Whilst I'm away this week, in the 3 hours you should have had lessons you're required to develop your annotations for each poem covered and develop your initial intended meaning and diction column for those still to be covered, however for homework and study time outside of lesson times I would like you to particularly focus on developing the structure and wording of your intended meanings.
You need to be clear in your mind what Owen's intended meaning is so you can validate or criticise it in your exam. Heading toward Xmas, I'd like you to have a clear intended meaning for each poem, one which you can support with analysis and evaluation (this second part I'll help you with).
With all this in mind, your task is to submit one, developed (this means the language should be appropriate and you've thought about how it reads - not that I want 3 pages - merely a paragraph will suffice), intended meaning (as a comment - click the comment link below) . I'll read this and provide feedback to you. You need to submit this before you return to school (2/11/08). The sooner you get it in to me, the longer your feedback will be! Failure to submit one will be deemed a failure to meet a deadline and the normal procedures will be followed - be warned of the consequences if you have missed 2 previous deadlines!!
42 comments:
poets intended meaning - insensibility
There is some sense of the insensibility of death for a soldier. A double meaning in the title 'insensibility' soldiers being forced to be unconcious and unthinking to loose a sense of imagination and feeling as a metaphor from being in the war. Owen looks up at them with pity from the horrors they have to endure.He looks down at people at home who are unaware of the reality of war.In the 3rd stanza Owen uses text that sounds biblical to maybe compliment his religious upbringing, and the uses of dactyls emphasise anger in the tone of the poem.
by Danielle Wood
I will give you feedback via your school emails rather than publishing a comment on this public forum.
I will however, leave some general feedback for everyone to read.
Your intended meanings shouldn't elaborate in detail on poetic devices Owen uses, but rather focus on what he sets out to communicate to his readers - what is the message he wants to resonate in their minds?
This won't always straight forward and the ambivalence we have seen in his poems will surely cloud your judgements and expressions of meaning, but hey, then it wouldn't be fun. Would it?
poets intended meaning - Exposure
This poem is written to a soilders point of view. Thsi poem explores trench warefare and what it is acutally like to be in a trench. The title 'exposure' is almost like Owen is telling us the truth on what war is acutally like. In the poem Owen uses Rhetorical questions, he is trying to communicate with the reader and asknig what is the point of being in the war. He see it as pointless. Owen explores alot of emotion and he talks alot about the weather and personifies it. There is alot of misery and sadness throughout the poem and Owen shows us this through the dull weather aswell. There is also alot of imagery on the soilders, and how they feel about the war. Towards the end of them poem you do get a warm and comfort feeling. In conclusion to this the word 'exposure' means abandoning without shelter or protection. In otherwords the soilders have no protection or shelter.
By Kirstie Churchill
Thanks Kirstie!
Poet’s Intended Meaning
In strange meeting Owens’s main focus seems to be on ambiguity; there are many examples within the poem where the reader is forced to make their own judgment on what Owen is trying to put across i.e. “Out of battle I escaped”. Here there are two duplicit meanings of either fleeing or death. Although some of these eventualities are answered later in the poem the ambiguity is significant in the meaning. Also there is a question of who the dialogue is being spoken by; in the shift from dialogue from to monologue the speaker can be misconstrued to either man which could be a question from Owen that “friend and enemy are so alike how can those so filled to the brim with patriotic ideas distinguish them to be good and evil with such forthrightness’. Most significantly though I think Owen is trying to break down barriers between the enemies in the war. The uses of “friend” and “enemy” are jumbled up as if Owen is trying to show how war between ones so similar (Whatever hope is yours, was my life also…) is futile. This notion is encompassed in the last paragraph where the “enemy” describes his murder by the hand of the “strange friend” and yet they decide to sleep now as if disregarding what’s gone on before in the other, wasted, life.
Adonis
Thanks Adonis, check you school email for comment!
