Emotional Responses In Dulce Et Decorum Est By Wilfred Owens And To An Athlete Dying Young By A. E. Houseman

Poetry in a layman’s language can be defined as the form of literature which consists of rhyming words, imaginative lines Etc. According to Howard Nemerov poetry is a form of literature that tells us about the emotional response and evokes a concentrated imaginative awareness of the experience through a language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound and rhythm. There are different kinds of poet in the world, and they have their unique style, some may have the same style but have different themes. The most important thing in the poem is the emotional responses which is basically the feeling of the writer or the experiences he went through and these emotional responses make a beautiful poem. Because emotional responses draw’s the attention of the audience and tells the experiences of the writer writing the poem.

There are so many poems based on emotional responses or in other words, it can be said that there are so many poems that evokes emotional responses. Two such poems are “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owens and “To an Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Houseman. Wilfred Owens was a poet born in Shropshire, England on March 18, 1893 and was killed in France on November 4, 1918 (Adam Augustin et al.). Some of his famous poetry is based on the WW1, there were only five poems in which three of them were published in nation and other two were in his journal named Hydra which was edited when he was in a Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh (“Poetry Foundation Wilfred Owens”). Wilfred Owens was also known for his anger at the cruelty of the war and his pity for the victims of the war (Adam Augustin et al.). However, they were similar in a sense that they were bothers. A.E Housman was an English scholar and poet born in Worcestershire, England on March 26, 1859 and he died in Cambridge, England on April 30, 1936 (Patricia Bauer et al.). According to Michael Stratford, A.E Housman lost his mother when he was just 12years old which changed his life and his poetry reveals an acute sensitivity to all human losses and love. He also worked as a professor of Latin at Trinity College, Cambridge and worked there for his life until his death, in his whole life he just published two volumes of poetry named “A Shropshire Lad” and “Last Poems” (“poetry.org A.E Housman”).

Both poems “Dulce et Decorum Est” and “To an Athlete Dying Young” are full of emotional responses and in both poems the main theme can be considered sadness. In “Dulce et Decorum Est” the poet describes the scene of the war or in other words the poet in his poem tells the conditions of the soldiers fighting in the war. In his poem there are several emotions like love, hatred, anger, frustration and sorrow Etc. in the first paragraph of the poem, it gives the view of the soldiers, that they are exhausted, tired as they were coughing like hag’s as well as they were missing their necessary things like shoes Etc. This depicts emotional responses like sorrow and frustration. Some other emotional responses like anger, frustration can also be seen in the poem where the poet in one of his paragraphs describes the gas attack due to which soldiers were dying, their lungs stopped functioning and they can’t even breathe because of the poisonous gas attack.