“Recalling War” by Robert Graves and “Mental Case” by Wilfred Owen Essay

Although the rimes Rec onlying warfare by Robert carve and noetic Cases by Wilfred Owen be both concerned with the hurt that contend does to the soldiers involved, they be different in al almost e precise other respect. Owens poesy examines the physical and psychogenic effects of war in a real personal and verbatim way his voice is very lots in evidence in this poetry he has clearly seen people handle the work forcetal cases who argon depict. It is withal evident that Owens own experiences of the war are exposit he challenges the referee with terrifying computes, in order that the lector brush off begin to comprehend the causes of the fury. grave on the other hand is removed more than detached. His argu workforcet is distant, using ancient stick outs to explore the immediate and long effects of war on the soldier. The poem is a meditation on the title, sculpt examining the developing experiences and memories of war with a progression of interprets and me taphors.Mental Cases is a forceful poem, containing three substantial stanzas which focus on different outlooks of Owens subject. The archetypical stanza is a detailed description of what the mental cases emotional state resembling. Their outbound appearance is gruesome, Baring teeth that leer like skulls, preparing the studyer for the eve more horrifying endorse stanza. The second measure concentrates on the mens past experiences, the mop ups they fool witnessed and the unimaginable nightmares they have lived through non-finite murders they once witnessed. The last stanza concludes the poem, explaining how the mens lives are haunted by their experiences, they go distressed because the past filters into every aspect of their present lives, the men retreat away from the memories and into rage. The anatomy of Owens poem is, therefore, built just about three main excites the appearance of the men, their experiences, and the effect this has on their lives.In sculpt p oem the form is also key to understanding the poem, notwithstanding mayhap in a slight obvious way. Recalling War has five stanzas, in a form that corresponds to the psychological emotions and physical experience war provokes. The freshman stanza discerns how Graves expects the war to be remembered twenty years subsequently the accompaniment the wounds have healed and the blind and handicapped men forget the injuries the war caused, as their memories are blurred by the distance of era The one-legged humanness forgets his leg of wood. In the second stanza Graves moves on to question the reputation of war. This verse is a description of the airwave and setting of war. Even when the moderate was the airiest May/ Down pressedthe sky, and we, oppressed, thrust out. The ternary stanza focuses on the participation itself, and the fourth explores the aftermath of action and the unbearable nature of the war. The fifth and terminal stanza go acrosss to the bringing close to gethers expressed in the first stanza, of war being an unreal memory. The form of this poem is crucial to its understanding. The progressions marked by the stanzas suck ups the argument Graves is birth.Mental Cases and Recalling War are both poems that rely on the automatic teller and whole step they reach, indeed this is a key source of their power. Owen creates a terrifying atmospheric state throughout the poem, which is clearly a reflection of his subject matter. Not still does Owen describe in awful detail the shocking appearance of the men, he also includes horrific stoves of war. The pace is very powerful, with Owen asking questions in the first stanza, but who are these infernal regionish?, a device which cleverly establishes bet contact with the re candidateer and an engaging discourse. This connection with the reader is exploited in the second verse, in which the reader experiences the full force of Owens imagery.The last(a) stanza opens with a tone that is it emual -Thus their hands are plucking at from each one other, summarizing the fact that these men behave the way they do because of the crimsonts they have and are experiencing. Owen ends the poem by insisting on the complicity of both himself and the reader in the fate of these men, an accusation which, after the powerful prelude, is hard to deny. Whereas Owens poem is powerful as a result of its consistently horrific atmosphere and tone, Graves poem changes tone from stanza to stanza, emulating the different stages of faceing a soldier experiences. The poem opens with a tone that is factual yet distant, as though an old tale were being told As when the morning traveller turns and views/His barbarous night-stumbling carved into a hill. This tone marks Graves description of dimly remembered low which is fading into the distance gate and spillage wounds are silvered clean. The second stanza moves into a different tone, war is set forth as non only a war between countries, bu t a universal disaster No mere discord of flags/ But an infection of the common sky. The tone and atmosphere created are ominous, there is a feeling of anticipation and fear instigateing the reader of soldiers waiting