Comparison of Poetry - page 4
Keywords: english, gcse poetry
By Sammo2k9 on 23/04/2010
Level: GCSE Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11)
Page Number: 4 of 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5
choking. Drowning as this man can’t breath like you can't under water so it would look as he is drowning in water where as he is actually drowning in gas. The phrase ''Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud'' refers to cancer as these men are being torn from the inside, they are burning from inside to out till they eventually die and bitter as the cud because he is referring to a cow normally the grass that cows chew are similar looking to what was producing from the soldier's mouth. The use of ''Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,'' describes how little children would get affected within this war, scrapes, scars & scratches they will have to live with there whole life. As they are incurable they will be suffering every second of there life with torn limbs and broken hearts of many wife’s who have lost there husbands/dads to the war. The way he ends the poem is very clever he uses Latin words;
''Dulcet et decorum est.
pro patria mori''
Before this he says The Old Lie, because he thinks if we were there we would see it’s not all that great to risk your on life and die for your country as most people died for very stupid reasons. He is saying to everyone you would not want to fight and die, as you just lose your own life with a great deal of pain, torture & terrible conditions which can leave you scarred with many bad memories that can cause disruption later on even if you do manage to stay alive. He is trying to put you off going or wanting to go to war by saying all those horrible, discusting vile things. This all proves what he thinks war is a terrible and gritty place so the title of the poem is in fact a lie.
Owen presents the reader with details of what people looked like and how they felt. ''Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod"
The men are not really marching, or if they are it is a death march. The men are so tired that they are like old women (hags) and beggars limping and sliding through the mud. They are the opposite of Tennyson’s 'Noble six hundred´ Owens picture is not glorious at all and the very first line was an off putter to who read the
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