Wilfred Owen War Poems

[2NE1]

I need help finding points/ ideas for these two topics. Please help out.

1. Owen does not let us view the experiences of the soldiers from a comfortable distance.

2. In Owen's war poems, the imagery leads us to focus more on the living than the dead. Discuss

[emilyhobbes]

Hey, I studied Owen last year, it's a great text!

so for the 1st prompt, I'm of the opinion that Owen doesn't let us view it from a comfortable distance, and that he intends for his poetry to be really quite confronting for the reader. He wants to reveal the truth of war and how awful and catastrophic it is in nature, and it's more effective if he really makes us feel uncomfortable about what we're reading about, rather than sugar coating it.

So maybe think about what makes his poetry so vivid and realistic? Like what makes about it makes you want to turn away from the reality. For me, a big one is the imagery, another might be that he focuses on the suffering of individual soldiers which is more personal and you're more likely to feel for them.

For the 2nd (isn't the prompt from the 2013 exam?), I'd just brainstorm how he creates imagery, group them into what effect they have and why he uses them in this way. so like, what is the point of focusing on the living rather than the dead