Fun with Essay Writing
“It is mainly the poet’s
control of FORM that enables the powerful depiction of human issues.” With reference to at least THREE poems
by ONE British OR Postcolonial poet that you have studied, discuss the validity
of this statement.
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ReplyDelete"It is mainly the poet's control of FORM that enables the powerful depiction of human issues." This essay will be discussing the validity of this statement. The poet I will be focusing on is Wilfred Owen three poem I will be using is disable, Boy at arms and Futility
ReplyDelete" Arm and Boy " is not on syllabus"
Delete"It is mainly the poet's control of FORM that enables the powerful depiction of human issues." This essay will be discussing the validity of statement. The poet I will e focusing on is Wilfred Owen and the poem chosen to validate this statement are Disabled, Futility and Exposure.
ReplyDeleteFirstly what is form, form in poetry, can be understood as the physical structure of the poem: the length of the lines, their rhythms, their system of rhymes and repetition. In this sense, it is normally reserved for the type of poem where these features have been shaped into a pattern, especially a familiar pattern.
Disabled is a poem in which FORM is used for an effective delivery. Its form is very similar to other poems that Owen wrote to the point it is predictable the length of the lines, their rhythms and their system of rhymes and repetition. Rhymes and repetition is a major part of Owen poetry as he uses is as a form of exaggeration and uses it to depict human issues like death, helplessness, weakness, mutilation or disabilities. His use of rhythms and rhymes depicts the exact feelings of the subjects in Owens poems especially Disabled at it show the psychological,emotional and physical distress the soldiers is going through.
Wilfred Owen is a well-known British poet who wrote a number of poems about World War I in the twentieth century. All of his poems comprise the hardships that soldiers face during the war, both physically or emotionally. Wilfred Owen constructed poems that spoke about the horrific reality of World War I because authorities were glorifying war. The poems are like mirrors that shows the reflection of the atrocious truths of the war and how many youths went in the army not knowing that their deaths were awaiting them on the battlefield. The form of Owen's poems allowing the society to understand the real issues that were surfacing from World War I. In relation to his poems "Anthem for Doomed Youth", "Dulce et Decorum Est", "Exposure" and "Disable", the statement “It is mainly the poet’s control of FORM that enables the powerful depiction of human issues” is proven to be true.
ReplyDeleteTo begin with, “Anthem For Doomed Youth” enforces the idea that war is just a hellish and futile waste of human life. The poem depicts the sensory horrors of battle and laments the loss of young lives in war. Furthermore, most of the men who die in such conflict will never be honoured with such rituals anyway as there are too many fallen soldiers. It is based on the rhyme scheme of the English Shakespearean sonnet and has the octet / sestet structure of the Italian Petrarchan sonnet. Since the poem is a lament for the brutal deaths of young innocent men, the sonnet form, which is sometimes used to praise or elevate, seems humorous in its usage here. The poem is divided into two sections: an octet and a sestet. The sestet's structure is similar to the octet's in that both stanzas begin with a rhetorical question, which is then answered by the speaker in the lines that follow. The octet introduces the reader to the trenches' harsh climate. The harsh sounds that would have accompanied the men as they fought and died are represented and produced through a bombardment of sensual imagery. The octet concludes with the phrase "bugles calling for them from sad shires." This brings readers to remember the towns that have been left in mourning for the men who will never return home. Moving from the sounds of war to the silence of the sestet, this poignant final line of the octet connects us to the silence of the sestet, with the volta signaling a change from the sounds of war to the Christian funeral practices. Owen asks “What candles may be held to speed them all?” He responds by making a connection between different common religious traditions and the realities of a lonely death in the trenches. The poem's pace is slowed by the final poignant rhyming couplet, which ends with an evening picture of "slow dusk" and "a drawing down of blinds," symbolizing the deaths of the men in the trenches. The use of a sonnet form in this poem helps readers to see both what happens on the monstrous battlefield and how loved ones who are left at home feel when they learn of a soldier they loved death.
Delete“Exposure” is a poem written by Owen to show readers how the soldiers were more influenced by the bleak and frosty weather than by enemy wounds. “Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us...” and “Shrivelling many palms, and puckering foreheads crisp” were examples of this. The bulk of the poetry written during World War I was gloomy and portrayed the war's terrible circumstances. Exposure shows how the soldiers persevered and fought in the face of adversity. The weather and battle conditions were often harsh and uninhabitable, and the soldiers had to put up with it. The poem is divided into eight stanzas, each with five lines. Each stanza's last line is distinctly shorter and indented, emphasizing its significance. It's all part of a wider disruption of the rhythmic system, which is focused on hexameters. Many of the short lines are rhetorical questions or variations on the word "But nothing happens." Both have the effect of highlighting how meaningless what is going on seems to be. Every stanza's first four lines follow ABBA's rhyming pattern. This consistency highlights how unchanging everyday life in the trenches is. Closer review reveals that many of the rhymes are incomplete, such as "knive us/nervous", "wire/war", and "brambles/rumbles". Half rhyme is a tactic Owen is using. This tends to unnerve the reader and defy the anticipated result, evoking the experience of war once more.
DeleteForm, in poetry, can be understood as the physical structure of the poem: the length of the lines, their rhythms, their system of rhymes and repetition. In this sense, it is normally reserved for the type of poem where these features have been shaped into a pattern, especially a familiar pattern. Wilfred Owen, a famous British poet, main subject is war, and the pity of war, Pity is at the core of his poetry and makes it unique. It is believed that Owen’s poems epitomize dread and terror and writes vivid and terrifying poems about modern warfare, and he does this incorporating form in his writing. This will be explored by analysing ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ and ‘Exposure’.
