Louis Segal 9.

5 9x2 English

Monday 17th March 2014

Comparing the ways in which attitudes towards war are presented in Whos for the Game? and Anthem for Doomed Youth
During World War 1, many poems were written as propaganda to advertise the war and to encourage young men to sign up. One example of this is Whos for the Game? by Jessie Pope, written in 1916. However, after World War 1, poems were written that contradicted the earlier poems by saying how horrible war was and that it was not patriotic or jolly, as they were against the idea of glorifying war. Wilfred Owen wrote two poems towards the end of World War One, Dulce et Decorum Est and Anthem for Doomed Youth. The titles of the poems give clear ideas of the attitude towards war that the reader wishes to portray. The title of Jessie Pope s poem (Whos for the Game?) suggests that war is a game; fun, exciting and patriotic. It was to encourage men that they should sign up for what would be something lively and enjoyable. Its a rhetorical question and because at the time war was something to be proud of, youd straight away want to sign up because you would not say no to that question. Game is a metaphor. Anybody can tell that war is not a game because now we know that it is destructive and cruel. She used this device to distract the reader from what they may already know, or to manipulate their view of that. Wilfred Owen however names his poem Anthem for Doomed Youth. In that title there is no attempt to give the impression that war is a good thing. It straight away talks about the Doomed Youth and how it is certain they are going to either be heavily injured, or die. However, a metaphor is used on the first word: Anthem. An anthem is a song of celebration; something patriotic, cheerful and uplifting. He was being sarcastic because he does not want to chant joyfully about the dead. "Who's for the game?" was written at the beginning of the war and consequently was written in Georgian style, as was a lot of the poetry of that era. The poem has four, four-line stanzas with a,b rhyming scheme. This 'sing-song' approach ties in with the ideas the poem holds, about war being a game and a show. These similes were often used in wartime propaganda as another way of encouraging men to sign up. Anthem for Doomed Youth was written towards the end of the war. It starts off at a quick pace and then continues to decelerate throughout the poem, drawing to a slow, solemn and sombre close. Throughout this poem the traditional feel of an elaborate ceremonial of a Victorian style funeral is constantly compared and contrasted to the ways in which men died in the war. The tone, which pervades the poem, is of sadness and sorrow, written in the third person and addressed to the families, friends and comrades of the First World War. Anthem for Doomed Youth was written towards the end of the war. It incorporates the theme of the horror of the war. It was written as a sonnet. It has 2 verses; the first having an a,b,a,b etc. rhyming scheme, and the second an a,b,b,a,c,c rhyming scheme. Comparing WftG and AfDYs structure, they are both set out differently. Popes poem has only one verse but Owens has two.

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Louis Segal 9.5 9x2 English

Monday 17th March 2014

Jessie Pope often uses the word You (or variations). She attempts to put forward that it is your duty to sign up to the war. This is in an attempt to get you to sign up to the war; its almost a subliminal type of advertising. You sign up because someone has told you that you feel you should. Wilfred Owen however makes no attempt to encourage you to sign up to any war because it is not patriotic, it is destructive. Jessie Pope lies all the way through her poem. The Whos for the Game metaphor makes it sound like it is glorious and fun. She often uses words which while technically being metaphors, are actually just lies. If something is appealing to you then you will want to sign up to it, and Pope just advertises war by lying through her teeth. Owen however does none of this. He is straight with you and makes no attempt to hide any of the devastations of war. He is first to say that war is destructive and cruel. He is not advertising war, but doing the opposite. He tries to show people the realities of it in an attempt to change their views on it. In conclusion, I feel that both poems are effective, but they both present very different pictures of war. Owen's poems are excellent examples of poetry portraying the realism of war, whereas Pope's poem is an excellent example of the unfortunate attitude cultivated on the home front. The contrast between the two allows the reader to see the reality of the First World War from two immensely different perspectives.

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