Topic > Analysis of Frost and Owen's creation of a sense of pathos

Wilfred Owen's poem "Disabled" concerns a young soldier who returns from the Great War suffering terrible wounds. The title of the poem is significant in creating a sense of pathos as it makes it clear that the theme of loss will be explored throughout. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Robert Frost's poem "Out, Out" is about a young boy sawing wood in the mountains of Vermont who accidentally cuts his hand on the saw and dies. The title is an allusion to the Shakespearean tragedy in which, upon hearing the news of his wife's death, Macbeth says “out, out short candle”. The reader can infer from the title that the poem will be about the brevity and fragility of life. Owen and Frost use pathos as a focal point in these poems to portray the drastic emotional effects felt by both characters. By including linguistic and structural devices in both poems, the reader feels different levels of pity and compassion for the tragedy of each poem, which provides a greater overall connection between reader and author. Frost includes various forms of personification in his poem "Out, Out" to induce pathos. The buzzsaw is personified using animalistic imagery that creates a deep sense of fear and a real awareness of the immense power the saw produces. “The whirring saw growled and banged, growled and banged.” The reader feels pity for the boy as the repeated use of the verb "growling" creates the image that the saw has a life of its own and the boy is not at fault when he loses his hand. Therefore, the use of personification emphasizes innocence. Similarly, Owen uses personification in the poem “Disabled” to convey the horrific injuries suffered by the soldier. By personifying the blood as “Purple leap splattered” and using a dynamic verb, a vivid image of a creature leaping from its war wound is created causing a painful emotional response from the reader. Sleep is also cleverly personified as a mother gathering her children using the metaphor of "until sleep has brought forth" the boys' voices. This emphasizes a sense of pain and physical isolation that helps the reader feel sorry for the soldier who is cold and tired and yet cannot move until someone remembers that he needs to be put to bed. In both poems, tonal shift is used to create pathos. In “Disabled” the author includes tonal shift to create two separate and distinct time periods. It can be inferred that the change in location reflects the overall tone shifting from the dark and lonely present in the first stanza to the bright and luminous past of the city he lived in, in the second stanza. The reader can appreciate the feelings of nostalgia the person feels for his once vibrant and opportunity-filled life and this generates a sense of pathos for how seriously the soldier's life has been affected by the war. The vibrancy of his previous life bled out “in the bomb holes” leaving his dark and worthless life experience “in his horrible gray shirt,” waiting only for death. Before going to war he was the person people looked at and admired, now “only a solemn man thanked him and asked for his soul”. The reader feels compassion for him as the war has exposed him to a huge collection of fears that end up overwhelming him. In "Out, Out" Frost also includes a subtle change in tone. He begins the poem with serene images of the landscape and the sensory stimulation "sweet, fragrant stuff when the breeze passed through it" symbolizing the boy's innocence. These contrastironically with the horrible encounter between the boy and the saw when “neither of them refused the encounter”. The author uses a very subtle tonal shift to describe the evening change from a blissful atmosphere, in which the circular saw is seen as completely insignificant, to a chaotic scene in which a little boy dies under the saw's frantic hands. The contrast generates pity in the reader who ardently desires that the boy return to the tranquility of the moments before the horrors he endures. Both poets use symbols to create pathos. The damaged soldier at the center of "Disabled" is a powerful symbol of the destruction and consequences of war. Before he enlisted, he "liked to have a blood stain down his leg" and "after football... to drink a picket", hinting at his naivety and the fact that he was unaware of the true realities of war. The football match and the bloodshed symbolize how men saw war as a game to be won with honor and glory, but which ended in bloodshed and massacre. The humming seen in "Out, Out" symbolizes the mindless power of machinery that can destroy human life when out of human control. It symbolizes the fragility of life and the danger of child labor. By using these symbols, both poets create a feeling of compassion for the characters, both of whom experience accidental amputation. The structure of "Out Out" has no verses. This creates an incessant experience that gives the reader little time to absorb what is happening. The structure emphasizes the sudden and unexpected nature of the boy's death and the brevity of his life, both of which induce pathos. While in 'Disabled' the verses are used to provide a brief sketch of the different phases of the man's life. The contrast between the second stanza, which mainly includes happy moments when he was a brave boy, and the final stanza, which details the reality of his situation after the war, allows the reader to feel pain for the life that the soldier now leads, while also just a guy. Although the authors use different structures, they are both equally effective in creating pathos. The poems use punctuation to invoke compassion. “Out, Out” uses punctuation to convey the frightening and panicky nature of the events. The pause after the words "Then the boy saw it all-", when the boy understands that death is imminent, makes the reader feel as if he is experiencing his chaotic thoughts and pain and there is a sense that his life is slowly slipping away and the reader has no power to stop it. As they then listen to his heartbeat, more dashes are used in brackets “Little less nothing! - and that was all. " The momentary pause in the action infers the shock and confusion felt by both the boy and his family and creates a morbid awareness for the reader, inducing pathos. Rhetorical questions are used in the poem "Disabled" to make the reader think about how to interpret the poem asks “And put him to bed? Why don't they come?” Will someone come or will this poor guy be left alone? Alternatively, is the soldier left with anything else to live for if all he does is wait? All of the readers' feelings and thoughts prompted by the questions create an overwhelming sense of pity towards the character as the reader longs for someone to help them, knowing full well that they won't. Repetition is used in both poems. In 'Out, Out', the repetition of the conjunction “and” in the first part of the poem creates the feeling of a normal routine completed by the boy. The repetition of “growled and rattled” foreshadows the child's impending death and the extreme pain he will experience. This causes a more intense reaction from the.