Explication of a poem Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Explication of a poem - Essay Example wen presents a poem which through its rich imagery, use of sounds and literary allusions, creates a picture of the soldier that is extremely different from the conventional portrait of the soldier. The most important contribution of this poem to one’s understanding of war is the fact that it breaks down the notion of war as an honorable occupation for men. Such accounts of war are almost always premised upon the masculine prowess of the people involved in the war. This poem, however, significantly, alters the view of the soldier as a masculine person. What the poem does is to introduce images of the soldier as a helpless weakling who is trapped in the hostilities between two nations. The sight of the soldier is that of a man â€Å"guttering, choking, drowning† and immersed in pain. The â€Å"desperate glory† (Owen) that he seeks turns out to be a mirage, something that is unattainable in modern warfare. What Owen seems to be indicating is the fact that the older forms of warfare that led to lesser numbers of casualties had given way to more dangerous and more impersonal forms of warfare that led to the numbing of the soldiers in question. One of the most important techniques that the poem uses in order to undercut the rhetoric of war and patriotism is the very rhyme pattern that it follows. The rhyme scheme is abab. This resembles the marching pattern of an army. The pattern, however, in the poem, only symbolizes death and decay. It represents the impossibility of progress and the boredom that accompanies a life as a soldier. Even instances of urgency and vigor are followed and accompanied by the clumsiness of wearing one’s â€Å"helmets just in time†. This is an example of a transferred epithet where the characteristics of one object are transferred to the other. The very basic act of marching is undercut and parodied in the poem, something that locates it in a canon of anti-war poetry. War is thus, something that stunts the growth of one human being and of the