Since times immemorial, military conflicts have been wiping whole generations off the face of the earth. The topic of war has been one of the most popular to render in works of art and literature. On the one hand, war has been proclaimed the business of âreal menâ and glorified as the way to prove oneâs loyalty to motherland.
On the other hand, the horrors of war have brought enormous pain and suffering to people both directly and indirectly involved in it. The two poems, âDulce Et Decorum Estâ by Wilfred Owen (1917â18) and âFacing Itâ by Yusef Komunyakaa (2001), reflect on the theme of bitterness and cruelty of war, developing this theme through the various handling of setting, characters, structure and rhyme, and language.
Although both concerning the subject of war, the settings of the two poems are quite different. âDulce Et Decorum Estâ is set in a trench of the First World War and dedicated to description of a gas attack and its ruinous consequences. The environment is described as a most unfriendly terrain that exhausts the soldiers: the sticky âsludgeâ clings to the soldiersâ boots and makes walking even more difficult (Owen, 1917â18).
The sounds and sights of war are vividly shown in Owenâs (1917â18) poem through âthe hoots / Of tired, outstripped Five-Ninesâ, âsomeone still [âŠ] yelling outâ, and the repulsive vision of a soldier suffocating from a gas attack. In contrast to this reality of war action, Komunyakaa (2001) sets his poem in a place that has not experienced the Vietnam war directly on its territory and at a time when the war is already over.
It is âthe Vietnam Veterans Memorialâ, with its âblack graniteâ walls covered with the endless row of â58,022 namesâ commemorating the ones who perished in the war (Komunyakaa, 2001). There is not much sound involved in the poem, and the most expressive element of the setting is light. The narrator attempts to realize his attitude to the Vietnam war, âdepending on the light / to make a differenceâ (Komunyakaa, 2001).
The âlifeâ of the names on the granite wall also depend on the play of light, âshimmer[ing] on a womanâs blouseâ (Komunyakaa, 2001). The sense of immense space is created through referring to a âred birdâ and âA plane in the skyâ â the only objects present at the scene apart from the monument itself and a couple of visitors (Komunyakaa, 2001).
The point of view of the two poems differs not only due to the setting but also due to the narrators describing the events. âDulce Et Decorum Estâ is told by a narrator who is a soldier himself and directly takes part in the military action: this can be traced in using first person plural âweâ in referring to the events (Owen 1917â18).
In âFacing Itâ, the relation of the narrator to the Vietnam war remains unclear. The only information that links the narrator to the war itself is concluded in the lines âI go down the 58,022 names, / half-expecting to find / my own in letters like smokeâ (Komunyakaa, 2001).
This expectation of seeing own name in the list of Vietnam veterans suggests that the narrator was somehow involved in the military action but not necessarily as a soldier. Thus, the contrast between the narration of the poems lies in the fact that âDulce Et Decorum Estâ reports the immediate events of warfare while âFacing Itâ reflects on the aftermath of the war.
The various treatment of the structural organization and the rhyme of the poems contributes to the perception of the poems and increase their emotional impact. Owen constructs his poem in three stanzas of a traditional iambic pentameter rhymed in alternate line endings ABAB CDCD. This regularity of a stable rhythms and rhyme renders the measured steps of the war treading across the land and reminds of the inevitability of the war terrors and severity of its consequences.
A special effect is reached by making the final line of âDulce Et Decorum Estâ shorter than the rest. Concluding the poem in this way, Owen emphasizes the tragic irony of war: attracted by the perspective of glory, soldiers meet a miserable end to their life, as abrupt as the final line of the poem. Komunyakaa (2001) approaches the structure and rhyme of his poem in a very free way: there is no division into stanzas and no rhyming either.
Such device allows constructing lines of various length and meter, and thus rendering the mood of confusion and hesitation in the treatment of war. Turning from one side of the memorial to the other symbolizes the narratorâs attempts to figure out the truth about the Vietnam war and the meaning behind the endless row of names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Komunyakaa, 2001).
The language of both poems is highly descriptive, appealing both to the senses and the emotions of the readers. Owen (1917â18) fills âDulce Et Decorum Estâ with graphic imagery that reflects the terrible realities of war.
The myth about the brave and fine soldiers is shattered by their description as âBent double, like old beggars under sacks, / Knock-kneed, coughing like hagsâ (Owen, 1917â18). Not the desire to fight but âfatigueâ is the only feeling that drives the âlameâ, âblindâ, and âdeafâ soldiers to go on (Owen, 1917â18).
Not the neat ranks but confused, âstumblingâ and âfumblingâ tired men struggle to put on their âclumsy helmetsâ when gas alert comes (Owen, 1917â18). These disturbing images are further intensified by the naturalistic description of a soldier affected by gas, a vision far from the romanticized ideal of war.
In âFacing Itâ, Komunyakaa (2001) employs sharp contrasts and the play of light to emphasize the emotional instability the narrator experiences facing the war memorial. The most painful opposition is represented in the line âI’m stone. I’m flesh.â, which suggests that the narrator is taken as a kind of a war monument by the society but in fact he is a living being with his tragedy and pain (Komunyakaa, 2001).
The vagueness of his situation is prompted throughout the poem by such words as âclouded reflectionâ, âmy own [name] in letters like smokeâ, âthen his pale eyes / look through mine. I’m a window.â (Komunyakaa, 2001). It appears that the narrator has lost his individuality in course of the war and now is merely a reflection of the pain and the terror experienced by millions during the military actions.
Upon the analysis of the poems, it appears that through the setting, characters, structure and rhyme, and language, both Owen (1917â18) and Komunyakaa (2001) succeed in reflecting the major theme of the tragedy and pain war brings to people.
The difference between the two poems is that âDulce Et Decorum Estâ shows the war reality through reporting the direct events of a military operation and appealing to the senses of the readers. On the other hand, âFacing Itâ represents a reflective intellectual poem, contemplating on the fates of the millions affected by war both directly and indirectly.
References
Komunyakaa, Y. (2001). Facing it. Retrieved from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47867/facing-it
Owen, W. (1917â18). Dulce et decorum est. Web.