Poet's Intended Meaning – Exposure:
Exposure presents the weather as the prevailing force of turmoil for the soldiers, which reflects the soldiers' own unsettled emotions. Owen frequently uses sensuous descriptions which suggests the soldier's reliance on their senses, and their constant vigilance. Also, the soldiers endure a lot of uncertainty – with the soldiers sensing the enemy about to attack, and then the anti-climax of nothing happening, suggesting their senses are deceiving them. At the end, Owen presents the soldiers reliving their forgotten dreams, presenting the idea of the soldiers hallucinating in fear, hiding away, escaping the reality of war. Finally, the speaker struggles with the prospect that they are dying – either physically or mentally due to the constant 'tease and doubt' of war (from 'Insensibility', but I thought it was relevant!). Exposure presents the key idea that life at war for soldiers is horrifying – with the relentless physical exposure to the sinister weather, the unsettled emotions of the soldiers, the constant uncertainty and uncertainty about their existance, the fear of death or agonizing injury, the pure reliance upon their senses and the haunting of what they see, what they touch and what they hear.
David Loveland
The poets intended meaning for exposure.
I believe that the intended meaning for this poem is that its a way of showing that in this war, the enemy troops were not the only danger that had to be faced. This is because there is the relentlessness of mother nature as well which could sometimes prove harder to battle then it may have seemed in the first place. To show this Owen personifies the weather by referring to it as "her" which makes it seem more of a threat. Exposure also helps to show the readers that any action carried out i9n war is likely to reccur on a constant cyle. An example of this is the fighting that takes place. Every morning the shooting starts and at night it ceases but the moment it becomes morning once again the cycle is repeated as the shooting begins. I have also noticed that there is a duplicity shown in the title. On one hand, the title can be seen to be showing that the soldiers were exposed to enemies such as mother nature and the troops themselves. However, the title may also be used to shows that this poem was written to expose the fact that war isnt as glorious as the people at home make it to be but instead is rather the opposite.
By Javen Egan :)
Poets intended meaning - The Sentry
The intended meaning of this poem is to communicate the extreme and horrific happenings which happened to the post of Sentry infront of his eyes. I believe the reason for this was to show the outside world that war was not as glamerous and glorified as people were making it out to be. As in many of owens other poems there is again a sense of ambiguaty. Owen also tries to convey the pain that the men at war were put through by using vivid imagery to make people think about what was going on, whilst they sat at home thinking war was fun. Though the main thing Owen tries to communicate in this poem is that war is not a glamerous show for the faint hearted, it is a cold and harsh place which has been portrayed so wrongly that he had to tell the truth to the world.
By Bradders/simmo/b.dot.simson/teachers pet/the man/donno's number 1 fan
Intended meaning - The Sentry
The Sentry is a heavily structured poem used to explain the ruthlessness and unpredictability of war. This is emphasised through capitalisation of words such as ‘Next’ which through ambiguity creates a sense of inevitable death. The poem is a remorse reflection of a past, personal experience that Owen suffered in a trench. Owen uses thick alliteration to resemble the deathly, mucky conditions the soldiers had to fight, live and ‘drown’ in. Owen also integrates ideas from previous poems such as ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, ‘Insensibility’ and ‘Exposure’ in this re lived experience to mould together a poem that plays sympathy on the readers minds by expressing the risks the soldiers were constantly having to take to protect their country. He wants the readers to understand the true realities of war and not be deluded by the myths embedded in to British society via war propagandas.
By David K
Thanks for you entries, David L, Javan, Bradley and Dave K. I've read (and enjoyed!?) your entries - I'll email you a response tomorrow (Sat).
Kirstie, if you read this, I've written a response for you but don't have your email with me at home. I'll give it to your upon our return or if you post your email I'll send it to you!
Poets intended meaning: Futility
Within this poem, Owen uses popular conceits to question the hopelessness and point of war. No major events occur within this poem, but he makes the reader question the point of war, and to the point where the reader wonders if it is the reason we are born. It also has ambiguity in it, as Owen is questioning the belief of God and he does this through the uselessness of war.
