For my report I have chosen six poems, three by Wilfred Owen and three by Australian poets. 'Anthem for Doomed Youth', 'The Send Off' and 'Insensibility (1)' were written by Owen during the first world war to express his anti-war attitude. 'Beach Burial' by Kenneth Slessor, 'Homecoming' by Bruce Dawe and 'Letter XV' by Bruce Beaver are famous Australian poems about war.

The poems have many similarities, especially in content, but also have their differences.

The subject matter of the poems is obviously generally the same. Most are about soldiers dying/dead because of a war. 'Beach Burial' is specifically about the WW2 battle at El Alamein, and 'Homecoming' is concerned with the effect of the Vietnam War, but the rest are about war in general. The purpose of the poems is to convey the poets' own beliefs against war, for example Wilfred Owen was an avid anti-war activist, despite - or maybe because of - the fact that he fought in WW1.

The emotion portrayed is mostly depressive, somber and bitter. 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' seems slightly acc

'Alleys cobbled with their brothers' is used in 'Insensibility' to describe a trench with dead bodies strewn around; this is an unpleasant image, used intentionally to disturb the reader.

usatory; this is because the poet asks questions of the reader, almost daring the reader to disagree. 'Letter XV' emits a confused mood, as if the poet doesn't understand why war exists.

All the poems could probably be described as elegies, considering they are all laments for the dead.

'Anthem for Doomed Youth' is almost a Shakespearean sonnet, but the rhyming is wrong, so technically it is a Petrarchan sonnet (divided into an octave and sestet).

The two main components of a poem are the content, meaning the subject and emotion, and the technique which is things like structure, rhythm and imagery.

The six war poems I chose have a very similar content because the topic is common to all of them. Large differences come in the technique, because this defines the way a poem is written, not what it is about.

I prefer the rhythm and consistency of Owen's poems and 'Beach Burial' to the style of 'Homecoming' or 'Letter XV'. I like the rhymes, as they tend to bring the poem together, they unify it. Obviously I agree with the message in all these poems, or I wouldn't have chosen the theme of war / anti-war poetry. All of the poems depressed me (apart from

Some common words found in the essay are:
Doomed Youth', Send Off', Bruce Beaver, Youth' Shakespearean, Sound Rhythm, Wilfred Owen, Off' Insensibility, Vietnam War, War Poetry, 'beach burial', Letter XV, 'anthem doomed, 'anthem doomed youth', doomed youth', 'letter xv', 'the send, 'the send off', send off', 'letter xv' bruce, dead bodies, sound rhythm, burial' kenneth, rhythm poem, xv' bruce beaver, sound rhythm poem,
Approximate Word count = 910
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)