Comparison of Dulce and Decorum Est and an Irish Airman Forsees His Death Essay Example

taking the memorable statement “Dulce et Decorum est Pro Patria mori” and adding the contrasting statement at the beginning it changes the meaning of the statement and emphasises his point by using a patriotic statement mixed with the contrast of “the old Lie” to express the opinion of the author. Overall this contrast sums up the reality of war and states the author’s opinion. Metaphors used in both of these poems are different; Owen’s poem has negative imagery, whilst Yeats’ poem uses metaphors to create positive imagery.

In Yeats poem he uses the metaphor “A lonely impulse of delight, Drove to this tumult in the clouds” to describe the airman’s life. This metaphor is also used to describe a personal experience about how his life had reached its peak at this moment, as well as his aeroplane flight had simultaneously reached its peak. This vividly compares his life and how high he was in the sky. It’s also used to give a more personal experience by saying that he was the only happy person in the war to be flying and that his happiness made him want to go flying. Positive magery is firmly established as it shows that the airman is happy, as he has reached the peak of everything that matters to him. Owen uses “Many had lost their boots, but limped on, blood-shod” to explain the state that the soldiers were in during the war. This gives an enhanced sense of negative imagery as it helped to create a picture of soldiers who had feet covered in blood so thick that they were like shoes. The negative features are where the

soldiers suffered to have blood-shod feet and that the war had left them so worn out. This leads to a similarity between the soldiers and how worn out everything else was.

Here imagery was used to enhance the overall negative effect of war and again to express the author’s opinion of war. In Owen’s poem lots of personal pronouns are used to make the poem speak personally to the reader, whereas in Yeats’ poem personal pronouns are used but they don’t speak to the reader. In Owen’s poem he uses the constant repetition of the word “you” which is a personal pronoun that brings into the poem the reader the author wants to convey a personal message to the reader and to persuade the reader into the author’s way of thinking.

It speaks out of the page and makes more negative imagery about the war. Again here the personal pronouns are used to create negative imagery of the war that speaks to the reader. Here the poet is trying to persuade the reader into his view of war. In Yeats’ poem the personal pronouns are used here to only express the sole view of the airman. It leaves an effect that the airman was a soloist. Yeats is also not trying to persuade the reader here to his view as the airman doesn’t really have a view about war but only cares about the personal experience of flying.

Both of these poems use repetition to emphasise the poet’s view of the war. Yeats uses repetition in “Nor law, nor duty bade my fight, nor public men, nor cheering crowds” to emphasise that

absolutely nothing forced him into war. The author uses the word “nor” again and again in the same two lines to convince the reader that nothing could have actually made him do it but himself as he wasn’t forced into it. Again this makes it more personal to the airman as it is all about the airman’s life going past and that through all of his life nothing had forced him into this situation.

This phrase changes the rhythm of the poem as it slows down to make the repetition have a greater effect. Owen uses the statement “All went lame; all blind”. Repetition is used here to emphasise the extremeness of the situation. These words are quite sudden and the repetition makes the metre slow to make the word have a more lasting effect which continues onto the next line, “Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots” which uses another statement split with a semi-colon in a similar way.

This has a sudden effect as it is preceded by a full-stop and therefore creates a pause which is then interrupted by this statement. Even though both are war poems one of the main differences is the use of onomatopoeic language. Owen uses some onomatopoeia whilst Yeats uses none. One effective use of onomatopoeia in Owen’s poem is “guttering, choking, drowning”. This statement uses the rule of three which makes it more memorable and persuasive, and it also uses harsh “G” and “Ch” and “Dr” sounds, to create the effect of someone dying. The effect of dying creates negative imagery of the war.

Yeats doesn’t use onomatopoeic language as the poem

is a narrative and is already speaking to the reader. Onomatopoeia is also not used as Yats does not want to create negative or positive imagery of the war as it is only the imagery of the airman flying that effects the poem as the airman isn’t effected by the war. Owen’s poem uses irony whilst Yeats doesn’t use irony. Irony in Owen’s poem provides a greater negative effect as it demonstrates how the reader might have thought that the war was a good thing but irony here is used to persuade the reader.

Irony is used in “My friend” when Owen knows that the reader definitely had an opposite view of the war and actually the person is more of an enemy for having an opposite view of the war. This irony shows the contrast between what was happening in the war and what other people thought about the war. He uses irony to show that his message is the opposite of what some other people think. In the last two lines Owen uses irony to undercut the authority of the statement. Yeats doesn’t use irony as his poem is all about the true life of the airman. Irony isn’t used as the poem doesn’t really joke with the reader and is quite serious.

Irony in this poem would make the meaning of the poem not true and would twist the view of the airman. The author in this poem clearly wants to express that he is certain that the airman isn’t joking when he is flying in the war. Owen refers to the innocent people in the war and Yeats also

does the same. Owen uses “To children ardent for some desperate glory” to express how going to war will even effect the innocents who were persuaded by people to go to war. This is used to persuade the reader to believing that innocent children could be killed if you made them go to war.

Yeats states “My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,, No likely end could bring them loss ,, Or leave them happier than before” This refers to how the airman’s own people are suffering because of the war and this creates a small amount of negative imagery about the war as his countrymen will never be happier after the war as they will have suffered. He knew fighting for them was not worth it and he couldn’t change the war so he didn’t fight for anyone as he just wanted to experience flying. Both of these war poems are similar in many ways and they both use different techniques in different quantities.

Owen is totally against the war, whilst the airman in Yeats’ poem doesn’t care about the war and isn’t really effected by the war and therefore doesn’t really have an opinion on war. Both of the poets try to make their poems speak to the reader although one is persuasive and the other is more of a narrative. Neutral imagery is achieved by Yeats by not using a lot of literary. Owen on the other hand uses lot of techniques to make a powerful negative image of war. Owen is definitely against the war and I am convinced of this by the repeated use of negative imagery throughout his poem.