The two poems that I be comparing and contrasting in this essay are Disabled and Mental Cases, both by Wilfred Owen. They are both poems that are about the after-effects of the horrors caused by the First World War. In Disabled, Owen puts across the thoughts of a young man who has lost his limbs and been confined to a wheelchair after suffering injuries in the war. Mental Cases, on the other hand, describes soldiers who had developed post-traumatic stress after the war. Owen used his own experiences to assist him with this poem, as he himself spent time in a military hospital.
The main theme that is explored in Disabled is what the horrors of war can do to a person's physical state. It is quite clear from the first line that the man described in the poem is in an awful state, as he is sat in a wheeled chair. This same line then says that he is waiting for dark. This, coupled with the next line (which describes how he shivers in his suit), suggests that the man in question is alone and isolated from everybody else. Similarly to Disabled, Mental Cases also describes war's personal after-effects, but in this case it is dealing with mental anguish. Using his own experiences, Wilson describes the mental effects that the war had had on other soldiers. The opening line, where Wilson asks who are these? Why sit they here in twilight?, suggests that the subject of the poem has no idea who anyone else around him is. This could be because he is either in a state of confusion, or he no longer recognises people. He notes that the other patients have drooping tongues, which is a stereotypical image of someone who is perceived as mental.
The first three stanzas in Disabled do not have rhyming scheme, although there are the occasional lines that rhyme with each other. The first stanza contains six lines whilst the second and third consist of seven. The majority of lines are in iambic pentameter. The fourth stanza, however, is sixteen lines, and is the only stanza that follows a regular rhyme scheme, going in the order of A-B-A-B-C-D-C-D-E-F-E-F-G-H-G-H. This part of the poem is a look into the soldier's past, where he first decided he would join the army. The next stanza is only three lines long, with the first and last words rhyming. I think that the reason it is only three lines long is because it stands out from the rest of the poem, and also says a lot in such a short space. It states that only a small amount of people applauded him upon his return, different to the drums and cheers that he left to. This, to me, says that the attitude of people during that era was that fighting for your country was a great honour but once you came back and were no longer fighting, you were not as important. The final stanza is, once again, seven lines, with the second and fourth lines rhyming together, and rhyming between the third and fifth lines. The four stanzas that are six and seven lines long all describe the pain and problems that he suffers and will suffer, whilst the sixteen lined stanza is a description of the the soldier joining the army, and the short stanza is possibly the one that Owen wanted to stick out most of all, to show what the reaction of the public was. Unlike Disabled, which has stanza lengths that differ by a considerable amount of lines, Mental Cases only has three stanzas, in which the first two are made up of nine lines each, whilst the third contains ten. Similarly to Disabled, it too follows now particular rhyme pattern. This poem is also in the form of iambic pentameter.
There is a lot of imagery and sound used throughout both of these poems. The alliteration in ghastly suit of grey on the second line of Disabled gives off the dullness and depression, especially as grey is always linked to rainy days through the colours of the clouds, and rainy days being a stereotype of negativity. Enjambement is used from line two to line three, possibly as a way to put a focal point on the simile on line four, or maybe simply to keep the stanza as close to being in iambic pentameter as possible. The simile on line four is voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn. The comparison of the voices being saddening like a hymn is unusual, as hymns are songs of praise, which would imply happiness, so perhaps the happiness in their voices makes the soldier feel sad because he thinks he cannot be joyful again, so his feelings may be tinged with some jealousy. The aftermath of the war seems to have changed the soldier's attitude on many things. One example is the metaphor when glow-lamps budded, which seems to show that even at night time, there was good times to be had, whereas in the first stanza, in present time, he is instead waiting for dark. This contrast could show his change of perspective from the lights, being positive, to the negative darkness.
Another example of the soldier's changing perspective could be shown when the gathering sleep is personified as it mothered them, while in the second stanza, he sees himself as some queer disease in the simile that describes how he is now touched by females. This switch could show what he thinks of his own worth, to compare himself to a non-human thing whilst non-human things are personified.
The first line of each poem are very similar to each other. Disabled says that he sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark, whereas Mental Cases asks who are these? Why sit they here in twilight? Both lines involve people sitting during particular dark times of the day, displaying that there is only negativity, which is a common theme in both poems. The theme is continued into their respective second lines, with the suit of grey in Disabled and Mental Cases' purgatorial shadows. Whilst the two poems are similar in this way, Mental Cases also deals with the state of the subjects as a whole. Twilight and purgatorial are two in betweens, which could be an apt description for the mental soldiers, as they no longer lead proper lives, yet they are not dead either. This is different from Disabled because it is saying they are stuck in transitional periods, whilst Disabled is a soldier who realises he's in a life, although not the way he would have wanted it, and also reminisces about prior events, mainly happier times. Alternately, Mental Cases does bring up the idea of dead bodies a couple of times. The first instance is baring teeth like skulls' teeth wicked, and the second being set-smiling corpses. These almost grotesque images are ironic as they pair a happy image with disturbing images.
There is one example of repetition in Disabled, when at the end he asks why don't they come and put him into bed? Why don't they come? This seems like a plea, and the lines ending in why don't they come show a longing for attention.
While the main atmosphere of both of the poems are dark, Mental Cases is the darker of the two. Many parts of the poem use disturbing images associated with pain and suffering, such as stroke on stroke of pain and slow panic, treading blood from lungs and a wound that bleeds afresh. These are used to keep to the point of the poem, which I think is meant to be how the horrors of the war can create their own horrors, even afterwards. Whilst Disabled is also a very down-putting poem, there are lighter moments when the soldier reminisces about happier times, such playing football, drinking and his girlfriend, although it was these happy times that led to him signing up for the army in the first place. This difference also shows how being disabled physically does not rob you of your memory, while the mental disability takes away everything that makes you yourself.
I think that both of the poems are very powerful. They both exemplify the awful aftermath of war to the soldiers who fought and what seems like a lack of care for them, as if they had done what they were useful for and now they were no longer important. The vivid descriptions of both, particularly Mental Cases, would certainly be enough to put some people off of war, and are definitely two very good examples of anti-war poetry.
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