Eng426 20th century english literature

Violence and Death: The war front is about violence on man and the environment present in the course of the war. The sounds of guns and weapons of war will rend the air as well as the screams of the injured and dying. Soldiers die on a daily basis and the reality of the war is all about violence and the death that this violence results in.


Waste and Futility: The death of these soldiers and especially the fact that their death and funeral are not marked with the honour that should attend such deaths shows that these deaths are just a waste and that no matter how much these youths strive to defend and stand up their country and what they believe in, their efforts and sacrifice have been and will be just in futility.

3.4 “1914”

“1914” is a fourteen-line poem that recounts the catastrophic aftermaths of the First World War. In the poem, the poet traces the progress made in Europe before the outbreak of the war. He also traces how the war disrupted the developments that were being made before the broke out. Owen employs the four European seasons of the year. He adeptly uses the changes that often usher in these seasons to depict the disastrous change that resulted from the First World War. Logically, the poet highlights the classical Greek roots of European civilisation referring to it as spring. Historically, this civilisation found its fulfilment in Roman Empire and Owen refers to it as the “Summer blazed her glory out with Rome” in line ten. The poet then uses autumn to represent modern history which historically is the amazing result of the civilisation that begun in Greek. Finally, the “wild winter of the world” is used to express the outbreak of the First World War which led to the need to start all over. This need is the “new spring” Owen mentions in the last line of the poem.

5. Themes and Techniques

Terrible Experiences of War: The First World War brought disaster, grief, physical and psychological disorder. All of these painful experiences are captured and are described as “… the winter of the world / With perishing great darkness” (Lines 1 and 2).