ReplyDeleteThe poem, exposure, possesses a form that includes series of eight stanzas of five lines. The last line of each stanza is noticeably shorter and indented which emphasises its importance. It is also part of the more general disruption of the rhythmic structure which uses hexameters as its basis. Many of these short lines are either rhetorical questions or the repetition of the phrase ‘But nothing happens’. Both have the effect of emphasising the apparent pointlessness of what is going on. The first four lines of each stanza follow the rhyming pattern of abba. This regularity emphasises the unchanging nature of daily life in the trenches. Closer inspection shows that many of the rhymes do not quite work as full rhymes, for example: ‘knive us/nervous’, ‘wire/war’, ‘brambles/rumbles’. Owen is employing a technique known as half rhyme. This helps to unsettle the reader and defy the expected outcome, something which again echoes the experience of war. Owen and several other poets of the time used their writing to inform people back in Britain about the horrors of the war and in particular about life on the front line. The picture they painted contradicted the scenes of glory portrayed in the British press. Exposure is a particularly hard-hitting example of this.
Anthem for Doomed Youth, another of Owen’s classics, it has the octet / sestet structure of the Italian Petrarchan sonnet but is loosely based on the rhyme scheme of the English Shakespearean sonnet. The sonnet form, which is often used to praise or elevate, seems ironic in its use here as the poem is a lament for the brutal deaths of young innocent men. it combines the structure of the Petrarchan sonnet with the rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet except for lines 11 and 12. (The rhyme scheme of Shakespeare's sonnets is ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG; the rhyme scheme of Owen's poem is ABAB, CDCD, EFFE, GG. Owen’s purpose is to reveal the cruelty of war, which seemed as if it was hidden, Owen’s particular use of this form portrays conflict and irony to the reader, as the poem is about aggression and struggle.
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Wilfred Owen's poems are a dramatic and passionate expression of his disdain for warfare. This is most evident in poems such as "Dulce et Decorum Est " , " "Anthem for Doomed Youths" and "Fultility ". Owen's control of form enables a powerful depiction of human issues especially the highlighting to facade that young men going to war and dying is honorable .
ReplyDeleteIn "Dulce et Decorum Est" the length of the stanza's vary with the first fourteen lines highlighting the situation and the last fourteen showing the consequences of the war. This clever technique complemented with the use of iambic pentameter make the reader reflect on the routine nature of war and the horror young men endure, 'blood-shod' and 'all blind' in line 6 highlight this. In stanza two the disruption of the pentameter gives additional beat and makes the reader sense that time is almost running out. The heaviness of this feeling is well placed as towards the ending we can sense the dullness and empty feeling that warfare gives off additionally it contradicts the very title of the poems as one can extract that it is not so sweet and fitting to die for ones country.
Anthem for Doomed Youth starts with the imagery of the environment the persona was in and created a grating sound that surrounded the men as they fought and died . The line " bugles calling for them from sad shires " is reminiscent of when family is left in mourning when they realize these men are never returning home. The shift from the noise created by the war to a more reflective and solem sound associated with Christian funeral services. " What candles may be held to speed them all?"
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"It is mainly the poet's control of form that enables the powerful depiction of human issues." The words of the poem are what the writer uses to portray the powerful message to the reader; however, I both disagree and agree with the given statement. The physical construct of a poem is referred to as its form. The form includes the length of each line, the rhyme scheme etc. The main objective of this essay is to prove the validity of the given statement with the use of three poems by the English poet Wilfred Owen. The poems include Disable, Dulce Et Decorum Est and Anthem For Doomed Youth.
ReplyDeleteDisabled, drafted in October 1917 and revised in July 1918, is about a rather dashing young soldier who made an artist "silly for his face" (line 14) that gave up his legs and arms (line 3) and a future football career for war. He enlisted for ingenuous reasons and now left with suffering, no arms, no legs and regret. The poem throws the rules of meter, rhyme, the accepted structure of stanzas, the overall rules of poetry out the window but still manages to get the message across. Owen's use of graphic imagery, repetition, rhyme, contrast among others is what truly portrays the powerful message on the issue, the pity of war. Hence, my disagreement with the given statement. The lack of form did not hinder the portrayal of the intended message.
Anthem For Doomed Youth, drafted in August 1917 with the encouragement of Siegfried Sassoon, speaks on the wastefulness of war and its gruesomeness on and off the field. The poem discusses how no funeral service or candle lighting can compensate for the deaths of the young men; avoidable deaths. The poem takes the form of a sonnet. Sonnets are composed of 14 lines, written in iambic pentameter, have an octet, sestet and rhymes. Obviously, the poem takes a clear form. The roles of the octet and sestet and the other characteristics that contributed to the form all aided in amplifying the message. Also, Owen's use of alliteration, personification, simile etc amplified the message's impact. Hence, my disagreement and agreement with the given statement.
Dulce Et Decorum Est speaks on the reality of trench warfare in World War 1 and debunks the old lie, "Dulce et decorum est Pro Patria Mori", It is sweet and fitting to die for one country. The poem has four unequal stanzas, the first two in sonnet form and the other 2 does not conform to any form. With or without form the poem transcends the intended message, the pity of war. It was also written in an iambic pentameter. The words, literary devices and techniques along with the form went hand in hand to depict the human issue powerfully.
In conclusion, it is safe to say the form plays a part in the depiction of the human issue but it is not the main component. This was proven through the use of three poems written by Wilfred Owen.