The poet’s intended meaning seems to be centered on many recurring themes and ideas in his works which are namely ambiguity and futility and Owen presents these ideas with metaphor duplicities and contrasts that obviously share meanings with other ideas.
Within Strange Meeting Owens’ main focus seems to be directed towards ambiguity; several examples are apparent within the poem where the reader is forced to build their own judgment on what Owen is trying to put across i.e. “Out of battle I escaped”. Within this, there are two duplicit meanings of either fleeing or death; although some of these eventualities are answered later in the poem the ambiguity is significant in the meaning. Similarly, there is a question of who the dialogue is being spoken by; in the shift from dialogue from to monologue, the speaker can be misconstrued to either man, which could be a question from Owen that ‘friend and enemy are so alike so how can those so filled to the brim with patriotic ideas distinguish them to be good and evil with such forthrightness’. Most significantly though I assume Owen is trying to break down barriers between the axis and allied factions in the war. The uses of “friend” and “enemy” are jumbled up as if Owen is trying to show how war between ones so similar ‘whatever hope is yours, was my life also…’ is futile. This notion is encompassed in the last paragraph where the “enemy” describes his murder by the hand of the “strange friend” and yet they decide to sleep now as if disregarding what’s gone on before in the other, wasted, life again using the contrasts in relationships. Futility is again encompassed within the reflective monologue where the speaker describes how fruitless both outcomes of the war will be ‘Now men will go content with what we spoiled,| Or, discontent, boil bloody, and be spilled’ The futility here lies in how men will be happy with a ruined and diminished world where a great deal more could have been achieved without the scars of battle apparent in the world, or, how they will refuse feigning satisfaction within the world and instead take up arms and try (as they’ve done before) to rebuild a new world with the price of blood. In these two lines own sets up the idea with the contrast of content and discontent completing a completing a group of ideas that complement each other.
Adonis
The Show
What I think was Wilfred Owen’s intended meaning in ‘The Show’ was trying to convey to us, by using extended metaphors and conceit that war isn’t just an amazingly, marvelous ‘show’ where you can participate in and have a splendid time. The government has used TV, radio, and other media devises to persuade people to enlist for the army and by using propagandas glamorised the ideas of war. The quote at beginning of his poem from the book ‘Shadowy Water’ by the Nobel Prize winning Irish dramatist, author and poet who’s most known work is ‘The Celtic Twilight’ W.B. Yeast is a perfect way of describing how people are seeking ways of following the shallow dream of fame and fortune and wanting it so badly that they can’t even look at the world in a realistic way. But war isn’t something you can afford to view in a dreamlike way and Wilfred Owen’s ‘The Show’ is his way of showing you the true gruesome and grotesque nature of war from an audience perspective into the eyes of someone who has actually witnessed it.
By Joseph Nathan
Poets Intended Meaning - Insensibility
Owen is getting accross the point that there is some sense of inecitability of death towards the soldiers and that they are forced to be unthinking and unconcious towards themeselves. He is also trying to tell us that the people at home are unaware of the reality of war.
By Daniel Simmons
Arms & The Boy
The first thing i notice when looking at the poem is the title "Arms and the Boy". Wilfred Owen uses this title in a very clever way. This is because it makes the poem sound like a very welcoming friendly piece of poetry, for example the "Arms" are loving careing arms and "Boy", A boy can not be frightening or dangerous to 1000's of soliders.
But looking deeper into the title you realise that the title is alot different to what you initially first feel.
The Title is very Ironic.
"Arms" is short for armaments/firearms, and "Boy" are the young lads that are told to go to war a fight for their country and be hero's.
Owen gives us a clear vivid image of the cruel ruthlessness that weapons had in the war.
