What has been included
The Author writes from the perspective that the war is coming to a close, as if the worst part is over. However after reading over the poem I understand that many lives have been lost and its a now a time of great sadness. I think this because he talks about the dead and how there is mourning for the soldiers. Its written in a way that shows us the grieving of people and how we respect the dead by lighting candles and drawing down blinds. Another sentence that helps empathize this is, “The pallor of girls brows shall be their pall” shows that people are acknowledging those who fought in the war during times of loss. At the start of the poem “What passing bells” is written to tell us bells are rung to announce that the souls of the dead have passed.
Language Techniques Personification: “Monstrous anger of guns” Men were literally slaughtered by storms of bullets and in the mud filled with corpses the soldiers would never know a peaceful death. Monstrous as in big, loud, and intimidating, that’s how the word jumps at me. The soldiers would only know a death of fear uncertainty because of the Monstrous war. Uncertain if they would survive each day because at anytime a gunshot may be heard and be the last they’ll hear. The authors use of personification here really helps me not only feel but hear what the soldiers heard.
Simile: “These who die as cattle”I am unsure how to categorize this language technique because I believe it means something deeper than an average simile. Cattle often live their lives behind fences never getting to experience the fullness of life and at the end of the day are only acknowledged for there meat and milk. I believe the author has compared the dead soldiers to cattle because they too will never get to see the future and have been used by the armies as mere pawns on the battlefield. The generals know the soldiers fate just like a farmer knows a cows but that doesn’t stop the innocent men from signing there lives away.
This sentence also has emotive language in it, through the words “monstrous anger”. As I wrote before these words help me hear the terrors of war from a soldiers first hand experience. I imagine you’d either have the sounds of gunfire sink in or always be completely petrified of it. However I am Naive when it comes to war and in some sense I believe we all are, unless you’ve be there with your own two feet and been through the pains of war yourself. I feel so powerless when reading over the words “monstrous anger” because at the end of the day no one would ever get use to the sounds of gunfire, its a sickening sound that can scar someone deeper than a wound.
What else has been included
In the few war poems I have read I have noticed that most of the time the content is about the cruelty of war but in this case it seems that the author Wilfred Owen is writing about something that takes place after the chaos. In general the poem isn’t all that negative and more of a respectful tribute to the fallen soldiers however there is the odd sentence that talks about war and the men being killed like cattle. In my opinion an example of a negative sentence in the text is “Only the monstrous anger of guns”. The poem talks about people mourning for there lost ones but the inclusion of this sentence seems to draw me away from any sense of grief and pull me back into that first person perspective of a war-zone. Perhaps the author wrote this to make me feel what the soldiers felt and if so it certainly works.
“Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes” When reading over this sentence I think of dead boys lying in muddy trenches who didn’t get a Honorable death. Brave young men fought in the war and many died to the brutal and unforgiving war. I can picture so many innocent young men signing up to the war not knowing how terrifying the war would be.
Oxymoron’s
Hasty orisons-shows that people didn’t even have the time to pay tribute to the dead boys because the war was constantly raging on.
Demented choirs-The choirs attempt to sing to honor the dead but are unable to because they are angry and distressed because of the painful war that is causing so much death and chaos.