Thursday, November 14, 2019

Compare Dulce et decorum est by Wilfred Owen, and Before Agincourt Essa

Compare Dulce et decorum est by Wilfred Owen, and Before Agincourt by William Shakespeare. Before Agincour and Dulce et decorum est ======================================== I have chosen to compare two poems for this piece of work, and they are Dulce et decorum est by Wilfred Owen, and Before Agincourt by William Shakespeare. Both look at War as the main subject, but express very different views on it. Wilfred Owen has written a very powerful poem about a man dying from a gas attack during the First World War, whereas Shakespeare writes a rhetoric poem about the honour and pride found in battle.  ¡Dulce et decorum est ¡, and  ¡Before Agincourt ¡ are two poems so incredibly far away, in meaning, from each other, that it is very difficult to compare them. The one big difference is their attitude towards war. Wilfred Owen has actually been in a war. He saw what he wrote about. He was there, as the writing is his thoughts and feelings. Shakespeare wasn ´t in the war he wrote about. He wrote about it after it happened, either as a way to boost morale in England at the time of the Spanish Armada for Queen Elizabeth, or because they were his own views on War. This battle did actually happen, but Henry didn ´t say these words, Shakespeare just put them in his mouth. Owen ´s poem is concrete. It happened and was real. He knows what he ´s talking about because he was there and went through it all. Shakespeare ´s poem is airy. It ´s abstract and doesn ´t appear to mean anything. At a first glance its just men talking, but when you read it properly you see that it is far more than that. Henry believes so much in what he ´s saying that he ´s prepared to die for it. It ´s a very spiritual poem, in that it is not earthed, o... ...y using words such as guttering, hoots and gargling. Shakespeare used no similes either, but Owen did, writing Bent double, like old beggars under sacks. In conclusion, I enjoyed Owen ´s poem much more than I did Shakespeare ´s. I felt that Before Agincourt was boring. I didn ´t like the lack of tension, action and drama. I thought that it just went on and on around the same idea, that the language was flowery and too old fashioned for me. Although both poems were repetitive, when Dulce et decorum est repeated words, it really hammered the message home, but when Before Agincourt repeated the same idea, it just bored me. I felt that Owen ´s poem less boring because it was fast paced. It really happened and the images it described were vivid and in your face. So, I would definitely recommend Owen ´s poem to anyone, and I did really enjoy writing about it.

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