What picture does Owen present us of the conditions the sold

Although Owen has written poems about other subjects, he is best known for his small collection of war poems. The beautifully sculpted poems give a grim portrayal of the horrors of World War One; the terrible conditions, the pointless waste of life and the barbarity of the human race.

Owen is able to give the reader a vivid picture of the reality of the war because he personally fought in the war. He enlisted in the Artists' Rifles group in 1915 in support of World War I, and after training in England, was commissioned as a second lieutenant. Owen was wounded in combat in 1917 and evacuated to Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh after being diagnosed with shell shock. The

Each poem creates a different picture of the war. Owen is definitely ‘anti-war’; all the pictures that are generated are negative. One shows the gruesome deaths that took place and deals with the misleading propaganda of that period. One shows how war ruined many people’s lives through physical and mental disability. The other shows the terrible conditions that soldiers faced in the war. Owen uses his poetic talent to create these grim pictures.

Despite the fact that he is young in years, the man is described as “old” because his “back will never brace”. He is a ruin and all because of the war. Once, in his past, an artist wanted to paint his face. But they would not anymore due to his disfigurement. Owen describes how he “poured it (his colour) down shell holes till the veins ran dry”. This is a powerful metaphor linking the artists paint to the soldier’s blood.

His life now consists of “a few sick years in institutes” with no freedom, merely doing things that “the rules consider wise”. In comparison to his glorious days of playing football, his new life is futile and useless. He notices how the “women’s eyes” do not look at him but to “men that are whole”. He is distraught by his new situation. The two finishing lines use repetition to create the feeling of unhappiness that the disabled man is feeling. He cannot do anything himself and has to have people to help him. “Why don’t they come and put him to bed? Why don’t they come?”

“Dulce et Decorum est” is one of Owen’s most renowned poems. The title is in Latin, and when translated into English, it means “It is sweet and fitting”. The poem is written from the point of view of one of the soldiers; often saying “we” did this, or “we” did that. Owen could be referring to his personal experience during the war.

Owen combines together weather, death and war in “Exposure”. The weather acts like a soldier, committing human actions. The wind “knives” much like a soldier would knife and the “dawn masses in the east” in the same way that soldier’s mass. Owen uses a simile to link soldiers and the weather when the wind is described as “tugging on the wire like twitching agonies of men”. The weather acts as an enemy to the soldiers in the poem. Owen comments that the “bullets” from guns are “less deadly than the air”; the weather is a tougher enemy than any soldier is.

Each of the three poems is upon an entirely different subject but Owen’s feelings upon the war are shown in each poem. Owen’s personal experience shows through in each of the poems. He thought that the misleading of people into fighting was unfair. Owen feels that people should be shown the reality and not the glorification of war. I disagree with his feelings because I think that we would have lost the war if so many people had not fought. Owen feels that war is a waste of valuable life for no valid reason.

The second poem that I have studied is “Disabled”. The poem is about a disabled man that has suffered due to an injury he received in the war. Owen suffered an injury in the World War and had to recover in hospital over a long period. He may be referring to personal experience in this poem. The mood of the poem is unhappy because the disabled man is unhappy about his injury. The poem is about the disabled man’s thoughts and actions.

Some topics in this essay:
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