Refugee Blues and Disabled Comparison Essay

The content of war and the loss of human t wholeness has had a deep influence on poetry of the first half of the 20th century. Many poets from around the world had felt the direct trespass of earth-shattering wars and went on to express their opinions through their works. It was during war period eras that the verses Disabled and Refugee Blues were scripted by Wilfred Owen and W.H. Auden respectively. Both of the given up war poems be considered to be some of the or so significant pieces of poetry of their time and the fact that they were written during times of world(a) conflict explains their brutal h match slightsty, grim atmospheres and the poets desire to convey twain hurt and sadness through their interpreted image of war. Disabled was written by Wilfred Owen when he was in England to recover from war trauma. The sur light upon gives a glimpse of what the poem is close a lonely pass agonistic to be amputated. Although it is just now a single piece of his string of anti-war poems, Disabled is arguably one of his almost effective and significant works. The context of the poem takes beam in Britain during its involvement in the Great struggle and tells a tier of a disabled (hence the title) pass who resides in a hospital.To shock the readers, Owen reveals that the soldier is actually a young adolescent, aged 17-19, who returning from the Western Front, was forced to have got his limbs amputated. In contrast, Refugee Blues is a poeticalal work of W.H. Auden in 1939 the year World War Two broke come out of the closet. The name of the title is a reference to an old musical genre blues. They were originally sang by early African slaves on American soil. The songs of the particular genre were mostly about sadness and depression. This, combined with the term refugee, create an arouse title, that is useful to identify what type of person is the protagonist and why the construction of the poem is reminiscent of a (blues) song. Although comp ard to Disabled it is passably less dark in terms of tone and atmosphere, the second (or tierce) development of the poem should persuade most readers that the horrors of war are actually very prominent and are visual aspectn through the terrified eyes of an innocent citizen. The story deep down tells about a German Jew and his wife, both taking numerous attempts to escape their fatherland in hopes for salvation as their manner be occurs that of downward spiral quest the rise of the fascist regime. Although the poets Wilfred Owen and W.H. Auden express their attitudes differently, it can be considered that both phonation their opinion on the same(p) side of the arguement.As said above, both Disabled and Refugee Blues share anti-war ideals, however they refer to different issues. This is most probably because, the ii poems were written during different political eras, the Great War and the Second World War. Disabled, written in 1917, addresses the brutality go thro ugh by British soldiers on the Western Front and how the youth was fooled into volunteering by the older members of the nations upper class who did nonhing exclusively scrutinized them, living in their safe, comfortable English homes while their sons died in the name of patriotism. Nonetheless, Owens poetry expands on that assign to show that it is not only old men who do the trickery, scarcely it is also public people who encourage and finally, let down the soldiers. An pillowcase of that would be Aye, that was it, to satisfy the giddy jilts. This only us what led the disabled trooper to his tragedy, and to make his existence in this world even more depressing and sad, Owen goes on with How cold and late it is Why dont they come? The readers are shown that after the war ends, whether the soldier is dead or alive, at that place wont be much in force(p) left to him, as their somewhat ignorant society decides to abandon the men who put their lives on stake for their flag.P erhaps this serves to state that true patriotism is ultimately unavailing and obsolete, or that no case what form it takes, it does more harm than true by painting a false image of air in peoples minds. It can be said that Disabled is written to show how soldiers adapt to a wartime/post-war society. The poem is a reflection of Owens surroundings while in fighting in France and resting at the multitude hospital in England. A widely-considered opinion that soldiers are state-sponsored killers is organism rancid down by the poet to show how these young, inexperienced and unwilling men are being put in position that is a matter of life and death, from which, most who manage to return are either scarred mentally or broken physically. Looking at the language of the poem, Owens boilersuit attitude can be interpreted as more pessimistic, as he leaves a rather sour taste about the subject of war. W.O. tries to convince the readers that the war does not necessarily make one a hero, and neither does it bring true pride to combatants, rather using it to crotchet the men to their death.In fact, if on that pinnacle was anyone to feel a sense datum of glory or pride, it would be those who didnt participate or lacked the courage to smell the horrific effects of war, which is the idea Wilfred was trying to bring across to prospective generations. It should be noted that this poem, among his many others, was written during the apprise period intermediate Owens deployments to France, which gives it a feeling of raw energy that came from his recently-seen experiences at the front, which resulted in the brutal honesty of the poem. Whereas W.O. wrote about volunteers and how they were ignored and exploited by citizens, Auden fronts to be more concerned about innocent people rather than troops, specifically minorities, almost as if Refugee Blues is the flip-side of Disabled. There is only one occasion in the entire poem where the soldiers (who serve the regime) appear at the very end. Their primary purpose there was to destroy any sense of optimism left in the poem.The quote to hold still for that is Ten thousand soldiers marched to and fro smell for you and me, my dear The fact that none of the soldiers were pictured or werent given any personal development is a rather bland suit by Auden (in my opinion, of course) because it is well known that despite a high morale, there were members of the Wehrmacht who did not see eye-to-eye to Hitler or his policies and were renegades and deserters. Therefore, it is implied that Auden saw all German soldiers in spite of appearance the same group anti-Semitists. On the other hand, he had a beneficial arguement for the plight of refugees, after all, they were German nationals no matter their religion/ethinity, but were hunted down anyways. This shows how inhumanee the regime was to their countrymen and allows the reader to understand that racial and religious topics could be used to kill innocents, rather than to promote peace. Regarding attitudes, the 2 poets ultimately bring the same message they wished to bring an end to the wars that go around around their