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Yi Wei
Dr. Sultzbach
Eng. 204
2014/4/18
The Grief Great War
War always produces pain, sacrifice, disillusionment and loss. There are so many
countries still fighting in wars nowadays, as seen in the news. I imagine how stressful
is it for them to face war or how noble they think they should fight for their country. It
is patriotism that makes all people go to war and their family chance to lose them.
However, in my mind, war is the violent activity, the origin of pain and the creation of
grief.
When talking about war, I believe all Chinese will never forget the war between
Japan and China. One of things that I cannot forget is the Nanjing Massacre. The
Japanese Army had killed over 300,000 Chinese in this massacre in 1937. This is
because of our history, I do not like the word war at all. It arouses the memories of
all bad massacres of China. I had seen lots of pictures from wars that happened in
China before. Their helpless eyes and the screams of pain from the innocent children
haunted me until today. War has the power to make all happiness gone. War has the
power to make children lose their support and childhood. War has the power to make
a country shed blood like water. How horrible is war? How great and noble is the
war? What can we do to fight for our country without this horrible sacrifice?
During World War I, the poetries of Wilfred Owen created a sense of violence and
grief, which bring me back to the historical scene and know more traumas and loss
that the war brings to people and soldiers at that time.
His poem Dulce Et Decorum Est means to die for the fatherland. Warfare,
suffering and patriotism are around this poem. Bent double, like old beggars under

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sacks, knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge (line 1-2) shows
that the soldiers are physically overcome by their experience in war. We can see they
are like old beggars and like hags, why? Because of the war. Owen describes this
situation and shows us the image of war here. Horrible war twisted the bodies of these
soldiers. Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs. And towards our distant rest
began to trudge (line 1-2). Distant rest means the end of war for that day, when all
soldiers walked back to their camp. Also, distant is an irony here, which is distant to
tomorrow. On the way back to camp, maybe death is waiting for them. All soldiers
need to wake up and fight in the war again. Trudge through the sludge, as we saw
the photos in class, no men land needs courage to go through it. Men marched
asleep (line 5) describes the image of soldiers at that time. They are tired and sleepy
after fighting and shooting. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod
(line 5-6). We have already seen their terrible situation from line 1 before, but here
again. These soldiers seem otherworldly. Limped lost and blood, their sounds
of pronunciation roll on our tongues, then, make us linger on these horrible words
longer. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots/of tired,
outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind (line 6-8) describes senses of tired
soldiers again. The rhythm of the lines here is like the rhythm that men march. The
same as lines before, lots of I sounds here continue to illustrate the life of soldiers in
the war.
Then, moving into stanza II of this poem, Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! / An ecstasy
of fumbling, / Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time (line 9-10) draws a picture of
war at that time. Gas, whatever gas here, means awful things happened. Ecstasy
seems strange in these lines, which makes a big comparison with this frenzy action.
Quick but ecstasy, in my words, seems to be dead instantly. Everything you do
before you die is useless but funny. But someone still was yelling out and

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stumbling. / And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime (line 11-12). The soldier here
sees another soldier yelling and stumbling, which put us into the war and show
him clearly. Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, /as under a green
sea, I saw him drowning (line 13-14). Green repeats here, ee sounds repeat to
lengthen the time it takes us to read and feel the lines slightly. The quick scene of
gas before, then, shifts into a slow motion. Owen creates pause here and sets the
tone of next short stanza.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, /He plunges at me, guttering,
choking, drowning (line 15-16). This stanza seems strange compared to the whole
the poem. It is just 2 lines here and becomes a pause in this poem. Owen invents this
stanza and slows down the steps of poem. A dying soldier is described here and all
is not only the world that I have, but the dying soldier has. He has been taken over
by the gas attack and dies. The narrating soldier here cannot do anything but witnesses
the horror of this scene, the Plunges guttering choking drowning of dying
soldier directly.
In the last stanza, If in some smothering dreams you too could pace. Behind the
wagon that we flung him in (line 17-18), Owen changes the first person I to second
person you that we have here for the first time. You might be us, the readers.
Even though we cannot share the experience that the soldier has at that time, Owen
tries to share the dreams of the battle to readers. We cannot imagine this noble
dream to go for a dying war. And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, /His
hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin (line 19-20). Many s sounds are created by
Owen. A devils sick of sin describes the awful and horrible pain the soldiers
experience from the war. How horrible dreams describe before? Those are the dreams
of dying for their country without hesitation. If you could hear, at every jolt, the
blood. Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, /Obscene as cancer, bitter as the

