“That regiment of spire behind the shed: it was no place for rest” the word spite underlines how malicious nettles are, they have strong desire to hurt in this case the young boy. Saying “regiment” links to battle and that these nettles want to cause harm and pain, they are linked to war, the poet sees them as soldiers and described using the metaphor “spears” with in the
opednews.com Imagine your son or daughter volunteers for military service. Then imagine, he or she is deployed oversees to fight for our country. Next imagine that he or she dies in the call of duty for our country in Iraq. Next, imagine grieving the loss of your child to war. Now, imagine that you attend the funeral of your child where members of an out-of-town religious sect protest, chant, yell and cause a circus atmosphere at the funeral of your child.
With his effective use of imagery, diction and irony, Wellford Owens strips away the glory of war and reveals the horror of what it was really like to fight in WWI. Imagery is one of the powerful devise Owen uses to show the realities of war in his poem. Owen uses descriptive words and graphic imagery to provoke feeling and deep emotions within the reader as a way of driving home his anti-war message. For instance, he writes of “froth-corrupted lungs,’’(22)”sores on innocent tongues” (24)and even describes the dying man’s face as a “devil’s sick of sin“(20). As a reader one cannot help but get a mental picture of the terrible war condition as well as feel deep compassion for the soldier.
The word 'regiment' suggests an efficient army but the word 'spite' makes it sound as if the nettles are malicious. Also they are described using the metaphor 'spears', this could suggest pain and suggests weapons as if the weapons they use in an army. Within the first three lines of the poem the nettles are presented as violent and aggressive group of soldiers to reflect the fathers need to protect his chid. When the speaker, father, is taking his anger out on the nettles, Scannell describes them as a 'fierce parade' as if they were soldiers standing to attention. within 'two weeks', 'tall recruits' have been 'called up', to replace the nettles there is a reference made about the soldiers in the military.
With no real purpose but to be mindlessly massacred. Through personification, the guns responsible for taking so much human life are made out to be monstrous, even evil. The poem also likens their deaths to a funeral, but one where the bells are shots, and the mourning choirs are the army's bugles. The drawing down of the blinds, the traditional sign to show that the family is in mourning, has been likened to the drawing of a sheet to cover the dead. Through various literary techniques, Wilfred Owen enhances the meaning of the poem.
In the poem “Dulce et Decorum est” the poet writes about soldiers in the battle field and all the grueling things about war. I feel the meaning of this poem is to give an idea and insight to the reader of how war is very gruesome and just down right awful with no sugar coating. In both of these poems the writers use irony and similes to help get the reader to understand the point they are making. The first comparison about the two poems is the use of irony. In “Rite of passage” the line “short men, men in first grade” the writer is calling the young boys men.
Contemporary Poetry Anthology Project FACING IT- Life for soldiers in the heat of the Vietnam War was hell. Vietnamese soldiers used brutal, barbaric, and devilish tactics, using the terrain around them as a killing machine. They instilled fear into the American soldiers minds by using tunnels and land mines that had the ability to tear limbs from human bodies. Komunyakaa speaks about the Vietnam Memorial in his poem “Facing it”. At the beginning of the poem, his “black face fades, hiding inside the black granite.” It seems as if memories from the past have come back to the mind of the speaker, putting him back into these moments of terror in the war.
Depictions of warfare and accumulated images of death in the second stanza answer the rhetorical questions in the first stanza about the origin of these creatures. “Death” has been personified to emphasise that the memories of the surviving soldiers are tainted with “sloughs of flesh” of past soldiers whose “multitudinous murders they once witnessed.” The juxtaposition of “treading blood from lungs that had loved laughter” highlight that these ‘mental cases’ were once people who had human value too. The transformation of these soldiers has been due to the effects of war as Owen continues to accumulate images of death in the battlefield through onomatopoeia of “batter of guns and shatter of flying muscles.” The third stanza underlines the significance of shock and trauma in the battlefield for soldiers as they cannot face the reality of countless casualties. The alliteration of “sunlight seems a blood-smear” conveys the image of
He then goes on to describe the horrific and deadly gas attack that takes the soldiers by surprise. Owen then uses strong and direct language to tell us of his disturbing dream of the man dying right in front of him whic was caused by the gas attack. In the opening stanza, Owen quickly grabs the readers attention by trying to add up to that thee war is gruesome but also it can’t be won. “Bent Double like old geggers” evokes that the soldiers are losing so much, they are willing to beg for help but also for mercy. Owen comments on how the soldiers are living in trench life.
Price criticizes the United States culture by juxtaposing the seriousness of a nation bouncing back from depression with the quirky nature of the flamingo. Price uses a critical tone, exciting diction, and understatements to contrast real flamingos from the plastic ones that society had become obsessed with. Her desired effect is to show how detached man is from nature. The diction such as “splashed” and “staked” is used well to excite readers. Price is critical when saying “pink” and “ironic” to show how ridiculous she believes the flamingos are.