Protest and Satire in Owen's Poetry

Wilfred Owen claimed that he was "not concerned with poetry" but with "war, and the pity of war". He uses his poetry to protest and ridicule the perpetrators of war, such as the authorities, warmongers at home and even the people from the soldiers' own families. All of these people do not understand the futility and horrors of war and this is what Owen tries to conveys through his poems and therefore uses protest and satire and criticises people continuously.

As can be seen in 'Dulce et Decorum Est' Owen is more interested in showing us the reality of war than arguing its merits. It is a poem dictated by truth and not by beauty. Owen was greatly concerned about the patriotism of people who knew nothing of the horrors of fighting and this poem is an attempt to outface authors with such views. The poem is a narrative about one soldier who ends up a fatal victim of a gas attack. It is filled with crude details and the language is very effective in portraying the horrors war has wrought on these soldiers. This is Owen's most efficient form of protest. He describes a single event; soldiers walking "like old beggars under sacks" through the trenches. Owen discards glorifications and euphemism and embraces crude brutal descriptions of the suffering these soldiers endure "coughing like old hags" through the mud, with "haunting flares" at their backs. "Many had lost their boots, but limped on, blood shod". The soldiers look more like old women than young men, this shows us how much they have gone through and suffered. Thus suffering has become so normal for these men that they are accustomed to it now. Tension is built up with a sudden "Gas Gas!" and the soldiers race to put on their masks. Yet one soldier does not manage in time and the poisonous gas is doing its work on the soldier and nobody can save him. Without a doubt the persona is constantly haunted by the scene, "in all my dreams" and feels responsible. Owen then talks directly to the reader describing how they walked "behind the wagon that we flung him" and "watch the white eyes writhing in his face, like a devil sick of sin" and the horrible noises of blood "gargling from the froth corrupted lungs". The sound of language is harsh and unpleasant, thus are reflecting the agonizing scenario. Through this, Owen disproves "the old lie", that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. Similarly in 'Anthem for Doomed Youth', Owen protests against the cruelty and futility of war that leave the young to "die as cattle" under "the monstrous anger of the guns"

In 'Exposure', the poem describes a group of soldiers awake in trenches during a snowy winter night fearing an attack, "but nothing happens". The Germans are not their only enemies that threaten these men it is also nature and death.