In his poems Dulce et Decorum est and Futility, Wilfred Owen uses a range of ideas, forms and language to influence responders and create meaning about war as an experience of human calamity, waste and idiocy. It is pointless and disgraceful and its influence on individuals is captured powerfully by Wilfred Owen. His personal participation and eventful death in WWI adds a stark truth to the tragedy and waste of potential of youth. Owen knew all too well that war defaces men physically and emotionally and that unnecessary death and emotional instability waste the futures of individuals. He intensely criticises the foolishness of propaganda and human pride in causing men to promote and see war as glorious. The two poems, Dulce et Decorum est
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The young victim who actually froze to death before he got back, becomes illustrative of those who die unnecessarily in war, valued by those comrades who try so futilely to awaken him. The two separate stanzas, each of seven lines, capture a glimpse of war. Dashes at the end of the commands beginning with “move” and “think” emphasise the linking pattern of ideas and reinforce the final devastated questioning of whether life itself is futile. The use of present tense such as, “think how it wakes the seeds” and instructional language like “move him into the sun” which is used to open both stanzas, gives dramatic immediacy. Hope is evoked by the use of words and phrases that relate to his being “woken”. The men hope to “rouse” and “stir” and “break sleep” which is the metaphorical and symbolic sleep of death, but they fail. Combining thoughts about the sun, nature, growth and life itself are used to show the value of what has been so foolishly and easily destroyed. He concludes that the long, evolutionary process of creation has been a waste and that the earth’s sleep should never have been destroyed at all. Rhetorical questions show the speakers confusion as he tries to find some explanation for this pointless death, “was it for this the clay grew tall?” A heart-breaking, ironic tone is used in this statement for readers to grasp the loss. Owen stresses that such youthful life, “so dear achieved” had so much potential which has been completely wasted. Their attempts have proved futile and they are forced to acknowledge defeat. The prevailing sense of emptiness is both for the man who died and the friends who vainly tried to save
The young victim who actually froze to death before he got back, becomes illustrative of those who die unnecessarily in war, valued by those comrades who try so futilely to awaken him. The two separate stanzas, each of seven lines, capture a glimpse of war. Dashes at the end of the commands beginning with “move” and “think” emphasise the linking pattern of ideas and reinforce the final devastated questioning of whether life itself is futile. The use of present tense such as, “think how it wakes the seeds” and instructional language like “move him into the sun” which is used to open both stanzas, gives dramatic immediacy. Hope is evoked by the use of words and phrases that relate to his being “woken”. The men hope to “rouse” and “stir” and “break sleep” which is the metaphorical and symbolic sleep of death, but they fail. Combining thoughts about the sun, nature, growth and life itself are used to show the value of what has been so foolishly and easily destroyed. He concludes that the long, evolutionary process of creation has been a waste and that the earth’s sleep should never have been destroyed at all. Rhetorical questions show the speakers confusion as he tries to find some explanation for this pointless death, “was it for this the clay grew tall?” A heart-breaking, ironic tone is used in this statement for readers to grasp the loss. Owen stresses that such youthful life, “so dear achieved” had so much potential which has been completely wasted. Their attempts have proved futile and they are forced to acknowledge defeat. The prevailing sense of emptiness is both for the man who died and the friends who vainly tried to save