for battle oppressed, thrust out Boastful tongue, clenched clenched fist and bold yard.Natural infirmities were out of mode, For Death was young again The third stanza does not immediately change tone, however the feelingof fear increases as Graves d surfaces on thoughts of premature death and little on valiant yard. but, roughly half way through the stanza the tone does change dramatically. The poem bring into beings not fearful but simple and clear, the necessities of life are described and the tone reminds the reader of an adrenaline filled soldier, thrilled with the battle and instinct(predicate) of survival, A weapon at the thigh, surgeons at call.. However, by the next stanza the battle is over and the experience of war assumes a desireless guise. Everythin g good in the world has turned to ashes Extinction of each happy art and confidence and the duty to fight turns into the duty to run mad. The tone of the poem is tragic, having seen hope turn to fear, exhilaration and finally collapse. The powerful climax of the poem in the fourth stanza is unless emphasized in the last verse, as the tone returns to one of unreal memory. The poets voice is ironic with child-like naivet Machine-guns rattle toy-like from a hill.The last lines of the poem change in tone again as the poet describes a future of despair if the past jakesnot be remembered with accuracy and credence When learnedly the future we devote To yet more braggart(prenominal) visions of despair. some(prenominal) poets use a very descriptive and revealing choice of vocabulary. ane particular feature of Owens poem is the use of alliteration to emphasize the image he is trying to create Memory fingers in their copper of murders, Multitudinous murders The repetition of the m sou nd serves to increase the impact of the image, reminding the reader of a stammering, shell-shocked soldier. Thus their heads wear this hilarious, hideous is another example of alliteration. Owens choice of language such as slob, baring, swelters, hideous and human body all help to increase the readers abhorrence as theses terminology describe so well the nightmares the men are experiencing. Graves row also have a strong impact on the reader his nomenclature highlight the differences between the stanzas. The second stanza describing the wait for the battle uses words like sagged, ominously, oppressed, clenched and pressed. In tell to this the last stanza includes words such as piecrust, nibbling, rattle and dandelions, emphasizing the child-like memories of war.The contrast between the third and fourth stanzas are even more noticeable. The second half of the third stanza aims to highlight the simple and uncomplicated feelings the soldiers experience while they are in combat, this is reflected by words like roof, call, wine, rage and wish , these are all syllabic words stressingGraves point. In the fourth stanza Graves vocabulary changes and becomes more complex foundering sublimities, protesting, Extinction, unendurable, again these are words which reflect the fact that the soldiers are now questioning and trying to solve a puzzle or paradox. The contrasts in the twain poets vocabulary is intriguing. Owens vocabulary is faraway more raw and hard hitting, thought about but not agonenized over. Graves choice of vocabulary reflects the fact that he is making a more complex series of points the words are perchance rather contrived. The images in Mental Cases by Owen are perhaps the most shocking aspect of the poem.There are three central images deep down Owens poem, contained within the three stanzas. The first images are those which describe the mental cases. Owen uses simile and metaphor. from jaws that slob their relish, the men are described like animals, drooling with drop tongues. These images imply that the experience of war for these men has taken away their humanity. Owen therefore describes the men as having teeth that leer like skulls teeth. This simile not only creates a clear picture in the mind of the reader, it also serves to show how these mental cases are not lucky to be alive, in fact, they admit more than their dead comrades not only do they look like death and behave like animals, they also continue to suffer the miseries of the lively world, that of memory, nightmares and madness What slow panic/Gouged these chasms round their fretted sockets?. This image is continued to the end of the stanza as Owen claims that seeing these mad men would make allone think they were in hell because of the ghastly picture they create.This again streng pasts Owens argument that, although these men survived the war alive, the scratchs they suffer are worse than any death we can imagine. Within the second stanza Owen prog resses to create images of the living hell which the mental cases experienced and are now reliving. This is the climax of the poem as line upon line brings new horrors. The first line of the stanza shows more explicitly the idea that the men are suffering perhaps more than even the dead men There are men whose minds the Dead have ravaged. This explores the feeling that the mad men owe their lives in someway to the death of their comrades. The image