Send Off
- Submitted by: cris7ron7
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- Category: English: Poetic Works
- Date Submitted: 04/01/2011 02:53 PM
- Pages: 4
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Wilfred Owen was born on the 18th of March 1893 in United Kingdom. He is probably, one of the most important English War Poets. The popularity of Owen today can be explained by his condemnation of the horrors of war. As an English poet, he is noted for his anger at the cruelty and waste of war and his pity for its victims. He said, “My subject is War and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.” being a soldier, he got killed in action on November 4th, 1918 in France, seven days before the end of the First World war.
The poem suggests that the outcome of war is grim for the vast majority of the soldiers who if they return home would either be dead or injured. Pictures of death are painted in the poem. Wilfred Owen is trying to put forward the idea that when you are ‘sent off’ you never come back.
A thought- provoking poem, written in the spring of 1918, describes the scene at a railway station. The poem was written at Ripon, where there was huge army camp. T he men who are recruited to join the army to fight for their country, made their way to the siding-shed. The troops have just come from a sending-off ceremony- cheering crowd, bells, drums, flowers have been given by strangers- and now they are being packed into trains to an unknown destination.
From the beginning, the atmosphere seems sinister. The lanes are darkening and claustrophobic, adding to the sad and gloomy atmosphere of their leaving. The soldiers who are lining the train are ‘grimly gay.’ This is an example of oxymoron. They are happy as it is patriotic to fight for one’s country. But their happiness is shadowed by the fact that they are going to war and may not come back. The phrase ‘grimly gay’ also describes the uncertainty as well as the desperate attempts made by the soldiers to be brave.
The poet sees the men as dead as they get into the train. Their breasts are ‘stuck’ with flowers and spray. It is something that the soldiers can never depart from...
The poem suggests that the outcome of war is grim for the vast majority of the soldiers who if they return home would either be dead or injured. Pictures of death are painted in the poem. Wilfred Owen is trying to put forward the idea that when you are ‘sent off’ you never come back.
A thought- provoking poem, written in the spring of 1918, describes the scene at a railway station. The poem was written at Ripon, where there was huge army camp. T he men who are recruited to join the army to fight for their country, made their way to the siding-shed. The troops have just come from a sending-off ceremony- cheering crowd, bells, drums, flowers have been given by strangers- and now they are being packed into trains to an unknown destination.
From the beginning, the atmosphere seems sinister. The lanes are darkening and claustrophobic, adding to the sad and gloomy atmosphere of their leaving. The soldiers who are lining the train are ‘grimly gay.’ This is an example of oxymoron. They are happy as it is patriotic to fight for one’s country. But their happiness is shadowed by the fact that they are going to war and may not come back. The phrase ‘grimly gay’ also describes the uncertainty as well as the desperate attempts made by the soldiers to be brave.
The poet sees the men as dead as they get into the train. Their breasts are ‘stuck’ with flowers and spray. It is something that the soldiers can never depart from...