is hidden throughout the poem. The last line of this poem, “Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori”(27-28) means, “It is sweet and right to die for your country.” The irony of this is; a man is dying of poisonous gas.…

    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    There are sudden mood changes that occur throughout the poem. The most effective is from the first stanza to the second stanza. In the first stanza the soldiers are slowly walking along, tired, and hurt. In the second stanza, a sudden gas attack occurs and action begins to take place. Owen uses figurative language to produce harsh images relating to the brutalities of war.…

    • 1473 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The structure of the two poems is very different. ‘Dulce et decorum Est’ is basically a narrative. It tells a story. Owen divides it into three sections, which deal with events before, during and after the gas attack.…

    • 1364 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Right at the outset of the poem, Owen has used diction to describe the commander shouting at the soldier in a vitriolic tone. "You! What d'you mean by this. " This is used to describe how soldiers were treated during the war and the hardship…

    • 682 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ can be understood as “It is sweet and decorous to die for one’s country”. Ironically, ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ contradicts its own title, where Owen has simply focused on communicating war and its entirety. Owen’s ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ challenges traditional texts of war that emphasise the false glory of how war is “sweet and decorous”, presenting the everlasting physical and physiological struggles that the soldiers sustained beyond war- a cause that they did not quite understand, as well as depicting the extreme reality of war- not the beautiful ideas or glorious attitudes towards war conjured up by governments, politics and propagandists, but instead a harsh reality that was immensely influenced by the horrific actions…

    • 130 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dulce Et Decorum Est

    • 324 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The life of a soldier is hard, dirty, and full of extreme effort and pain. Dulce et Decorum Est is a great poem to utilize in seeing an active soldier’s point of view. Dulce et Decorum Est is a gorey anti-war poem written by the late Wilfred Owen. Its historical context is that of World War I, and this poem is written as it is due to the current events of the poem, the author’s life events, and because of the different point of views towards the war. Dulce et Decorum…

    • 324 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Owen uses irony in the title of his poem 'Dulce et Decorum Est' meaning 'it is sweet and honourable', as he then spends the entirety of his poem convincing the reader that war is neither sweet nor honourable. The title is a reference to one of Horace’s Odes and would have been easily translated by readers in 1920 as latin would have been part of their education . The phrase was also used by war supporters. Owen, in using this phrase, mocks their views of war claiming it to be a 'obscene' and 'bitter'. In contrast the irony within Suicide in the Trenches comes from the form of the poem.…

    • 1017 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    One of Owen's talents is to convey his complex messages very proficiently and demonstrates that here because without the use of the emotive language, the scene could not be set. In the fourth stanza, it reads, " If in some smothering dreams you could pace/behind the wagon that the we flung him in", here Owen is suggesting that the horror of the scene that he has witnessed, is forever eternalised into his dreams. Although this soldier died an innocent, the war allowed no time to give his death dignity. That in turn makes the horror so much more poignant and haunting.…

    • 1235 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Owen shows that there are no special or pleasant ceremonies for those who fought and died at war in the attempt to show readers that death in war are not treated with honour and glory as many people believe they…

    • 1049 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    War is a word that usually has a negative connotation associated with it. When people think of war, most will think of death and destruction. However, some people also associate war with self-sacrifice and honour. “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen and “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson are the two poems that can show these two different point of views on war. These two poems share the same topic which is war but each view the topic in its own different way.…

    • 2512 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In contrast, Owen wrote using a sarcastic, bitter and angry tone. This was used effectively to highlight the anger aimed at the older generation who spread lies about dying in the war as an honourable…

    • 1060 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Even a century long time after his death, Wilfred Owen is still famous for his war poetry written during World War 1. In his poem, Owen uses various language techniques to vividly illustrate the horrendous reality of the war. Hence, he communicates his own anti-war feelings implied beneath his techniques. However, although he is now known as an anti-war poet, for once, he had been a naive boy, who had volunteered to fight in war. At first, he was thrilled to fight for one’s country.…

    • 1191 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Soldier by Brooke exemplifies an opinion where they saw the war as glorious and honorable, while Owen’s poem Dulce et Decorum Est conveys a completely opposite view, where he sees the war as a dreadful experience. Both poems manage to express the war as two different experience…

    • 1302 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays