Pope's and Owen's Diverging Views on War in "Who's for the Game” and "Dulce Et Decorum Est." Annie Chopra 9th Grade

Jessie Pope and Wilfred Owen have both written poems about war, but each poet describes war from a different perspective. While Pope portrays war as a game in her poem, Owen illustrates the harsh realities of war by the use of diction and other poetic devices. Although, Jessie Pope uses rhyme in her poem to create a nursery rhyme style and she uses a positive vocabulary; it is in fact very ignorant of her to trivialize war. On the other hand, Wilfred Owen describes war in a fairly straightforward way, which indeed, makes the poem seem harsh and showcases the truth about war.

In the poem, “Who’s for the game” Pope uses a lot of rhetorical questions, nursery rhyme, and positive vocabulary to produce trust and make the reader feel like a hero or a coward. For instance, when Pope says “who’ll give his country a hand?” it makes the reader sense the duty of helping their country. In the meanwhile, several game references have also been in support of the rhetorical questions. As noticeable, this is not only to make the poem enjoyable but also to make the reader feel glorious if they go to war. “Who’ll grip and tackle the job unafraid?” this is an allusion to Rugby and is followed by the word “job” which represents a certain obligation...