War Poetry

This blog is based on War Poetry and this task was assigned by Prakruti Bhatt ma'am. 

War Poetry: Exploring the Human Cost of Conflict – A Comparative Analysis of "The Target" and "Dulce et Decorum Est"

War poetry is often seen as the artistic exploration of the brutal, complex, and emotional realities of conflict. It probes not just the physical destruction but also the psychological, moral, and existential consequences of war. While many war poems carry an anti-war message, they often grapple with larger themes such as identity, innocence, guilt, duty, loyalty, courage, and, ultimately, death. In this blog, we will explore these themes through a comparison of Ivor Gurney's The Target and Wilfred Owen's Dulce et Decorum Est, two prominent works from the World War I era.

Both poets wrote from firsthand experience, and their poems present distinct but intersecting perspectives on the horrors of war. Though they approach their subjects from different angles, they share a deep concern for the human costs of conflict, highlighting the disillusionment and emotional toll of war.

Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est"

Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est is one of the most famous anti-war poems in English literature. Written during World War I, the poem offers a scathing critique of the idealized and patriotic portrayals of war. The title itself is drawn from the Latin phrase "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori," meaning "It is sweet and honorable to die for one's country." Owen refutes this idea by showing the gruesome reality of war and its dehumanizing effects.

The poem opens with an image of soldiers physically and mentally exhausted, stumbling through mud and gasping for breath. Owen describes the men as "bent double, like old beggars under sacks," a stark contrast to the heroic image of soldiers marching off to battle. This imagery immediately challenges the romanticized notion of military service, highlighting the physical toll that war takes on soldiers.

When the soldiers are subjected to a gas attack, Owen's descriptions become even more harrowing. The line "floundering like a man in fire or lime" evokes the horrific image of a soldier's skin burning off. The speaker’s vivid and nightmarish account of one soldier’s death reveals the grotesque and brutal reality of warfare, with Owen describing the victim’s final moments as he "yelling out" in agony. Owen ends with a bitter condemnation of those who glorify war, urging readers to reject the idea that dying for one’s country is noble.

Owen’s use of language is key to the emotional power of the poem. His stark, graphic imagery and bitter tone expose the true horrors of battle, and he relies on harsh language to convey the soldier’s suffering. The poem also employs irony, especially in the final lines, where Owen directly addresses the reader, urging them to see for themselves the brutal reality that he has witnessed. The poem’s style, through its use of meter, rhyme, and direct address, emphasizes the urgency and visceral nature of Owen’s message.

Ivor Gurney's "The Target"

Ivor Gurney, also a soldier-poet of World War I, offers a somewhat different approach in his poem The Target. While Owen focuses on the immediate, graphic horrors of battle, Gurney's work explores the complex emotions surrounding duty, identity, and death in the context of war. The Target centers on the psychological and moral conflict faced by soldiers, rather than solely the physical suffering of combat.

Gurney’s speaker in The Target is a soldier who contemplates the inevitability of death while facing the horrors of war. The poem’s tone is more meditative than Owen’s, with a deep internal struggle present in the speaker’s musings. The soldier feels as though he is marked for death—his "target" is both a literal and metaphorical representation of the soldier’s doomed fate. The poem’s central metaphor—the target—suggests the sense of being helplessly caught in the crosshairs of war, marked for death by forces beyond the soldier’s control.

Unlike Owen’s visceral and graphic descriptions, Gurney uses a more reflective and introspective style. His language is subtler, and his focus is on the psychological and emotional turmoil of soldiers. The target in the poem also represents the soldier’s sense of identity and the conflict between his own personal desires and his duty to fight. This internal struggle between duty and fear resonates with Gurney’s own experience of war, where he often grappled with the emotional cost of serving in the military.

Gurney’s treatment of the theme of death is also markedly different from Owen's. While Owen’s soldier faces death with terror and defiance, Gurney’s soldier seems to accept the inevitability of death with a sense of resignation. This sense of fate, compounded by the emotional and mental strain of war, is central to Gurney’s portrayal of the soldier’s inner world.

Comparison: Language, Style, and Treatment of War

While both poems are deeply concerned with the dehumanizing effects of war, they approach the theme from distinct angles. Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est presents war as a brutal, physical experience, filled with gore and suffering. The imagery is stark and horrifying, and the poem directly challenges patriotic notions of war. Owen uses irony and graphic details to emphasize his message, showing that there is nothing sweet or honorable about dying for one’s country.

In contrast, Gurney’s The Target is more introspective, focusing on the soldier’s inner turmoil and psychological suffering. The metaphor of the target evokes a sense of fatalism and inevitability, and Gurney’s approach is more contemplative, exploring the emotional consequences of war. The poem suggests a deep internal struggle between the soldier’s duty and his own fear and desire for survival. While Owen’s poem is overtly anti-war, Gurney’s work is less direct, presenting a soldier’s personal meditation on the realities of conflict.

Both poems share a deep sympathy for the soldier’s plight, and both show that war is not simply a matter of physical survival but also of emotional and psychological endurance. However, Gurney’s use of metaphor and more reflective tone contrasts with Owen’s graphic realism and direct confrontation with war’s horrors.

Themes of War: Identity, Innocence, and Death

The statement that “war poetry is not necessarily ‘anti-war’” but rather “about the very large questions of life: identity, innocence, guilt, loyalty, courage, compassion, humanity, duty, desire, death” holds true for both Gurney’s and Owen’s works. Both poets engage with the large questions surrounding human existence in the context of war, but they do so in different ways.

In Dulce et Decorum Est, Owen critiques the idea of war as a noble cause and exposes its brutal, dehumanizing effects on soldiers. He challenges the innocence of those who glorify war and presents the disillusionment of soldiers who must confront the raw reality of death. Owen’s poem asks the reader to reconsider their assumptions about loyalty and duty, revealing that the true cost of war is the loss of innocence and humanity.

In The Target, Gurney reflects on the soldier's internal conflict, the sense of being doomed to death, and the emotional toll of warfare. His exploration of identity is profound, as the soldier grapples with the idea of duty and the fear of losing his own sense of self. Gurney’s contemplation of death is more resigned than Owen’s passionate condemnation, but both poets ultimately ask the same existential question: What does war do to a person’s soul?

Conclusion

Both Dulce et Decorum Est and The Target provide powerful insights into the human experience of war, though they differ in their tone, style, and approach. Owen’s brutal realism and graphic imagery contrast with Gurney’s more meditative, introspective style. While Owen’s work focuses on the immediate horrors of battle, Gurney’s poem delves into the emotional and psychological cost of war. Despite these differences, both poets share a common concern with the moral and human consequences of conflict. Through their respective poems, they remind us that war is not just a physical battle—it is a profound struggle that tests human identity, loyalty, and the very essence of life itself.

In the end, war poetry, as embodied in both Gurney and Owen, addresses not only the brutality of battle but also the deeply personal, often existential questions that arise in the face of violence and loss.