Brooke’s poem communicates the positive side of war. Whereas Owens poem suggest that war is horrendous. However Wilfred Owen wrote Dulce et Decorum Est in1917. Owen fought for many years in the war as a soldier and picked up a few injuries one of them landing him in hospital. Dulce et Decorum Est. portrays the fact that the soldiers fighting are helpless and aren’t heroes which then hints that Owen is giving a warning to the younger generation, who are more vulnerable, that the good things that are said about the war aren’t necessarily true.
The pattern of the rhyming scheme in “the soldier” is soft and uses gentle rhyming couplets to create a persuasive and plausible atmosphere. Brooke’s poems structure is very significant to the reader because it gives the poem the nationalistic point of view on war. On the other hand the pattern of the rhyming scheme in Owens poem is very harsh and broken up and the poem has a very critical ending to it, the ending reflects what is happening in the poem.
The tone of the speaker in Brooke’s poem uses very supple, pliable language and is also quite coercive. The poet has introduced a slow rhythm that flows and is consistent throughout the poem. Alternatively Owens’s poem is critical, powerful and very solemn. The speaker in this poem uses hard yet powerful language to create that caliginous atmosphere. Rupert Brooke uses personification in his poem to describe England as a person. The poet is trying to say that England is like a mother to him loving, caring and provides protection for him. He describes England as a she which is giving an inanimate country a human reference.
The poet of “Dulce et Decorum Est” also uses many effective similes and metaphors so that the reader gets a detailed image of the scene that Owen is creating. At one point in the poem Owen describes the soldier as a devil sick of sin. This simile suggests that the expressions on the man’s face were so terrible that even a devil which is a fiendish, cruel and unpleasant character was sick of that sin. This then suggests that even a ruinous character like a devil is fed up of seeing so much bad. The effect that this then has on the reader is that it creates a troposphere that the reader can then compose a detailed image in his/her mind. Owen also uses another simile, like a man floundering in fire or lime this communicates that the man was moving clumsily while in tremendous pain.
Brooke’s is sharing with us a very positive, coercive and patriotic poem. The poet has written this poem to prevail upon the reader a nationalistic view of war. However some people believe that Rupert Brooke wrote such a positive poem because he was using it as an escape from the reality and the helplessness of war, and that he was writing it to make himself try and believe what he was writing. On the contrary “Dulce et Decorum Est” was trying to convince the readers not to go out and fight in the war and is giving us an honest and truthal opinion of war. The speaker in Owens poem is very serious and deeply opinionated the poem is ironic and gives pity to the war.
This war poem is written in iambic pentameter. In Owen’s war poem he communicates shock of the reality of war. Though later the reader discovers the irony of the poem. There are many contrasting factors between the two poems; one talks about the positive things about war while the other draws attention to the awful reality of war. Firstly, imagery is used in both poems allowing the reader to create a more detailed picture of the theme. Rupert Brooke uses personification to describe his loving and patriotic feelings about England. This is evident in the line, “A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, gave once her flowers to love, her ways to roam…” This supports the ways in which he feels England has helped the people.
Throughout the poem he compares England to a woman, so every time he speaks of England he refers to it as ‘she.’ He makes it sounds like England has done everything for the people. More specifically I am convinced that he is talking about a motherly role. ‘She’ is nurturing and all loving which gives her this role. Rupert Brooke uses similes to compare England to the brightness and optimistic things about daytime. This is apparent as it is said, “Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day…” This quotation highlights his perception of how positive the sights, sounds and dreams of England were.par
