The Speakers Importance in Poetry - 1598 Words

The speaker can be the most important aspect of a poem. The speaker allows for a more active voice in the poem, and can often serve as a mouthpiece to communicate the ideas of the poet to an audience. Much like an actor, the speaker can tell or act out a first-hand account of what occurs. The speaker is also a voice that can provide another perspective. With evidence from Dulce et Decorum Est, A Man Who Had Fallen Among Thieves, and The Man He Killed, this essay will highlight the similarities and differences of a speaker to help establish the definition of a speaker. It will be shown how speakers serve a variety of roles in poetry, and can help readers gain a better understanding of universal issues. The speaker in A Man Who†¦show more content†¦Here, the speaker watches someone die because he didnt wear a gas mask. The speaker offers readers first-hand vivid descriptions of the young men that have become filthy, weary, and helpless when he describes the men as bent doub le, like old beggars under sacks, knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed though sludge†(27). The speaker paints a picture with his words to illustrate what is happening. In one scene, the speaker shows the men heading towards lodging when he says and toward our distant rest began to trudge then in an instant, gas-shells are dropping and the men must put on their helmets (27). One of the men did not put on his helmet. Through the poet, the speaker uses vivid imagery to describe the man’s death when he says as under a green sea, I saw him drowning(27). The speaker tells an audience my friend, you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory, meaning that he would not suggest children go to war to become heroes, or die honorably for one’s country, because it is not sweet or fitting to suffocate in gas (27). Obviously he disagrees with the old saying â€Å"Dulce ed decorum est Pro patria mori,† because the speaker refers to dying honorably in war as the the Old Lie (27). Like the speakers in the previous poems mentioned, the speaker of Dulce et Decorum Est, illustrates a moving picture in order to help an audience understand the atrocities of war. Here, the speaker once again servesShow MoreRelatedHow Shakespeare And Rossetti Engage With The Sonnet1241 Words   |  5 Pagessonnet itself. Rossetti’s â€Å"The Sonnet† is written in traditional iambic pentameter and employs the structure of a Petrarchan sonnet. 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