Owen in his ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ and Pound
in his translation of ‘Song of the Bowmen of Shu’ depict a realistic image of
war. They show the ugliness and hardship the war embodies. In Owen’s poetry the
technological advancements in war is present and plays a huge role in his
imagery. In Pound’s translation, the soldiers are exhausted with the relentless
pace of war that forces soldiers to fight. In this essay, I will compare and
contrast two poems and argue that Owen’s poem portrays a realistic image of war
to debunk the assumption that the war is glorifying whereas Pound’s translation
of ‘Song of the bowmen of Shu’ presents soldiers’ insight in war to show that
soldiers are undervalued and not appreciated.
Owen with his vivid depiction of the horrors
of war criticizes the war propaganda used to motivate soldiers and draws a
realistic image of war suggesting that it is not as glorifying as it is
promised. The first two lines welcome the reader with an image of soldiers “bent
double, like old beggars under sacks / Knock-kneed, coughing like hags,” (Owen
lines 1-2). The soldiers’ misery is emphasized and the soldiers here, do not
represent the glorifying image of excited soldiers. Owen’s words of choice “beggars”
and “hags” draws the reader’s attention to the realistic aspect of war and
portrays the soldier’s desperation and frustration by associating young
soldiers with “old beggars” and “hags”. Also, the alliteration used, “k” and
“b”s resonate with the sounds of coughing intensifying the depiction of
wretched and exhausted soldiers and helping the reader to sense the exhausting
nature of war. Linter on the stanza, the emphasis is on how tired the soldiers
are “Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots/ Of tired, outstripped
Five-Nines that dropped behind” (Owen lines 7-8). “Drunk with fatigue” refers
to the loss of sanity because of exhaustion. In addition, alliteration, “d”s
here also reinforces the powerful imagery of gunshots. The second stanza
unveils the horrific picture of the modern war, “Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!” (Owen
line 9) a soldier cries to warn the other soldiers, however, one soldier is too
late to wear the helmet and hence starts to suffocate. Owen portrays this
graphic image by making the gas analogous to “a green sea” (Owen line 14) which
is not a war-like imagery where the soldier is undertaking a brave risk. To be
precise, the vividly horrific imagery shows the insignificance of any attempt
to defeat the “gas”, revealing the cruelest aspect of the modern war where it
mainly lays its foundation to technology and biochemicals, which devalue the
importance of individual soldiers’ bravery.
Furthermore, the narrative at the
end of the second stanza changes to I, putting emphasis on the fact that it is
the narrative’s personal experience. Then, we understand that the narrative is
suffering from PTSD “In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, / He plunges
at me, guttering, choking, drowning” (Owen lines 15-16). The speaker switches
to the present time implying that he is reflecting on his past memories that
are stuck with him. Also, he cannot escape the image of soldiers dying in his
dreams indicating PTSD, and also it shows how his personal experiences with war
haunt him. The words used “guttering, choking, drowning” does not portray a glorifying
picture of death or battlefield instead it portrays a graphic image where
people are striving to survive and slaughtered without being able to resist. In
the last stanza, the speaker directly addresses “you” and criticizes the
manipulative impact of war propaganda on people. “If you could hear, at every
jolt the bold/ Come gargling from the forth-corrupted lungs,” (Owen lines
21-22) the speaker depicts strong imagery and puts emphasis on the ugliness of
war “gargling from the forth-corrupted lungs”. Then directly addresses to those
who encourage young people to attend the military “My friend, you would not
tell with such high zest/ To children ardent for some desperate glory,”(Owen
lines 25-26) Owen uses words as “innocent tongues” and “children” to stress on
the pliant nature of uneducated young people. At length, he asserts that the
ugliness of the war does not appear to those who were never in it. This is the
precise reason why they portray war to be glorifying and honorable but
ultimately causing “incurable sores on innocent tongues”. Campbell in his essay
‘The Ideology of First World war Poetry Criticism’ dwells on a phenomenon named
combat Gnosticism and explains it as follows “the knowledge of combat is a
prerequisite for the production of a literary text that adequately deals with
war” (p.212). In the last stanza, we get the same sense of ideology that
criticizes the inexperienced writer’s involvement in war literature. Owen
fundamentally regards their encouragement as an old lie “Dulce et decorum est
pro matri mori” (Owen lines 28) (it is sweet and fitting to for the homeland)
and accuses the ones who are nourishing propaganda even without tasting the
ugliness and harshness of war.
