*Compare Dulce and one other anti-war poem and compare the two's forceful condemnation of the waste

of war. Comment particularly on language and imagery in each. 1436 The one designated poem for discussion is Dulceet Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen. The poem which I have chosen for comparison is Disabled by the same poet. Dulce et Decorum Est begins with a nauseatingly sad description of young men who have returned from war. They are described as being bent double, like old beggars under sacks expressing the difference in their physical appearance during the short stint on the battlefield. They are very little short of inert masses of human flesh [they] limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; drunk with fatigue . Obviously they are suffering the strains of the fight as they have become deaf, dumb and blind as the old clich goes. Disabled expresses the same sentiment of young men being crippled on the battlefield. The protagonist here sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark, and shivered in his ghastly suit of grey . This expresses the sudden darkness of his life (e.g. the colour of the suit) and his inertia as well he is waiting for dark which could well be the darkness of the night or the darkness that comes with his death and homage. Dulce expresses the known sentiment that the young men are indeed working to their deaths as shown in And towards our distant rest began to trudge . Men marched asleep expresses the great despondence and lack of energy. The second stanza of Disabled seems to take a different stance. It is a cheerful imagery in the form of a flashback showing the life the concerned soldier once lived. He used to swing so gay and girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim . These are expressions contrasting with the first but they both show there has been a shift in emotions once jovial and happy times to the current sad and trudged whether on the battlefield or in a dark room, respectively. Disabled also looks at the lack of things now; the protagonist will never feel again how slim girls waists are, or how warm their subtle hands instead they touch him like some queer disease . He was indeed in the past referred to as an object of extreme beauty in kilts but such images are no longer a reality. The same poem s third stanza looks at the contrast more deeply between ante-war and post-war. Before the war, there was an artist silly for his face but now he is old; his back will no longer brace . Between a matter of three lines, it seems there has been a transition of more than three decades. There is description that he s lost his colour very far from here, poured it down shellhols till the veins ran dry, and half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race and leap of purple spurted from his thigh . This shows that the character has lost lots of blood and there s a bit of guilt imposed as though he poured the blood quite literally in front of high-speed bullets. In Dulce , there is a similar sentiment of death and decay although it is in a more physical sense. The third stanza states in its entirety: In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, he plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning . This is very similar to the reincarnation of the character in Disabled when he loses his youthful loveliness and the artist is no longer attracted to his dazzling features. In the fourth and last stanza of Dulce , there is a description of the death of a comrade. The reader in many respects is placed amongst the scene by If in some smothering dreams you too could pace behind the wagon that we flung him in , we see that the whole engagement seems to be a big, bad and dark dream. It is so bad that it is unbelievable. The description of the dying soldier is very strong and inflicts a mixture of fear and shock: white eyes writhing in his face, his hanging face, like a devil s sick of sin. The noises heard are similar scene-setting: the blood come gargling from the

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froth-corrupted lungs, obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud . The sounds are referred to as vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues showing the nave nature of the young men that they did not deserve to suffer so. The reference my friend expresses the high zeal of emotion as the poet attempts persuasion techniques to convince you that the folliwng statement is indeed true: that if people could see what happened to that soldier, they would not tell with such high zeal to children ardent for some desperate glory, the old Lie: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori . The use of the word children shows that the young men are nothing more than simple-minded children seeking status in fighting war and that the capital letter for the word lie shows how grave a sin and major it is. In Disabled , we are returned to the now-crippled, once-active young man s life. He was playing matches of football, trying to please the girls. Until one day, he lied of his age and unknowingly changed his life forever more. The poem reads that he joined because of his thoughts of jewelled hilts for daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes; and care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears; spirit de corps all such things which are part of the mythological side of war. There is not much of the daring duelling or the artillery fighting. Just the beautified nature of serving one s nation. The same Lie that is expressed in Dulce fed to young men as they are sent to their deaths. God forbid, he was drafted out with drums and cheers . In the fifth stanza of Disabled there is an analogy made of the soldier s return and football game, something he was affectionately taking part in before the war. The futility of war is expressed in that some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal showing that football spectators appreciate a goal more than people appreciate his contribution to the war effort. It is also states that only one man thanked him for what he did on the battlefield with an italicised emphasis on only . From then on in the poem, the character is pretty much dead like the character in Dulce . He will spend a few sick years in institutes . He will suffer the emotional strain brought on by people s denial and refusal of him (due to his physicality) as expressed with to-night he noticed how the women s eyes passed from him to the strong men that were whole . Somehow, here the character feels that he is half man or a sub-prime human not functioning as usual and therefore not accounting for as much. And then the poem is concluded with the mantra Why don t they come?

* The language is very dark and gloomy in both poems. Dulce by far focuses on the reconstruction of the battlefield s events. In Disabled there is a mixture of dark, present-time and gloomy emotions punched with the jovial and happy of the past. For example, He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark but in the past used to swing so gay girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim . At times the contrast in emotions in expressed intra-stanza; as in the third stanza when there was an artist silly for his face but eventually now he is old; his back will never brace . In the fourth stanza, there is the upbeat motions of a football match with a blood smear down his leg...when he d drunk a peg, he thought he d better join, aye that was it to please the giddy jilts he asked to join and then are described all the joyful items of service in the army. The poem ends with a remorseful and degenerated emotion with Why don t they come? In Dulce there is a satirising of action in that the words are strong and engaging as the warfare but there is no real frontline battling going on. Everything is drowned in emotions of darkness and sadness with old beggars under sacks and coughing like hags . For the most part, the poem Dulce

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has liveliness compared to Disabled . There is an ecstasy of fumbling as they try and escape the gas negated by the floundering that follows.

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