The poet writes and focuses on the cruel behaviour and treatment that the young soliders had to engage when they where sent off to war. The peoem gives off clear images of the desruction weapons caused e.g. "Let the boy try along this bayonet blade, How cold steel is, and keen with hunger of blood".
And also " Lend him to stroke these blind, blunt bullet-leads which long to nuzzle in the hearts of lads". These two quotes tell us ways that soliders would die, For example the first quote is talking about blades cutting open the flesh of soliders leaving them to bleed to death, and the second qoute talks about the soliders being shot with bullets that were aimed at the heart, so thet almost die instantly.
The atmosphere that is set is very strong as you can imagine seeing the slaughtering of young soliders who went to war thinking it was going to be easy and glamerous by the way it was glorified by people back at home
Sean Firman
Poet’s intended meaning-
Strange Meeting
Owen is trying to express equality within the opposing soldiers. He shows that although the two soldiers are fighting against each other, they are still human and still suffering the same fate.
When the soldiers were alive they showed separation and had an ‘us and them’ attitude towards their enemies, but when they are dead nothing matters and they become united. He shows that no matter what country you were fighting for, you were still the same and were still experiencing the same things.
He uses the word ‘hopelessness’ in the third stanza, which suggests that he finds the war futile.
There is also some confusion about who is speaking in the dialogue, which could show that it does not matter who says what, because the dialogue applies to both soldier and they share the same emotions and the same experiences, so they are equal.
The poem ends with “Let us sleep now…”, this shows togetherness and that they are resting together; united. Although the war separates the soldiers, death brings them together.
Vicki Chaplin
Intended Meaning - Disabled
I believe Owen wishes to communicate that actions have consequences through this poem. Firstly, we see the title. ‘Disabled’ means ‘unable to do something’. Owen straight away shows that there is negativity in the poem, and I get the impression that an action may have lead to someone becoming disabled.
The character in this poem represents those who lied about their age during the First World War, meaning he is possibly 16 or 17. We learn very quickly that Owen believes the character is foolish in his ways through the language and tone used. 'Threw away his knees' can be interpreted as if the character actually threw his legs away by choice. The character has no legs as he was shelled during battle. Arguably this is because of the action he took, lying about his age.
I think Owen, as in most of his poems, is trying to almost fight against propaganda, which could possibly be the reason the character lied about his age in the first place. If war wasn’t presented in such a fun, almost make believe place, then this young boy wouldn’t have ruined his life. At least not yet :)
Sam Ellis
Thanks for the submissions!
Sam, well done covering a poem that we haven't touched in class - a little daring!
An Inteneded Meaning for Strange Meeting
The poets intended meaning for Strange Meeting by Wildred Owen, is extremely ambigoius. The poem could have 2 meanings that of it being about 2 soldiers of opposing sides that have died and met in the afterlife and then refelct about their life and the pity and futility of war, in consideration to the fact that they now are dead. Additonally the poem could be about a soldier performing a stealth night attack on an enemy trench undeground. In hostorical context of the war this was very common and often physcologically scaring for the soldiers that had to endure such violent killing. The poem could literally be describing the seqeucne of effects of that attack. The voice of the poem need not neccescarily be that of the WIldred Owen, wildred owen may be simply presenting his veiws through the the experiences of another soldier. This could be fictional or based on real events. Although there is ambiguity in this sense the poem does relfect on one fixed theme that being of pity. The men, wether in the afterlife or not, in conversation reflect on the pity of war, and empathis with those still fighting. A sense of peace is seen between the two men who in reality would have be enemies. The peom therefore is very reflective. I think the intention of this poem is to show to the reader the pity and futility in war and how the oppsoing sides have many similarities.
