1914
War broke: and now the Winter of the world
With perishing great darkness closes in.
The foul tornado, centred at Berlin,
Is over all the width of Europe whirled,
Rending the sails of progress. Rent or furled
Are all Art's ensigns. Verse wails. Now begin
Famines of thought and feeling. Love's wine's thin.
The grain of human Autumn rots, down-hurled.
For after Spring had bloomed in early Greece,
And Summer blazed her glory out with Rome,
An Autumn softly fell, a harvest home,
A slow grand age, and rich with all increase.
But now, for us, wild Winter, and the need
Of sowings for new Spring, and blood for seed.
"1914" is believed to be one of the first poems Wilfred Owen wrote about war. I think that this poem is being narrated by Wilfred Owen himself. This poem was originally addressed to his mother. In this poem, he is talking about the first world war that started in the year 1914. There is violence everywhere. It has a very sad tone, because it deals with the beginning of a war and all the deaths and horror is yet to come.
Imagery was used to help describe the war scene. Some abstract imagery from the poem: "foul tornado centered at Berlin" meaning Berlin was the center of all the violence and killing , since foul is usually used to describe something in a negative way, the fighting is shown as a bad thing. Another example would be: "Famines of thought and feeling ." people weren't thinking or realizing what they were doing (soldiers were programmed to kill the enemy without a second thought.
An example of concrete imagery: "... perishing great darkness closes in.", because it is describing darkness as "great", meaning that the war is a form of evil and the adjective "great" makes it seem a lot more worse. Imagery in this poem helps the reader figure out that war is not a pleasant thing.
"1914" is written about the first world war, that broke out in 1914. This poem basically talks about how war is taking over Europe and everyone's planned have been cancelled because of the war. Violence is everywhere. Wilfred Owen has a way of changing your thinking, just by presenting you with the emotions of the facts. For example: the fact is people die in a war, in his poems you can feel the pain and suffering of all the people in a war. His writing can play with our emotions, and that gets us thinking wither or not war is acceptable. Should people just leave everything they planned to do, to go and murder innocent people, just to settle someone else's problems?
In this poem, words have a powerful impact. Some examples of connotations are "...Autumn softly fell", "...And Summer blazed", and " The grain of human". These words have dictionary definitions, but in these examples, they take on the suggested meaning instead. Some examples of denotations are "War broke:..." and "width of Europe...". There aren't many denotation words because, poetry isn't written in plain language. Abstract words can only be understood intellectually, like: " The foul tornado, centered at Berlin,", you can understand that it means the war is centered in Berlin, because "the foul tornado" is really describing world war one. War is a described to be a very horrible time. Metaphors are used to when comparing two different subjects that won't usually be compared. For example: "War broke: and now the Winter of the world", it is comparing seasons to war. " The foul tornado," it's comparing a natural disaster to war as well. There are no similes or personification in "1914". Instead of using the word "war", metonymy replaces that, for example: " The foul tornado" and "now the Winter of the world". These are all words that replace war. Words can very be very powerful in poetry.
If words can be powerful, imagine what sentences can do. There were longer sentences to explain more complicated ideas, for example: "For after Spring had bloomed in early Greece, And Summer blazed her glory out with Rome, An Autumn softly fell, a harvest home, A slow grand age, and rich with all increase.", it talks about how in different countries they were having new seasons arriving, meaning they had their very own plans. Shorter sentences like: "But now, for us, wild Winter, and the need." (meaning the war has cancelled all the plans they had), have more emphasis on ideas and less thoughts to show. Most of the poem was written in active form (subject before predict), like: "War broke: and now the Winter of the world with perishing great darkness closes in.", meaning war started and all over the world it become winter (winter is used because, it is a harsh season), but described to be extra harsh this time. The only passive sentence was: "Rending the sails of progress." (meaning tearing up the progress being made, in other words stopping peace from happening). "Rending" is a verb and it came before the noun "sails of progress". This poem uses longer, shorter, active and passive sentences to express the emotions of the year 1914.
"1914" shows what was happening in the year 1914. WW1 had just started. All these countries had their own agenda to follow and all of sudden, everyone is fighting each other without a single thought. Wilfred Owen uses abstract and concrete imagery to help display the scene. It becomes obvious that war is certainly not a situation that you would want to be in. His words are able to capture that picture and those words are put into a variety of sentences, that help complete the painting. This is probably one the best poems that can truly express the grief felt in 1914.
