How do poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon present their ideas of war in their poems, Exposure and Does It Matter?
Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon are two famous war time poets, who conveyed their first-hand experiences of war through the form of poems to enlighten people towards the reality of war, as shown in “Exposure” and “Does It Matter?”. Exposure is an emotionally powerful poem that expresses the reality of the brutal weather conditions that were endured by the soldiers in the front line, and the mental and physical toll it took on their bodies; it shows this through its uses of vivid imagery, repetition and rhetorical questions that effectively recreate the scene in the eye of the reader. On the other hand, Does It Matter? is …show more content…
Throughout the poem he speaks in 1st person, using the word “our” to make it seem as if he is speaking as a unified voice for the pain of all the soldiers, which makes it seem like less of an opinion and more of a mutually agreed statement. This is shown as he begins the poem with the opening phrase “our brains ache”, which implies the mental effect the trauma and shell shock was having on all of them, combined with the burden of the ruthless weather. This is a short, powerful phrase that grabs the readers’ attention right at the beginning of the poem, as it gives an impression of a collective pain between the soldiers; it also refers to the brain, which is not a common pain in many people, and is only experienced by the soldiers because of the terrible things they have seen. It also makes the reader raise the question of why do their “brains ache?”, which Owen then explains is because “the merciless, iced cast winds…knive us”, indicating, using personification, that they have been “merciless[ly]” murdered by the icy winds and freezing weather. This becomes the first brutally truthful statement Owen reveals to the reader, who contextually would have been an innocent citizen who has been hidden from the reality of …show more content…
Being two former soldiers, they provide an accurate insight into the soldier’s experiences during war and how they leave scars and consequences even after it is all over; the poets also used a variety of techniques and devices in the poem to allow the reader to experience the full effect of their message and perspective. The two poems served their purpose, with neither being better than the other, as they were explaining two different points in the course of war, which almost allowed them to blend together more than to contrast the others’
Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon are two famous war time poets, who conveyed their first-hand experiences of war through the form of poems to enlighten people towards the reality of war, as shown in “Exposure” and “Does It Matter?”. Exposure is an emotionally powerful poem that expresses the reality of the brutal weather conditions that were endured by the soldiers in the front line, and the mental and physical toll it took on their bodies; it shows this through its uses of vivid imagery, repetition and rhetorical questions that effectively recreate the scene in the eye of the reader. On the other hand, Does It Matter? is …show more content…
Throughout the poem he speaks in 1st person, using the word “our” to make it seem as if he is speaking as a unified voice for the pain of all the soldiers, which makes it seem like less of an opinion and more of a mutually agreed statement. This is shown as he begins the poem with the opening phrase “our brains ache”, which implies the mental effect the trauma and shell shock was having on all of them, combined with the burden of the ruthless weather. This is a short, powerful phrase that grabs the readers’ attention right at the beginning of the poem, as it gives an impression of a collective pain between the soldiers; it also refers to the brain, which is not a common pain in many people, and is only experienced by the soldiers because of the terrible things they have seen. It also makes the reader raise the question of why do their “brains ache?”, which Owen then explains is because “the merciless, iced cast winds…knive us”, indicating, using personification, that they have been “merciless[ly]” murdered by the icy winds and freezing weather. This becomes the first brutally truthful statement Owen reveals to the reader, who contextually would have been an innocent citizen who has been hidden from the reality of …show more content…
Being two former soldiers, they provide an accurate insight into the soldier’s experiences during war and how they leave scars and consequences even after it is all over; the poets also used a variety of techniques and devices in the poem to allow the reader to experience the full effect of their message and perspective. The two poems served their purpose, with neither being better than the other, as they were explaining two different points in the course of war, which almost allowed them to blend together more than to contrast the others’