Essay

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! The sentry, The soldier, The attack, The arms and the boy, Dulce et decorum est, The wind on the downs and The effect are all poems which tells us how war is a brutal nightmare. The poems are about the brutality, tragedy, horrors of war and that we should never forget it. The reason why these poems are so powerful is because of all the figurative language used such as imagery, metaphors and repetition. These are used to describe the horrendous conditions during war like in the poem the sentry.

"O sir, my eyes — I'm blind — I'm blind, I'm blind!"The sentry is an important poem for a number of reasons. He describes the horrendous conditions during life in the trenches of World War One. War is a brutal nightmare. He uses figurative language such as imagery, metaphors, onomatopoeia and alliteration. The writer uses smell, hear, sight and sound imagery to describe the location. To show how horrific and brutal war was. Wilfred Owen uses metaphors such as 'Rain, guttering down in waterfalls of slime, Kept slush waist high, that rising hour by hour,' describing how horribly cold, wet and humid it was in the trenches, basically describing the conditions and location where the soldiers had to live in. The writer also uses onomatopoeia like 'whizz-bangs' which shows the atmosphere and sounds of all the artillery shooting. The writer uses powerful figurative language to support the ideas which creates the big idea. Everyone who has faught in the war certainly must be proud to have died for their country.

Some small piece of a foreign field that is forever England. The soldier is an important poem for a number of reasons. It exemplifies the attitudes of people at the beginning of ww1 as a well as being a very interesting example of the the sonnet form. The main idea of the poem is how glorious it is to die for England. The writer uses lots of powerful figurative language to support the big idea such as repetition of England, imagery, metaphors, the 2 ideas of the two stanzas. He uses metaphors such as "a dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware" which describes the idea of stanza 2, how English his dust is. The repetition of "England" supports the whole idea of English heaven and how glorious it is to die for your country. He also uses imagery such as "corner of a foreign field which describes how even though that they are not home there is still a part of England. The writer uses lots of figurative language to support the ideas which create the big idea. From the outside the soldiers might seem not that scared or sad whilst in the inside they are terrified, hopeless and desperate. Its like some were an invisible mask, like they are hiding away from their feelings and not wanting to show and reviel them.

O jesus make it stop. Attack, by Siegfried Sassoon is a powerful poem about 'going over the top', that uses imagery and metaphors to serve the main idea. The main idea of the poem is that the situation is hopeless and the men are desperate.The sight imagery is best exemplified by "lines of grey.....masked with fear" telling us how the soldiers were hiding away their feelings not wanting to show what they really felt and how it was like. As well as  "hope with furtive eyes and grappling fists" shows us how the soldiers are hopeless and that hope is as if avoiding the soldiers.  And an example of auditory (sound) imagery is "the barrage roars and lifts" which emphases how harsh war was and how the barrage is like a monster, something horrific. Siegfried Sassoon uses imagery and metaphors to show how the soldiers were hopeless and desperate. And she explains these by using animals or creatures, to give over a point that humans are not made for fighting and killing each other which Wilfred Owen is trying to bring over.

Sharp with the sharpness of grief and death. Arms and the boy, by Wilfred Owen is a powerful poem about soldiers in WW1, that uses metaphors and imagery to serve the main idea. The main idea of the poem is that war is unnatural. The metaphor 'how cold steel is...hunger of blood' describes how the gun is like an animal or a creature who kills something. The imagery 'Blue with all malice, like madmans flash' show us how the gun is hungry for humans, again referring the gun to a animal or creature. 'Or give him cartridges of fine zinc teeth' tells us how the bullets are like the teeth biting through flesh. 'Stroke these blind, blunt bullet-heads' describes us how desperate they are to kill. Another metaphor such as 'for his teeth seem for laughing round an apple' and as well as the imagery of the last three lines 'no claws....not talons....nor antlers' which tells us humans are not animals and that they are not designed to kill. Wilfred Owen uses lots of descriptive language like metaphors and imagery to show us how war is unnatural. However dulce et decorum est gives a better idea of the imagery, explaining the horrendous gas attacks.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! Dulce et Decorum Est, by Wilfred Owen is a powerful poem about 'how disastrous the gas attack was', which uses figurative language such as imagery, similes and metaphors. The main idea of  the poem is dying for your country is Not sweet and beautiful. 'Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning' this is a simile, metaphor and imagery which describes the dropping of gas shells, how the soldiers are dragged down through the horrors of war. The last two lines 'The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori' means in Latin; how sweet and proper it is to die for your country but the word just in front 'lie' tells us they mean the opposite. Siegfried uses the last two lines to define the big idea 'it is not sweet and beautiful to die for your country'. Siegfried uses lots of figurative language to support the big idea. Not only the soldiers are captured in this nightmare however also the people who are not fighting. Like the women waiting for days, weeks and months for their beloved to come back. They have been waiting so long some of them have forgotten how they look like, they can only see them in their khaki uniforms.

How should you leave me, having loved me so? The wind on the downs, by Marian Allen is a poem which uses lots of repetition and imagery. The big idea of this poem is that she can't remember his face and she can only remember his khaki figure. An example of Imagery is ".....as brown and tall...strong...in Khaki tunic.." this describes her imagining him how her boyfriend looks like, and how she can only imagine him in his uniform. There is lots of repetition used of "I..you...me..we", this is very powerful because it shows how war was like for the men and women who missed their beloved. She is describing him how she wants him to look like, she is hiding from the fact he might be dead. Marian Allen shows in this poem the pain of missing your beloved, her confusion; she doesn't really know how his husband really looks. She is remembering the things they did together before. Waiting and waiting because she doesn't want to believe that he is dead.

He'd never seen so many dead before. The effect, by Siegfried Sassoon is a powerful poem which uses lots of metaphors to describe what happens to the soldiers in world war one. The big idea of this poem is that too many men are dying. The poem uses metaphors such as "Flapping along the fire-step like a fish" this refers the soldiers as fish who are dying outside the water, how the fish can't breath. This describes how the soldiers are dying slowly in pain. "They sprawled in yellow daylight while he swore" describes how loads of soldiers are spread out and loads of soldiers are covering the hole land either dead or trying to survive. Siegfried Sassoon uses figurative language but mostly metaphors to show that too many people are dying and being dragged down in the horrors of war.

O Jesus make it stop! The poets Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Sassoon and Marian Allen wrote poems which tells us how war is a brutal nightmare.The poems are about the brutality, tragedy, horrors of war and how we should never forget. Some of these poems have shown by means of metaphors how the soldiers are dragged down through the horrors of war. Showing the transformation of men from being happy and kind to being grey with dying eyes. And how the bullets are like the teeth biting through flesh and ripping and tearing it apart. Also by using imagery it describes precisely, the gases and how hopeless were the soldiers. These poems shows how we should never forget the death and tragedy of war.