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cud/of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues (line 21-24) is a disgusting

description of a human body. In these four lines, the body of a young soldier turns to
an almost dying age at speed. These are all coming from the war, the terrible, dreadful
war. My friend, you would not tell with such high zest/to children ardent for some
desperate glory, /the old Lie: Dulce et decorum est/Pro patria mori (line 25-28).
Finally, to the point of this poem, Owen suggests that maybe lots of people want to
encourage the youths to find glory in the battle and war fighting for their mother
country, but in fact, the place of full of honor and glory is also the place of full of
horror and pain. This is the dreadful war. The long-held belief of patriotism or glory
of war should be changed. Because it is a lie with death accompanied.
The second poem is Greater Love, which was also written by Wilfred Owen.
The tone of this poem is harsh and straightforward to talk about the trials of soldiers
during World War I. In the first stanza, Owen opens with a startling romantic image,
Red lips (line 1). In this way, we will pay attention to the horrible things that occur
in war compared to this romance. Seems shame to their love pure (line 4) and O
Love, your eyes lose lure, when I behold eyes blinded in my stead (line 5) are
describing the relationship between the soldiers and the war. Love should be romantic
and connect with woman. But the Greater Love should be connected with country,
glory and honor, then, in the face of this greater makes any other love shame lose
lure and blinded.
In the second stanza, Owen writes that God seems not to care (line 10) about
deaths extreme decrepitude (line 12). God did not care about the dead body of the
soldier. This is because there are so many deaths that happened in the war. When you
joined in the army, you will have a sense to face death and sacrifice for a country. And
Trembles not exquisite like limbs knife-skewed (line 7) conveys the fragility of
human life like limbs knife-skewed.

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Next, move into the third stanza, even though your voice sings not so soft (line
13), but the voices of dead soldiers can no longer be heard like dear clear hear
(line 14-16). The most impressive line to me is Now earth has stopped their piteous
mouths that coughed (line 18), which describes the dead bodys helplessness.
Because God did not care about any death in the war, the earth ends their rights to live
on. Piteous is the shadow of the war and also the soldiers joining the war. They are
all piteous, not only their mouth, their love and their blind eyes, but when they joined
in the war, they will be tragedies in this war play.
Then Owen speaks to the Heart, you were never hot (line 19), which I think has
double meanings here. One of them should be the paleness war brings to soldiers and
makes their hearts ruthless to fight with rivals. Another possible meaning is that they
have already died and their heart will not warm again. Pale (line 21) and red (line
1) compare with each other. Pale could mean pure, so that when the soldier joins in
the war, they should feel nothing remaining of love for others, only love for the
country. However, red is a great image of blood and shadow of bloody war. When
they decided to join in the war, they might have to sacrifice their life to the country
with their hot blood. Or, we can say red is a passionate color to encourage other
soldiers to go forward. Cross through flame and hail (line 23) could mean that they
are crossing the path between life and death.
Whenever connecting with war, that will connect with terrible deaths of great
soldiers. All images or experiences that Owen conveys in his poems are challenging
the glory and honor to the country with the death of people. All brutal actions of dead
body, attacks, shots, pale love and violence are bringing a horrible and grieving road
for people to become a great soldier in the end of war. Even though noble war might
be great, in my own view, I prefer the life of peace, the opposite of war. Glory is
important but nothing can compare with the short and precious life of people.