With perishing great darkness closes in.
The foul tornado, centred at Berlin,
Is over all the width of Europe whirled,
Rending the sails of progress. Rent or furled
Are all Art's ensigns. Verse wails. Now begin
Famines of thought and feeling. Love's wine's thin.
The grain of human Autumn rots, down-hurled.
For after Spring had bloomed in early Greece,
And Summer blazed her glory out with Rome,
An Autumn softly fell, a harvest home,
A slow grand age, and rich with all increase.
But now, for us, wild Winter, and the need
Of sowings for new Spring, and blood for seed.
"1914" is believed to be one of the first poems Wilfred Owen wrote about war. I think that this poem is being narrated by Wilfred Owen himself. This poem was originally addressed to his mother. In this poem, he is talking about the first world war that started in the year 1914. There is violence everywhere. It has a very sad tone, because it deals with the beginning of a war and all the deaths and horror is yet to come.
Imagery was used to help describe the war scene. Some abstract imagery from the poem: "foul tornado centered at Berlin" meaning Berlin was the center of all the violence and killing , since foul is usually used to describe something in a negative way, the fighting is shown as a bad thing. Another example would be: "Famines of thought and feeling ." people weren't thinking or realizing what they were doing (soldiers were programmed to kill the enemy without a second thought.
An example of concrete imagery: "... perishing great darkness closes in.", because it is describing darkness as "great", meaning that the war is a form of evil and the adjective "great" makes it seem a lot more worse. Imagery in this poem helps the reader figure out that war is not a pleasant thing.
"1914" is written about the first world war, that broke out in 1914. This poem basically talks about how war is taking over Europe and everyone's planned have been cancelled because of the war. Violence is everywhere. Wilfred Owen has a way of changing your thinking, just by presenting you with the emotions of the facts. For example: the fact is people die in a war, in his poems you can feel the pain and suffering of all the people in a war. His writing can play with our emotions, and that gets us thinking wither or not war is acceptable. Should people just leave everything they planned to do, to go and murder innocent people, just to settle someone else's problems?
In this poem, words have a powerful impact. Some examples of connotations are "...Autumn softly fell", "...And Summer blazed", and " The grain of human". These words have dictionary definitions, but in these examples, they take on the suggested meaning instead. Some examples of denotations are "War broke:..." and "width of Europe...". There aren't many denotation words because, poetry isn't written in plain language. Abstract words can only be understood intellectually, like: " The foul tornado, centered at Berlin,", you can understand that it means the war is centered in Berlin, because "the foul tornado" is really describing world war one. War is a described to be a very horrible time. Metaphors are used to when comparing two different subjects that won't usually be compared. For example: "War broke: and now the Winter of the world", it is comparing seasons to war. " The foul tornado," it's comparing a natural disaster to war as well. There are no similes or personification in "1914". Instead of using the word "war", metonymy replaces that, for example: " The foul tornado" and "now the Winter of the world". These are all words that replace war. Words can very be very powerful in poetry.
If words can be powerful, imagine what sentences can do. There were longer sentences to explain more complicated ideas, for example: "For after Spring had bloomed in early Greece, And Summer blazed her glory out with Rome, An Autumn softly fell, a harvest home, A slow grand age, and rich with all increase.", it talks about how in different countries they were having new seasons arriving, meaning they had their very own plans. Shorter sentences like: "But now, for us, wild Winter, and the need." (meaning the war has cancelled all the plans they had), have more emphasis on ideas and less thoughts to show. Most of the poem was written in active form (subject before predict), like: "War broke: and now the Winter of the world with perishing great darkness closes in.", meaning war started and all over the world it become winter (winter is used because, it is a harsh season), but described to be extra harsh this time. The only passive sentence was: "Rending the sails of progress." (meaning tearing up the progress being made, in other words stopping peace from happening). "Rending" is a verb and it came before the noun "sails of progress". This poem uses longer, shorter, active and passive sentences to express the emotions of the year 1914.
"1914" shows what was happening in the year 1914. WW1 had just started. All these countries had their own agenda to follow and all of sudden, everyone is fighting each other without a single thought. Wilfred Owen uses abstract and concrete imagery to help display the scene. It becomes obvious that war is certainly not a situation that you would want to be in. His words are able to capture that picture and those words are put into a variety of sentences, that help complete the painting. This is probably one the best poems that can truly express the grief felt in 1914.