Regards,
Antony West
Tim
Disabled: Disable is about a soldier that has lost their legs or disabled in any other from of way it could be mentally or body wise. this very soldier is thinking about what he would have been getting up to if he had his "whole body". he would have been partying like he used to do and putting the woment to bed instead of them putting him to bed. "now he will never feel again how slim girls waists are", Tjis indicates that the soldier is not only effected physically but also psychologocally as he knows he wont get attention from women from now on and now they touch him like his got a strange disease.
arms and the boy - sarah
In the arms and the boy, we see a youthful boys views on the war and how it seens like a glorious thing to be involve in. We also see how to a boy the though of using a weapon is a fantasy, its like boys and their toys. the poem, however, also explains how the Guns are only their to hurt the young soliders because the bullets wish to muzzle into the hearts of the soliders. So eventhough they are protrayed to be glorious and big they are only their to destroy and hurt.
The poem uses imagey of god to helpexplain how sinful the use of guns is. It uses the example of Adan and eve bitting into the forbidden fruit, the apple. the guns ane apple, and like adam and eve bitting into the apple bought on the end the eden, the guns would bring on the end of man.
thoughout the poem we get a sence of death from the poem because of the way the soliders see the weapons, they do not see them for what the are. they see the guns as power, however its power they dont understand.
Exposure ( RE-DONE )
This poem is written to a soilders point of view throughout the poem, but it also aounds like that more than one soilder is tryong to express their feelings on war.This poem explores trench warefare and what it is acutally like to be in a trench. Being in a trench is a nasty experience as it was very muddy and rats use to bite amoung the dead bodies. It was a nasty experience for the soilders as the smell was so bad and some men suffered from depression. . The title 'exposure' is almost like Owen is telling us the truth on what war is acutally like. There is also some ambiguity shown in the title it can be also interpretated to a double meaning. In the poem Owen uses Rhetorical questions, he is trying to communicate with the reader and asknig what is the point of being in the war. It draws us readers into the poem because it is almost like Owen is telling us to answer his questions. He see it as pointless. Owen wants to share this idea with us and maybe the soilders, telling them it is not point in going to war because you get nothing out of it. Owen explores alot of emotion for example sadness and he talks alot about the weather and personifies it. His poem gives as a cold feeling when he talks about the weather alot.There is alot of misery and sadness throughout the poem and Owen shows us this through the dull weather aswell. There is also alot of imagery on the soilders, and how they feel about the war. It makes the readers feel empathy for these poor soilders because they are the ones who have to fight in the cold and suffer terribly in the trenches. Towards the end of them poem you do get a warm and comfort feeling. Owen place this at the end of the poem to suggest that it is not all that bad, it brings a togetherness feeling. The word 'exposure' means abandoning without shelter or protection. The poem is about exposing the truth about the reality of war.
By Kirstie Churchill
intended meaning-disabled
mushiko
The poet intends to focus the poem on a soldier's life after war,it expores his mental and physical conditions.the poem seems to change its meaning and mood,it moves from optimstic to persimistic.
his present condition is more discused and we are given a describtion of him which we tend to use to create picture of him.
the poet tells us how young he was when he went to war and how most of his youth or life was all lost at war and back home not many appreciate the trouble he went through.the poets shows sympath for him because the the war has left this man dependant on other people.
Poets Intended Meaning – Insensibility
Owen is getting across the point that People at home are not aware about the incidents that do happen during the war. Owen is also trying to tell us that the soldiers have to be unthinking and unconscious towards themselves which we get from the double meaning of the title. Owen tells us that the soldiers think of each other as their family because they have been together for a long while and they’re all going through these incidents together. Owen also looks up on them with pity as he can understand and relate to the soldiers because of all the things they are going through. Overall I think that Owen is trying to tell us that the soldiers are fighting in this war and no one at home cares that they’re risking their lives to fight for what they believe in.
