by Rowan

Created on: March 20, 2007   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

What are the main points of comparison and contrast between Owen's poem Futility' and Brooke's poem The Soldier'

The poems done by Brooke and Owen contrast a lot and the messages they contain are completely the opposite. With Brooke's poem supporting fighting for your country and being very patriotic and Owen's poem talking about what's the point in fighting. Both poems are set in the First World War with Owen writing from the Allied trenches and Brooke writing from behind the lines as he was a general.

First of all the themes of both poems are very different with Brooke going on about how you should give up your life for England and if you die England will become victorious. All the time his phrases such as in hearts art peace' contrast to what it was really like in the war. Whereas Futility by Owen is about a dead body slowly decaying showing the relationships between man and nature. He explains how life took a vast amount of time to evolve into what we are today and that all that time is wasted in war which implies why bother?

There is a lot of Personification in both poems starting with Owens where he personifies the sun. He talks about the sun being the creator of everything and how the relationship between man and sun as gently its touch' used to wake up the soldier shows the friendship and positives of the poem. Some of the language used in this poem is in Latin with the words fatuous' and futility' which both add emphasis to the original effect they had on the poem. Also biblical references with the use of clays' to show that he believes that the sun is the creator and ruler of the world. Moving onto Brooke's poem he personifies England, talking about her' like a mother looking after all the population. He says that if England bore' all the people than you should give something back by fighting for her. The use of alliteration such as foreign fields' adds a flowing, enjambment style to the stanza as the flowers' of England make it sound more natural and divine.

The mood and atmospheres of both the poems contrast quite a bit, with the basis of Owens's poem being pretty sombre like the title Futility' which means utterly worthless. Phrases such as if anything might rouse him now' shows the desperation and depressing mood of this poem. Brooke's poem on the other hand is uplifting and gives a strong patriotic feeling to all the readers. He uses the conditional tenses if I should die' which gives us the image of him dreaming or fantasising about the war and

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