lives. Differences, however, should be noted amidst the two Owen displays his attitude rather clearly, criticizing the Great War at every possible turn literally and figuratively.This is because of his prior military history and the fact that he was fooled into serving by being a staunch supporter of his country he should have known better. W.H. Auden is indifferent to what happens to the troops, instead, he salves from a civilians point of view to represent their agony. There is still some optimism in him, however. For utilisation in the quotation But we are still alive my dear, we are still alive. He isnt as harsh a critic of war as Owen due the fact that the latter served as a Sergeant and went through though times such as defending trenches from bombings and seeing his men die, all experienced first-hand. An other drive could be that the Second World War was erect beginning when the poem was written (1939) and its chief(prenominal) focus was on the Holocaust. Therefore the comparing between the two should not be about war, but about inhuman conditions and about betrayal Jews in Refugee Blues and soldiers in Disabled.Nevertheless, it shouldnt be assumed that Auden wasnt exposed to war he was a civilian asset for the Republic during the Spanish Civil War as well as travelling to China during their war with Japan to write A Journey to War. Poems Disabled and Refugee Blues employ slightly different structures. Disabled is written in regular stanzas consisting of six to eighter berths each. The stanzas are used by the poet to tell a biography that takes time in other(prenominal), present and rising. Every stanza switches between past and present to describe his life in a before and after scenario. This way of poetic storytelling is quite effective, because in this case it allows u s to see how far fortify conflicts and wars evolve average individuals. The last stanza is written in a future tense in order to show what it (future) would bring to the disabled veterinarians life. It can be said that not much good will come out of it. In a way, Owen makes the atmosphere seem somewhat dystopian, seeing how there was very little reason to ride out to live for that soldier, and how his future is already predicted and how he will have to come out regulations set by others for doing nothing, other than serving his country.This makes it shocking, considering WWI happened before. Another noticeable trait within the structure of Disabled is that it contains a stanza that stands out from the norm. This referred stanza is used to show that there actually were people who could show a sense of appreciation, for case a man in line 2. This is demonstrated in the lines completely a solemn man who brought him fruitsThanked him.. This quotation is important because Owen emb races the fact that among the spoiled, hypocritical and ungrateful citizens, there were certain individuals who remained committed and loyal to their heroes no matter how ugly the war was going. This stanza lasts only three lines to reflect on the point that the soldiers life only had very rare and brief moments of hope and that the rest of his time in the institution was boring and agonizing, just like the length of the poem.Regarding rhyming, Disabled is inconsistent in that aspect, as it lacks a rhyming pattern to unify and join the stanzas together. For practice the first stanza rhymes as A,B,A,C,B,C while the second stanza is A,B,C,B,C,D,B. Perhaps the inconsistency of the rhyme is intended to represent either the volatile nature of war or the uncertainty regarding the soldiers future, although the latter is an unlikely theory. With Refugee Blues, the structure of the poem is slightly simple Auden wrote it as a recreation of blues song. Every stanza within the poem consists of three lines. The poems narrative goes within a chronological order, although the stanzas all represent flashbacks, it is most likely that they are in order. Audens poem follows a simple rhyming pattern A,A,B for most of the time.At the end of each stanza, there is a third line which acts as a summary for the two previous lines and uses repetition. All third lines in the poem include the words my dear to represent a long-lasting hope within the hopeless atmosphere. One of the similarities between the structures of the two poems is that both Refugee Blues and Disabled contain at least one stanza which is three lines in length, albeit for different reasons Owen wrote it as unique stanza to stand out since it is of lighter tone than the rest of the poem, while Auden constructed his poem to contain no more than three lines for the sake of structuring it as a blues song. On the other hand, there are much more contrasts between the two, for example R.B. rhymes most of the time, thanks to its organized structure the fact that each stanza is only three line long helps maintain the pacing while reading it and therefore, the words rhyme as they should. Disabled is less restrictive and relies less on rhyming.Owens piece contains average stanzas with six to eight lines in length. Lastly the other noticeable difference is that Refugee Blues has a narrative that follows a chronological order, while W.O.s poem switches between past and present with each stanza. Both poets W.H. Auden and Wilfred Owen use an expansive variety of different language techniques, such as metaphors, prosopopoeia, senses, repetition and similes. Most notably, both poems device characteristic similes and repetition. In Disabled, similes are used to create an irrational comparison between the protagonist and unrelated, vile, almost animalistic (to display how low he had sank on a social level) things, in this case, disease. A prime example of that would be the quotation All of them touch him li ke some featherbed disease.This quote conveys the poets feelings towards how many war veterans were undeservingly alienated from their society. Alternatively, W.H. Auden uses the same technique to compare the extent of liberty given to an animal (fish) and a sub-human (as believed by fascists). To show the misery the Jews had to face, this point is given directly from the protagonist. As shown in the subsequent lines Saw the fish swimming as if they were barren. From here we can observe the fact that the poems main characters the Jewish refugees had little to no rights at all as their agony made them wish to live as animals fish in the harbour.Although this being a somewhat far-fetched attempt, it can be possible to infer that Auden whitethorn hold the value of throw in the toweldom as above of civilization and progress, since it could be assumed that the characters would much rather live a primitive, yet free life than holding a place within an established society. It is ultim ately clear that average, innocent citizens, as well as front-line soldiers had their lives greatly bear on (in a negative way) by unnecessary wars which doomed their future, and although subtle, similes are a powerful way to depict their struggles. UNFINISHED(repetition/improve similes and do comparison/personification/senses/metaphors)