By Daniel Simmons
Poets intended meaning- Arms and the Boy
Both the poems lushness and also evident morbidity create a sensous poem that appeal to our senses, which vividly explores the cruel ruthlessness of weapons and personifies weapons. Wilfred Owen wants to present war as not a place for young adults(boys)but as a place where weapons take over (arms)the person rather than the person doing the shooting or stabbing. Wilfred Owen also wants to present humans as a race that is not prepared for war as we have not grown any features that protect us like animals. Owen wants to present the weapons as a kind of feature of a human that can protect it. In Arms and the Boy Owen shows that he actually believes that humans are not the reason why people die but the weapon that the human is holding.
by Ross George
*I noticed some grammatical and spelling mistakes in my intended meaning for Strange Meeting. I have now corrected this.*
The poets intended meaning for Strange Meeting by Wilfred Owen, is extremely ambiguous. The poem could have 2 meanings that of it being about 2 soldiers of opposing sides that have died and met in the afterlife and then reflect about their life and the pity and futility of war, in consideration to the fact that they now are dead. Additionally the poem could be about a soldier performing a stealth night attack on an enemy trench underground. In historical context of the war this was very common and often physiologically scaring for the soldiers that had to endure such violent killing. The poem could literally be describing the sequence of effects of that attack. The voice of the poem need not necessarily be that of the Wilfred Owen, Wilfred Owen may be simply presenting his views through the experiences of another soldier. This could be fictional or based on real events. Although there is ambiguity in this sense the poem does reflect on one fixed theme that being of pity. The men, whether in the afterlife or not, in conversation reflect on the pity of war, and empathies with those still fighting. A sense of peace is seen between the two men who in reality would have been enemies. The poem therefore is very reflective. I think the intention of this poem is to show to the reader the pity and futility in war and how the opposing sides have many similarities.
Regards,
Antony West
The title of insensibility already gives us a clue that this poem is ambiguous. This is because insensibility means unconscious or unaware of something. Owen could be talking about the soldiers or those at home due to the title. This is because throughout the poem Owen talks about how the soldiers are unconscious. This would mean lacking perception. The reason I feel Owen is talking about the mental side of soldiers is because he wishes to tell those at home how the soldiers cope, how they begin to lose qualities in their mind. This is shown in the poem.
“And some cease feeling”
“Happy are those who lose imagination.”
These two lines are ambiguous. I feel Owen is telling those at home how the soldiers feel by being ambiguous. This is because you are not happy if you lose imagination. This could be a rant at those at home as Owen is saying if you feel war is a good thing you have no imagination, you can’t imagine the horrors that we soldiers feel. However Owen could be saying war is turning our soldiers into just people with no feelings.
I believe Owen is projecting imagery for those at home as he rants at them telling them what he thinks. I feel Owen is saying look at what happens to our soldiers, look at how they are affected, then I feel he questions them by saying they made them selves immune and by asking them look at what I have told and shown you, do you still think war is great?
Intended meaning - Strange meeting
in strange meeting owen focuses on a sense of ambiguity, meaning having two ways in which the poem can be patrayed. This double meaning of the poem indicates the 2 sides of each story, and in this case, war. Hence the 2 different narrators. through out the poem owen is interpreting different ways in which you can decide upton your views of war. e.g: "down some profound dull tunnel" could this mean thats how he escaped? or is it a metaphore for a grave/ death?
also its clear that this poem is a elergy as its theme is death. overall i think that Owen's poem strange meeting shows how theres always two sides to each story, but just because there enimies doesnt mean there any different. we know this because it adresses the soldier in the poem as "my friend". It seems that each and every soldier, on either side, are all experiancing the same brutal incidents and are all in the same boat.
Amy-rose...again.
Intended Meaning for Miners;
The poem starts off with Owen at home looking into a fire that then becomes a reflection point where he returns to his experiences in war. Owen has a fear of holes in the ground from bad experiences in his childhood. In miners Owen looks into the hard physical and mental work that soldiers and miners have to go through during war. We have seen throughout Owen reflect on the people at home in England who aren’t fighting the war, however, for the first time maybe, he chooses a specific group in the miners. He focuses on the people that are making money from the war (factories supplying clothes, food stores, high government Politian’s) and how for their wealth many, many soldiers are suffering horrific living circumstances and in many cases dying.
