For my report I have chosen six poems, three by Wilfred Owen and three by Australian poets. ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, ‘The Send Off’ and ‘Insensibility (1)’ were written by Owen during the first world war to express his anti-war attitude. ‘Beach Burial’ by Kenneth Slessor, ‘Homecoming’ by Bruce Dawe and ‘Letter XV’ by Bruce Beaver are famous Australian poems about war.

The poems have many similarities, especially in content, but also have their differences.

The subject matter of the poems is obviously generally the same. Most are about soldiers dying/dead because of a war. ‘Beach Burial’ is specifically about the WW2 battle at El Alamein, and ‘Homecoming’ is concerned with the effect of the Vietnam War, but the rest are about war in general. The purpose of the poems is to convey the poets’ own beliefs against war, for example Wilfred Owen was an avid anti-war activist, despite - or maybe because of - the fact that he fought in WW1.

The emotion portrayed is mostly depressive, somber and bitter. ‘Anthem

These techniques are used to give life to the poems, to portray the thoughts of the poet and to make the poems interesting.

‘At night they sway and wander in the waters far under’

All the poems could probably be described as elegies, considering they are all laments for the dead.

The six war poems I chose have a very similar content because the topic is common to all of them. Large differences come in the technique, because this defines the way a poem is written, not what it is about.

Some topics in this essay:
Doomed Youth’, Send Off’, Bruce Beaver, Youth’ Shakespearean, Sound Rhythm, Wilfred Owen, Off’ Insensibility, Vietnam War, War Poetry, ‘beach burial’, Letter XV, ‘anthem doomed, ‘anthem doomed youth’, doomed youth’, ‘letter xv’, ‘the send, ‘the send off’, send off’, ‘letter xv’ bruce, sound rhythm, dead bodies, burial’ kenneth, rhythm poem, xv’ bruce beaver, sound rhythm poem,