Owen captures the scene of the soldiers been killed in the front

through the use of poetic techniques to describe the brutality of war. In

the poem “The Send Off” and “Anthem for Doomed Youth” Owen is
able to create an imagery of war to the audience as a killing machine
to show the horrors that has been reflected.

In “The Send Off” Owen imply positive connotations in the title of

farewell but is quickly challenged in the opening lines “Down the
closed Darkening lanes” thus the title is ironic. It is obvious in the
opening lines juxtaposes the singing men, unwitting going to their
deaths leaving by train. The oxymoron “Grimly Gay” shows false
bravado of men being sent to their deaths, hence further emphasised
by the alliteration. Throughout the poem, soldiers remain anonymous
without name or rank gives the audience a sense of loss to these men.

Owen uses enjambment “wreath and spray as men’s are, dead”

reinforces the narrative tone in ‘The Send Off’, Owen describes the
machinery of war through the use of personification “Signal Nodded”,
“A lamp winked to the guard” leaves the soldiers unaware of what will
happen and not know the purpose of war. The audience realises a
sense of betrayal and loss as the soldiers are sent away.

After boarding the train Owen emphasises the negativity of the scene
and furtiveness. This is evident in the alliteration “so secretly like
wrongs hushed up” leaving the audience questioning there destination
by not knowing “which front they were sent”.
Owen uses symbolism in ‘The Send Off’ where the flower can associate
with both good and bad luck “their breast were stuck all white with
wreath and spray”. Their wife or girlfriend placing the wreaths on their
breasts indicates they’re dead even before boarding the train.

Owen uses rhetorical question to stress the difference in the send off
and the return. “Shall they return to beatings of great bells in wild train
loads?” Owen uses repetition on “few” to stress out the loss of life from
the return. These soldiers are loaded onto the “sliding shed” as if they
were cattle”. This brings to mind the poem ‘Anthem for Doomed
Youth’. This is apparent as these men are not ordinary travellers.
Instead they’re treated as human freight.

In the poem ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ is written in a sonnet as a

waste of life. The title is ironic as an anthem is a short musical as Owen
uses this point to stress the tragic loss of youth. The rhetorical
question, “What passing bells for those who die as cattle?” describes
the soldiers are reduced to animals and consumed by the war
machines.

The term ‘youth’ is normally has positive connotations but is stressed

out next to the word ‘doomed’ representing pain and helplessness.

The personification and alliteration, “monstrous angers of the guns”;

“stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle” captures the sound of the battlefield and
gunfire to their deaths. Owen captures the sound to allow the audience
to experience first hand. ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ attempts to
recreate the dehumanised, wasteful death of war in an attempt to
shock the audience.

Owen emphasises the waste as well as loss of war to elicit empathy

from the audience. This is obvious from the use of vivid images of
“guns”, “rifles” and “shells” shows a sense of horror as weapon of
destruction.

Through these two poems, Owen describes the effect of war

experienced by Owen himself and soldiers at the front. Owen creates a
sense of imagery to the audience leaving a sinister mood, but more
importantly […………].