Carl.
Ps; I did originally post a review of Disabled, but since we have done this poem now I decided to produce my intended meaning from the noted I took on this poem.
Carl,
The voice of the poem doesn't have to be Owen. Can you actually say whose voice it is? It is a very personal reflection, but can you really get close enough to ascertain its identity?
It focuses on the miner's toil, but what else does it reflect on? Their suffering? Is this what makes the transition into the reflection of the soldiers possible?
Can you rework this intended meaning after reflecting on my notes!?
Amy-Rose
Does he focus on a sense of ambiguity or does he create one through his poem? What then is the effect of this ambiguity?
You state that it is an elegy (note spelling) - and I like that you make a statement about the poem's form - does it work as an elegy or does it only share some similar features - does it lament the dead or is it greater than this does it lament that if people don't change as a result of the war life will be decline is some form?
Can you rework you intended meaning in relation to these notes! (Yes, I know it will be your third post!)
Antony
Can you restructure your intended meaning and focus firstly on the idea of pity that you suggests comes from the poem. Where does it come from and how do you think it affects the readers?
Mushiko
For me, Disabled, contains an overwhelming sadness – What literary term can we give to this feeling of sorrow and sympathy and where do you think it exists within the poem – find three places and mention all this in a rewrite of this intended meaning!
Vicki,
I want you to focus your comments on a few more specific lines - please come and see me and I'll show them to you. You'll need to add your reflection on these lines to your original work and it will hopefully extend your thinking on Owen's intended meanings.
The Last Laugh - By Sameerah
Wilfred Owen uses many different techniques in his poem ‘The Last Laugh’ to get his ‘message/ point’ across to his readers, but a main technique he uses is ambiguity to question his readers minds about the truth of war. The last laugh is a poem which explores three soldiers in the same situation of war, responding differently to their deaths, the format of the poem is written in three separated stanza to show clearly the different answers.
The first stanza illustrates a solider answering to the bullets of a gun.
‘Oh! Jesus Christ! I’m hit’. Are the opening words of the poem, which immediately bring the technique of ambiguity of whether the solider starts to pray at his dying time, or commits blasphemy.
‘O Mother, - Mother – Dad!” are the cries of the second solider, who gets hit and starts to remember his parents while the last solider hit by the bayonets “moans” for his ‘love’.
All three different responses, to call either ‘Religion, parents or a loved one’ show no sense of patriotism during the war, for ones country. Whether there seen as last wishes before death, or cries for help, I think by using ambiguity, Wilfred Owen is able to challenge the minds of people during the war who saw fighting as ‘patriotic’, As he shows them three soldiers dying don’t remember or cherish the time they spend at war but rather focus on a singular special object in their life, whether it being a person or a religion, I think this was the main intention of the poem, looking at the context it was written in, however it could be argued that all three cries, were just infact cries for help rather then remembrance in the soldiers last minutes.
However, overall linking into all of Wilfred Owens war time poems it can be argued that Wilfred Owens main intention of writing ‘ The Last Laugh’ was to portray in the most simplest form that he could the impact of war and how it affect the soldiers in the last minutes of their lives.
Within this poem, Owen uses popular conceits, just as Yates did, who was Owens’s inspiration for writing war poetry. The conceit is of the sun. It is said to heal and give life to the dead soldier. This questions the hopelessness and point of war because the sun doesn’t heal the soldiers or give them life. The poem describes a soldier’s death, which is a major event because the loss of human life is a tragedy. Also, the fact that nothing specific happens in the poem makes the reader question the point of war, because it makes them think about it. One line in the poem says "are sides full nerved". This is creates ambiguity because it could be a way of saying the soldiers were injured, but also suggests that they still have fellings and emotions and it raises the question of the point of war again.
Post a Comment