Explore some of the ways in which Owen presents the natural world in his poems. Refer to two poems from the collection you have studied Wilfred Owen uses nature to convey his feelings about the war in his poems, using different techniques. In both of his poems that I am examining, ‘Futility’ and ‘Spring Offensive’ he uses nature to show the pain and suffering of man and war. In ‘Spring Offensive’ Owen mixes the idea of war and nature in a conversational tone unlike ‘Futility’ in which Owen questions the pointlessness of war and religion.
Both poems are conveying the contrast of the same theme nature vs. The creation of man which can destroy it. Owen, having been a soldier himself therefore able to speak from first hand and create a very real and dramatic description of how the war and man destroy the beauty of nature and even question the purpose and meaning of life. His references to beauty of nature and the recurring theme of the sun clearly shows how Owen is somewhat in awe of nature. It is clear that Owen loves nature by describing it positively and in a way that shows how wonderful it is.
An example of how Owen expresses nature into his poems is ‘Futility’, this poem already by the title meaning uselessness already gives us an indication of what the poet is trying to say about the soldiers. Exactly so as Owen in the first line says, ‘Moves him into the sun’ already describing the effect of the dead soldier being shifted into the sun. But why the sun? Owen could have said the shed or the hole but instead he used the sun which already starting with the nature. He almost made the theme of nature the character in the poem. You can see that nature makes him question everything.
The Essay on Wilfred Owen Horrors Of War
... where life itself is questioned. Owens poem the Spring Offensive explores the unnatural offensive of war against spring or nature. Opening with Halted against ... tone, Spring Offensive illustrates the physical horrors of the men experienced in war as they leapt to swift unseen bullets. or ... from hope to despair and helplessness. The personification of the sun allows the reader to share in the hope that ...
The narrator then goes on to use personification of the sun like a kind father figure, grandfatherly figure almost. The simple but powerful rhyme of ‘snow and know’ quite a moving rhyme brings home to us the death of the soldier. Owen then continues with the second stanza however takes a step back and looks at the origins of the universe, life on earth. If the sun could wake up life from earth why can’t he wake up the solider? Why is the sun bothering at all to wake up life? He however accepts and explains the limit of the power of nature.
Owen then contrasts in a very real and dramatic way how nature can be ignored and destroyed by man. Continuing the theme of the natural world Owen applies into his poems one of Owens other poems written in the same period of time is ‘Spring Offensive’. This poem most tellingly describes how man destroys man-the ultimate destruction. He uses this contrast of the beauty by asking the question why? What is the point of nature and man if we destroy it and each other in this war if we man and nature is futile, what is the point of destroying something for nothing? The reward is empty.
We have wasted and destroyed nature and ourselves for no reason just for the feeling of triumph. Owen starts the poem wit, ‘Halted against the shade of a last hill’ suggests the calmness of the ‘shade’ and the deadly inference of ‘last’ Owen then goes on to use the word assonance in the line ‘chests and knees carelessly slept’. Owen pays particular attention to detail in his natural images. Long grass swirled murmorous with wasp and midge. This highlights the uneasy patience of the soldiers as they face the stark blank sky beyond the ridge awaiting their fate.
In the poem nature is also trying to hold them back implying that nature is trying to stop them from fighting, playing a role of a hero. Owen uses an oxymoron in Superhuman inhumanities suggesting pointlessness of the glorification of war where the hero and the devil are the same. The rhetorical question leaves the readers questioning the purpose of war and entices them to consider its impacts on the soldiers. The poem follows the revolts of nature as it goes from a benevolent and somewhat sheltering force to a more aggressive force that ‘burns with fury against them’.
The Term Paper on Poems "Island Man" And "The Fringe Of The Sea".
I recently read two poems, entitled “Island Man” and “The Fringe of the Sea”. These two poems are similar in many ways, but also have conflicting ideas. They both have connections to the sea, through the content of the poems, but also through the authors. Grace Nichols is the author of “Island Man”, and she was born in Ghana, and now living in Britain. A.L. ...
Owen makes nature so disgusted at the unnaturalness of the soldiers action that is initially seeks to stop them, everything from the sky and it cold gust thrill to the smallest buttercup that once, ‘blessed with gold’. He uses all metaphors of nature presenting and creating an intense atmosphere. The syntax of the poem is reflecting the motif and nature. The regular rhyme scheme almost gives it a nice flow and when you read it gives the fluency that the poem needs. Owen uses ‘Regained cool peaceful air in wonder’ in the last stanza to show the fact that the soldiers did not expect to live at all.
