Frequently in Owens war poetry the pity is for living soldiers not

for dead ones. Discuss

Wilfred Owen is wildly considered one of the greatest voices of the First
World War. His anti-war message is prominent in his works, especially in
the preface. It is important to note that Owen categorically states that his
poems do centre on the subject of war itself, but on the pity of war.
Moreover, Owens elegies are not for the generation that was lost during
the war but are meant to warn future generations. Owens poetry and
message were described by the critic Dylan Thomas as looking to abolish
unveil that one true war is that of men against men. The poems which will
discussed in regards to this theme are ‘Mental Cases’, ‘The Dead Beat’
and ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’.
‘Mental Cases’ unleashes on its audience the true horrors of war and the
detrimental effects it has on the human mind. Owen writes from his own
personal experience, as he was treated for shell shock. The message of
the poem is tragic in itself as soldiers represent many tragic heroes whose
hubris is the fragile human mind. The sombre feeling of despair that is
rendered using pararhyme is enhanced by the sight of these soldiers who
have been reduced into persons ‘sitting in twilight’ and in ‘purgatorial
shadows’. The frailty of the human mind is accentuated using the
metaphor ‘these men whose minds the dead have ravished’ as they’re
permanent trauma as a result of shell shock is overlooked and innocent
sufferers are labelled malingerers and cowards.
‘The Dead Beat’ is another one of Owens poems that was written at
Craiglockhart. The work showcases the poet’s knack for brutal realism
while the attacking style and colloquial language reveals the extent of
Siegfried Sassoon’s influence. The poem presents a soldier whose mind
has been torn apart by the effects of war and then condemned for
suspicion of malingering. Although physically he is alive and healthy his
life will never be the same. The basic iambi pentameter, disjointed by the
use of multi-syllables and then a caesura allows for a fragmented rhythm
that fits the nature of the theme. The simile, ‘lay stupid like a cod, heavy
like meat,’ showcases that in the eyes of the Establishment the Dead Beat
is being held in contempt for attempted malingering thus making him less
than human.
In ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, Owen delivers his message within the
initial structural technique of a Petrarchan sonnet, but later using a
Shakespearean sestet ending in a rhyming couplet. Originally using
regular rhyme to deliver the imagery of the height of battle the change in
rhyme scheme to an irregular one with an occasional use of pararhyme
signifies the change in tone and subject characteristic of the present
volta. Owen utilises many different forms of figures of speech and literary
techniques in delivering his message. Namely, alliteration ‘rifles’ rapid
rattle’, the personification ‘monstrous anger of guns’ and the metaphor of
‘hasty orisons’ among others, to illustrate the horrors of war. A stark
contrast is made as the aura changes to a solemn one of the church
funeral. The metaphor ‘dusk a drawing down of blinds’ representing the
end of the soldiers’ lives may be seen to emulate the closing of curtains
after a finale.
In conclusion, through his works as well as the preface Owen succeeds in
expertly using many poetic techniques in the process of putting forward
his vital message of the ‘pity of war’. In the preface Owen clearly states
that his work does concern itself with heroes as English poetry is ‘not yet
fir to speak of them’. In his scathing indictment on the Establishment
(politicians and clergymen) Owen is not only reprimanding them for
sending generations of young Englishmen to their deaths but is writing
from the eyes who have been rendered less than men as a result of the
traumatizing experience of war.