Siegfried Sassoon’s poems are very straightforward and straight to the point, not rambling on about too many details. This poem is no exception. The poem tells of a soldier who is forgotten as he died, and the war continues as if nothing happened, except for the mother, who is the only one who cares about the war has affected her life forever with the loss of her son. This is achieved by the use of many factors, such as theme, iambic meter and emphasising words that you normally wouldn’t emphasise. Theme is very evident in this poem, as from the start you feel a sense of deceit from the beginning of the second stanza. ‘Quietly the Brother Officer went out / He'd told the poor old dear some gallant lies’ already indicates to us that she has been told lies to make sure that, as well as believing that her son was valiant soldier, has been told lies so that she believes that her son’s death was for a good cause. It makes us feel cheated, that something was taken from us for no reason. Iambic meter is an important factor in this poem, as it creates the effect of the rhythm being very repetitive, and it the rhythm sort of drags on. This makes us feel like this happens many times, like talking to loved ones who were affected is like protocol, it is not taken as a unique event. Finally, emphasising words is significant in many different ways. Firstly, even the small detail by using a capital ‘M’ instead of a small ‘m’ gives the word ‘Mother’ a more powerful title, as the speaker’s respect is directed to this particular woman. And Sassoon deliberately does this to say state the lie that this is somehow unique, but the underlying message is that no one cares for the losses of these poor mothers, as it doesn’t affect the majority of the civilisation. All the civilisation cares and knows about is the glory of war and the result of the war. The similarities between Hero and Dulce et Decorum Est is that they are both about how the casualties of war are not very important things to worry about, how the waste of human life in general was not a major issue, but it affected the soldiers and the people close to them. They both explore dire themes, as they are both about death. They also explore the lies of warfare, and how there is little glory in fighting when you know you’re going to die, and your life will not be remembered. The differences between the poems is that while Dulce et Decorum Est is on the action packed, horrible setting of the battlefield, Hero is set in the calmer, more lingering setting off the battlefield. Dulce et Decorum Est explains the graphic pictures of soldiers dying caused by the war effort, while Hero projects the scene of the fake glory that is fabricated by the war effort. While Owen uses similes in most of his language to emphasise his pain, Sassoon uses very colloquial language instead, but still makes it very effective with it sheer simplicity. Owen's poem outlines clearly about the lie of glory on the battlefield, as the rest of the soldiers know and have experienced the lie itself, while Sassoon’s poem explores the effects of the war on the public people’s lives, almost corrupting to the point that they believe everything, that they sacrifice innocent men’s lives for a reason. That they care about people’s lives.
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