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How do Wilfred Owen's poems expose the tragedy of war?

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How do Wilfred Owen's poems expose the tragedy of war?
‘How do Owen’s poems expose (unmask) the tragedy of war?’

Throughout Wilfred Owen’s collection of poems, he unmasks the harsh tragedy of war through the events he experienced. His poems indulge and grasp readers to feel the pain of his words and develop some idea on the tragedy during the war. Tragedy was a common feature during the war, as innocent boys and men had their lives taken away from them in a gunshot. The sad truth of the war that most of the people who experienced and lived during the tragic time, still bare the horrifying images that still live with them now. Owen’s poems give the reader insight to this pain, and help unmask the tragedy of war.

The vulnerability of someone’s well-being explores examples of tragedy as the reader is drawn to feel and empathize for their pain. During the war, there were many circumstances where a soldier came home from the war and was not the same person, his physical and mental well-being were stripped from him like tape and changed forever. This is evident in Owen’s poems ‘Disabled’ as one misfortune of war are the soldier’s physical health after returning home from serving their country. Owen writes “He sat in a wheel chair, waiting for dark, and shivered in his ghastly suit of grey, legless, sewn short of an elbow”. This soldier is now more vulnerable than ever, he cannot move, he is paralyzed by the war, his thoughts are clouded by the images foreseen at his time during the war.

Some boys believed they were brave enough and strong enough to fight a tragic battle. Throughout the war, many young boys aged around fourteen wanted to serve their country in the war. They would write down false ages just to get in. Wilfred Owen makes this evident in his poem ‘Disabled’ where he writes “Smiling he wrote his lie: aged nineteen years”. These young men at the young age of fourteen believed that they could achieve anything. They were excited and apprehensive to fight on behalf of their country. But on arrival their

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