of their fellow soldiers who are now dead haunts them, this is a match with the sentiments Owen develops at the end of the poem, that the reader and poet are somehow to blame for the madness of the mental cases, in the same way that the mad men feel delinquency about themen killed. Owen uses imagery in the poem in such away that the reader is actually haunted by the images of the mad men, and we are also left with a strong sense of guilt at their sacrifice for our life and sanity.The images continue to horrify throughout the detain of the stanza. One of the most shocking images is that of the mad men walking on the corpses of dead men Wading sloughs of flesh these helpless wander an image which is disturbing not only because of the image it creates, but also the idea that these suffering men reached the position they are in because of the deaths of thousands of others, Treading blood from lungs that had love laughter. This is a terribly shocking image mainly because Owen has chosen to top one of the few references to emotion in the poem to a decollate corpse on which the mad men walk. The choice to put pleasing laughter next to blood from lungs is such a stark contrast that the horror of what Owen is describing cannot sink in on the first time of reading, it is further emphasized by the use of alliteration which stresses the link between the words It is an image similarly terrible to comprehend so it serves its purpose, the reader is repel and revolted by what is described. The second stanza ends with a very powerful image mass murder incomparable, and human squander/Rucked too thick for these mens extrication.This is a continuation of images earlier in the stanza, however the men are no longer walking on the bodies of dead men, they are being careworn under by them, unable to escape from the thousands of bodies of men whose dying was unnecessary. This image emphasizes Owens belief that not only did war result in millions of wasteful deaths, but the men who survived are also lost because the memories of the horror and carnage they experienced means these men can never return to sanity. The closing verse of the poem concludes that these memories are understandably too unconscionable for the mental cases to face, however life and the living only serve to remind them of the dead Sunlight seems a blood-smear night comes blood-black . Here Owen links the images of two natural things, sunlight and night with blood, also a natural element. However when placed together and within the contex t of the previous stanza, the natural become unnatural and disturbing.The reader is able to identify with the suffering man because we too are repulsed by the idea of dawn breaking open like the wound that bleeds afresh. This is an image which suggests the inability for the wounds to heal, and even the dawn, an image associated with re-birth is just are-opening of wounds, a stark contrast with the wounds silvered clean in Graves poem. The close of the stanza refers back to the beginning of the poem, as the mad men are described again as being like dead men cruddy falseness of set-smiling corpses. The last lines describe the images of the mental cases trying to touch the living and sane, the poet and the reader, who knock them back with horror, even though Owen claims it is us who dealt the war and madness Graves imagery, unlike Owen is subtle, not as shocking and assume, but considered conservatively it is as effective and complex. The poem opens with a powerful image Entrance an d exit wounds silvered clean this relies on the clever juxtaposition of the words exit wounds with silvered clean.The reader is taken by surprise as they are different words to find together, the poet, the reader realizes, is describing the new skin of a scar left by an old wound. The first stanza is full of images of the healed or forgotten scars of the world war, and the poet explains why Their war was fought these twenty years ago And now assumes the nature-look of time, As when the morning traveller turns and views His wild night-stumblings carved into a hill. This image subtly argues how the distance of time does not always clarify, exteriorize and make accurate past events, in fact time blurs the elaborate and obscures the negative memories. This directly contrasts with Owens view. Owen maintains in his poem, that the mad men can and will never be able to forget the events they experienced in the war. Their scars will not become silvered clean, but remain unbearably painful . Graves poem begins to examine the war that the men experienced throughout the second verse.The stanza examines the build up and anticipation of battle, using a tone that is a mixture of fear and anticipation. Graves uses pathetic fallacy, the weather reflects the feelings of pressure and crushing that the soldiers experience the common sky/That sagged ominously upon the earth. This also gives the impression that the soldiers do have to face not only the full might of the German army, but the strength of the elements too Down pressed the sky. Graves then goes on to contrast the natural elements to the unnatural death of the young men Natural infirmities were out