Pound contrary to Owen concentrates on
the mental struggle that physical exhaustion and pain bring to the soldiers.
The beginning of the poem welcomes the reader with the homesick soldiers
foreshadowing the soldiers’ reluctant approach towards war “Here we are,
picking the first fern-shoots and saying: When shall we get back to our
country?”(lines 1-2 Pound). The “fern-shoots” are used to indicate a timeline.
As the poem unfolds, we observe that the fern-shoots grow and age indicating
that time is progressing. Soldier’s questioning in the very early times of the
war puts emphasis on soldiers’ lack of motivation. This lack of motivation is
reinforced when the narrative mentions returning.
“When anyone says “Return,” the
others are full of sorrow.
Sorrowful minds, sorrow is
strong, we are hungry and thirsty.
Our defense is not yet made sure,
no one can let his friend return”. (lines 6-8 Pound)
The idea of
returning is agonizing for the soldiers since it reminds them that they cannot
leave the battlefield or their position because their “defense is not yet made
sure,/ no one can let his friend return”. More importantly in these lines, we
do not see national sentiment from soldiers. Instead, it is implied that the
nation’s favor out of war does not concern the soldiers. However,
it is the soldiers who suffer the most out of war. The poem highlights
soldiers’ misery by drawing a comparison between soldiers and horses; “Whose
chariot? The General’s. / Horses, his horses even, are tired” (Pound lines
15-16). The horses that are notorious for their endurance are exhausted. The
narrative points out the horses’ exhaustion to compare it with soldiers who are
undertaking the same amount of workload. With this comparison, the narrative
shows how frustrating and exhausting the war is for soldiers. Quite like Owen’s
poem the Song of the Bowmen of Shu shows that the war is not rewarding for the
low-rank soldiers, to be precise, it is the opposite. “We go slowly we are
hungry and thirsty, / Our mind is full of sorrow, who will know of our grief?”
(Pound lines 25-26). At the end of the poem, the narrative poses a very vital
question that shows how undervalued the soldiers are. It is the generals who
are rewarded the most, yet it is the soldiers who suffer the most due to not
being appreciated enough “who will know of our grief?”
In
conclusion, Owen’s realistic imagery focuses on the vulnerability of soldiers
against the modern war and its ruthless aspect. Pound on the other hand,
approaches war in a different window and shows the injustice aspect of war.
Overall, they both criticize the allegedly glorifying image of war but what
they concentrate on are different. They both are iambic pentameter and they
both play with the rhyme to increase or decrease the pace. At length, Owen
proposes that to die in the modern war with its technological advancements is
not glorifying and the writers who portray it as glorifying are either lying or
do not have personal experience therefore, shouldn’t have a saying in it. Pound
presents insights from the soldiers who are homesick. He highlights soldiers’
lack of motivation to show how unrewarding the war is to those who suffer most
from it.
Works Cited
Owen, Wilfred. “Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred
Owen.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46560/dulce-et-decorum-est.
Pound, Ezra. “American Poems
- Analysis, Themes, Meaning and Literary Devices.” Song of the Bowmen of Shu
- American Poems , www.americanpoems.com/poets/ezrapound/song-of-the-bowmen-of-shu
Campbell, James. “Combat Gnosticism: The Ideology of First
World War Poetry Criticism.” New Literary History, vol. 30, no. 1, 1999, pp.
203–215. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20057530. Accessed 30 Oct. 2020.
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