Wilfred Owen Essay

Wilfred Owen writes about the experiences of war he does not glorify it, he tells the audience how bad it really was and that there was no honour or pride in being a soldier. Owen communicates that the men that went were dying like cattle their death did not make a difference to the turn out of the war. The poems “Dulce ET Decorum Est” and the “Anthem for Doomed Youth” are examples of the brutality of war. In contrast Wilfred Owen writes about “The parable of the old man and the young” this poem is not as graphic as the poems “Dulce ET Decorum Est” and “Anthem for Doomed Youth”.
In the Poem Anthem for Doomed Youth Wilfred Owen uses an extended metaphor for the funeral that he knows the men will never get. Owen says the men are dying a meaningless death with no dignity “die as cattle” The idea that Owen is communicating to the readers is that the men that died representing their country did not get a proper farewell they did not have an honourable death the men were demeaned, instead of having a funeral, we offer them guns and bombs for their funeral “Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle”, the use of alliteration and onomatopoeia replicates the sound of the gun’s in order to communicate to the reader what it would have been like on the battle field. Owen uses personification “monstrous anger of the guns” to suggest the chaos and fear felt on the battle field.
In contrast the poem “the parable of the old man and the young”, is not a graphic war poem, there is no gruesome images of what happened at war, the language is biblical, and archaic. This poem is a metaphor of Abraham and the sacrifice, the young men are the sacrifices but the generals are not rescuing their son’s. The first indication that this poem is not then just a war poem is “fire and iron” and “belts and straps”. Owen uses direct quotes from scripture “lo! An angel called him out of heaven, saying, lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do anything to him”.