Use of Similes,Metaphors and Personification by Wilfred Owen

There are many ways to get people to understand a point that is trying to be made. In Anthem for Doomed Youth and Dulce et Decorum Est Wilfred Owen uses similes, metaphors and personification to paint a vivid picture in the reader's imagination which results in a greater impact and more enlightening experience. In Anthem for Doomed Youth, Owen uses metaphors to show how quickly young men were dying, "...who die as cattle?" The way cattle are killed, they are corralled and then led into a slaughterhouse one by one where they are killed and then processed. Another view is that this statement is "making the men appear ignorant, senseless and helpless". This comparison is used to show that people were dying in mass numbers without an end in sight. He also uses metaphors to describe the sounds that we cannot hear ourselves, but with some help we can imagine them. "The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;" His metaphor recreates the high-pitched screaming that the shells made as they rained from the sky. He also uses personification to show the reader how it felt being in that situation where guns were present and ready to fire at a moments notice. "Only the monstrous anger of the guns." This leads us to think that e

Metaphors can also be used to describe a scene, "Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud. " By using metaphors to show how people were dying, ". who die as cattle", there is a greater impact and emotion than just saying people were dying. He continues to use personification to illustrate sounds, "Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle. They can also be used to describe features of a person, such as the facial expressions of the dying soldiers. When "Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle. If he wrote in this fashion, the poem would lose all of its impact. "Bent Double, like old beggars under sacks" is used to show that they were sitting with their knees bent, arms around their legs trying to get warm; just like a beggar sleeps in an alley under his covers without a pillow. " shows us that the unfortunate soldier was gasping for air but was only breathing water (figuratively speaking) in Owen's sea of green gas.