Dulce et Decorum Est

Both Wilfred Owen and Seamus Heaney present the power of nature in their poems “Exposure” and “Storm on the Island”, respectively, as overwhelming and uncontrollable. Between the two, they both emphasize nature as an unparalleled power, however, Owen’s poem is a visual representation of life in the trenches of WW1, contrasting from existing government propaganda glamorising the adventures of war and emphasizing the futility of the situation by depicting the fate of soldiers suffering from…

Melville viewed the Civil War as a bloody battle between brothers. His poetry shows the true side to the Civil War, without all of the grandeur and pageantry that other authors have used to describe battles. I believe that his feelings on the war were that it was, like every war, an old mans war that was fought by young men. This can easily be seen in his poem The March into Virginia. Melville wrote, “Youth must its ignorant impulse lend- Age finds place in the rear. All wars are boyish, and…

Steinbeck’s rhetorical style in the Grapes of Wrath conveys his values by using oxymorons and parallelism to add dramatic detail and also to add a sense of amazement to the story in order to draw the reader deeper into the story. Steinbeck uses his own sense of style to add an artistic effect all throughout chapter 25, this style added so much to the story, on the lines of showing the reader how the people had felt through the entirety of the story. Steinbeck’s rhetorical style showed the sorrow…

Emily Dickinson’s poem “To Fight aloud is very brave” is structured in three stanzas with four lines in each. The first stanza of the poem is rhythmic, but then the flow abruptly stops in the last two stanzas. The poem’s main focal point is about the effects war has on those who have fought in them. In addition to Dickinson’s main topic, her poem seems to have some patriotic elements, but there’s also an underlying sense of sorrow and grief. Despite the poems we have read in class that glorify…

Until today, WAR... creates mistakes. Life in The Great War (WW1) World War One was the first war that involved nations from around the world. Life in the Trench was tragic. Most of the action took place in the trenches. Soldiers spent an average period of eight days in trenches, where they are consistently under threat of attack from shellfire, snipers and diseases. Majority of soldiers experienced Trench Fever. Trench foot was another medical condition that appeared due to the…

Why does Edmund Blunden imbue his memoir Undertones of War with irony? To understand the intent and extent of his stylistic choices, one has to understand the context of the work. Written following his experiences as a soldier during the First World War, Undertones of War was written as a recollection of Edmund Blunden’s personal experiences as a soldier. As a memoir, Blunden projects his own feelings and opinions into his writing, detailing both the emotions he felt in the moment of his…

The Sun Also Rises is Ernest Hemingway's first published novel, released in 1926. The novel displays the effect that the horrors and casualties of World War One had on the character's views on love, justice, religion and morality. The Sun Also Rises follows the characters Brett Ashley, Bill Gorton, and Jake Barnes, two of which greatly exemplify the great affect World War One had on the religious faith of those who it harmed. This shift in their religious and moral views dictates how they cope…

The central idea of the poem “Futility” by Wilfred Owen is war. Owen’s choice of title ‘Futility” highlights his views on the subject. That being - war is pointless and bears no honour or glory. Owen stresses that war only causes destruction and death. The poem is about a soldier who has recently died on the front line of the war. Although we as readers do not know who the dead soldier is; it appears that the speaker knows him and his background well. The speaker wants to move the soldier’s…

Literary compositions have the influential capability to depict the punitive truths of warfare and shape the reader's perspective. The harsh realities of war are portrayed through World War 1 poetry composed by Wilfred Owen enhancing the readers understanding of the bleak realities of war and its traumatic effects on the soldiers. The poems “Mental Cases” and “Exposure” illustrates the psychological trauma, the brutality of nature and loss of faith of which the soldiers faced as grim veracity of…

In the poem The Man He Killed the author Thomas Hardy writes about war. This poem can be determined as an anti-war poem. The speaker of the poem is talking about their experience in war. This poem mainly focuses on the negative effects of war. The writing structure and the diction being used in this poem has a big impact on the main meaning of the poem. Thomas Hardy writes, “ Had he and I but met By some old ancient inn, We should have sat us down to wet Right many a nipperkin!” The speaker’s…