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In the preface to his war poems Owen categorically states that his subject is War, and the pity

of War. He goes on to empathically add that The Poetry is in the pity. From your reading so far discuss the aptness of this statement with reference to at least three poems.

Owen states that hes not concerned with Poetry. His aim is to bring out his pity in the poetry he writes. He finds its his responsibility to warn people about the cruelties and injustices of war and that it is an aberration. In Dulce et Decorum Est the pity of War is clearly brought out in the horrible description of the gas attack. The poem starts off in a calm and slow rhythm to bring out the exhaustion the soldiers are feeling. They are knock-kneed which means that theyre so under-nourished that their knees are touching. Theyre also compared to old women and their misery is expressed through bad language. The men long for to escape from this nightmare that they found themselves in distant rest. Their blood-shot feet bring out the bestial manner theyre living. The rhythm in the second stanza changes and quickens. This is done to symbolise the panic that the soldiers are in. A lot of monosyllabic words and punctuation are used to speed the poem up. They all clumsily put the helmets on but one of the soldiers didnt manage to put it on just in time. but someone still floundering in fire or lime The soldier is compared to someone drowning because in both situations the lungs disintegrate Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,/As under a green sea a saw him drowning Owen is full of guilt because he could do nothing to relieve the soldier of the terrible pain he was going through and because of this Owen started having nightmares. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight In the last stanza Owen emphasises its not honourable and sweet to die for your country but its an aberration.

In Anthem for Doomed Youth Owen brings out the pity of War in this prayer for those who lost their life during their youth. It is an elegy and a Petrarchan sonnet. The sonnet compares the funeral of these soldiers on the battlefield to a conventional funeral. A conventional funeral would never give them the respect they deserve. What passing bells for these who die as cattle In this rhetorical question he is comparing these soldiers to cattle. They are slaughtered in large numbers like cattle. No funeral bells are rung for these soldiers, only the monstrous anger of guns. No mockeries now for them, no prayers nor bells Owen is saying that any conventional funeral would be a mockery towards the soldiers. Instead of choirs singing at their funerals they have the sound of wailing shells. There wont be alter
boys holding candles but instead a shimmer in the eyes of other soldiers who are crying for them. They have no flowers, only the silent minds of their family and friends.

In Mental Cases Owen brings out the pity of War in the description of the inmates of the asylum who were unable to live a normal life because of the abnormality they had to witness. These men live in darkness and are purgatorial shadows; they are too insane to be aware of the state they are in but at the same time they are not oblivious to how crazy they are. The description is full of dantesque imagery which shows that these men no longer have human qualities. Dead have ravished Memory of all the people they have seen dying is something they cant take. Gouged these chasms round their fretted socks They keep reliving those haunting experiences. They cant enjoy the sunlight or the night because everything reminds them of the blood. sunlight seems a blood-smear, night comes blood-black Therefore we see that in his writing Owen isnt interested in the poetry but the pity that is in these poems. He wrote these poems to emphasise how damaging War is and that its not an honourable thing to die for your country.

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