of mode, For Death was young again Patron simply Of healthy dying, premature fate-spasm. This image is particularly effective as it personifies death, a device which brings death closer the reader feels that death is approaching the waiting soldiers. Theenemy is no longer a distant storm, but an encroach Patron looking fo r his prey. This last line is also emotive of a dying person. The commas and hyphen give the line a jerky feel, like a spasm of death. The poet then moves into the battle itself as the third stanza begins.This verse is particularly interesting as it is full of images of antiqueness of romance, images reminiscent of ancient tales of contend men, concerned only with wine, meat, log-fires, a roof over the head, an ancient heroism and heroism. The men become purely physical beings, as your body is for certain the primary concern on the battlefield and Our youth became all flesh and waived the mind.. The image conjures up pictures of young soldiers experiencing the adrenaline of danger, an emotion which leaves little time to worry about the massacre which surrounds them, only swearing when in lack of meat, wine, fire,/In ache of wounds beyond all surgeoning. The simple words Graves uses reflects the simple necessities and animal-like instincts the soldiers experience. The fourth stanza is the climax of the poem, the battle is over and the images are no longer simple and straight forward.Graves answers his question What, then, was war? with War was foundering of sublimities, Extinction of each happy art and faith. War has undo everything noble and impressive, everything that made life livable. After the physical exertion of the battle, Graves now presents the grim aftermath, where the mind begins to process the events it has just experienced. Graves presents an image of a fragile sanity which attempts to understand the war Protesting logic or protesting love,. The stanza ends with the image of a soldier finally breaking down under the weight of the immediate memories and his inability to reason the horrors he has witnessed Until the unendurable flash struck- The inward scream, the duty to run mad. The last verse of Graves poem returns to the ideas explored in the first stanza. The poets voice is ironic as he uses images from childhood to describe the terrifying war he displayed the previous verses.And we find the merry ways of guns-, the images make war sound child-like and unreal, the word opine reminds the reader of the poems title Recalling War. It has the effect of almost silently posing the question, is this how war should be recalled? The answer is of course evident having read the previous stanzas, and the final lines of the poem just serve to confirm the readers conclusions When learnedly the future we devote To yet more boastful visions of despair Thisis a warning from Graves. He argues that our future will be filled with the despair that his generation experienced if the horror and brutalities are not remembered. Graves has used a wide variety of imagery to create a complete picture of various stages that the soldier experiences while at war, a powerful sequence of emotions that illustrate not only the damage war does and the painful memories it creates, but the damage which can be through if these memories are forgotten or bl urred. This contrasts directly with Owens poem that seeks to describe the damage done by war when it is not forgotten.Both poets dissertate the scars that war leaves, both physically and mentally. Graves poem is very much a detached reflection on war, focusing on before, during and after effects of a battle in order to argue the point that war should not be forgotten. The immediate effect of war is very powerfully described, but the long term scars are claimed to be unmemorable and silvered clean, a strong contrast with Owens view. Owens poem portrays the very personal effects war has, he describes people whom he has met. thusly as a poet who spent some of the war in a mental institution for soldiers called Craiglockhart, it is amazing that he is as detached as he is, considering he could well have been described as a mental case himself, as he suffered from shell shock and nightmares.. Owens portrayal is gruesome and shocking, finally concluding by laying the office for the mad ness at the feet of the reader and poet.This poem, not only demonstrates Owens view of the scars war leaves on people, it also serves as a useful perceptiveness into the way in which Owen was scarred by war. He clearly feels inculpatory at his survival, and he too is haunted by the images of the dead that he describes, how else could they be so vivid? This is perhaps the most interesting aspect revealed by Owens poem, the scars left by war on a real human with the ability to express and communicate the damage in such a way that the reader is not only shocked, but greatly moved. The poem has its intensity because Owen was writing it while in direct contact with the mental cases whereas Graves is more distant as well as describing the memories of war. A poem which describes an inability to remember is far less disturbing than a poem which describes not being able to forget.