Owen uses contrast between what the soldier writes and what is happening to show how awful the war was for the men who fought it. He writes, "We"re out of harm's way, not bad fed. / (Say, Jimmie, spare's a bite of bread)" (6-8). Owen suggests that the man is lying to his wife. They cannot be well fed if all they have is bread and he's asking to share the other soldier's food. The men in WWI were hungry most of the time. Owen also uses organization to get his point across. In the beginning of the poem he writes about how his pencil breaks while he is writing, which is not a major concern. At the end of the poem he writes,.
(Guh! Christ! I"m hit. Take "old. Aye, bad.
No, damn your iodine. Jim? "Ere!.
Write my old girl, Jim, there's a dear.) (20-22).
The poem progressively gets worse and in the end, the man dies from a wound. The last lines contrast to the line where he tells his wife that they are out of harm's way. Owen also uses the dialect of the soldiers. Instead of a poet who knows nothing of WWI writing in flowing colorful diction, "The Letter" is obviously written by a man who experienced the war, and knows the truth about it. The words Owen use proves this fact. "The Letter" strongly shows Owens dislike for the war, and it portrays one of many tragic events that happened over the course of it. Owen detests the fact that so many die, leaving widows and children at home. Owen uses this to spread his resentment for WWI to others. .
In "Anthem for Doomed Youth" Owen uses specific diction to express his feeling about the unnecessary death of many young men during the war. The poem is about the remembrance and funerals of the young men killed in WWI. In the first stanza Owen focuses on sounds while asking, "What passing bells for these who die as cattle" (1). Throughout the stanza he uses the words "patter," "shrill," choirs," "bells," and "bugles," all of which relate to sound. He poses the question in the first line, comparing the deaths of the youth to cows that are herded together to be slaughtered.
