Although the poems Recalling War by Robert Graves and Mental Cases by Wilfred Owen are both concerned with the damage that war does to the soldiers involved, they are different in almost every other respect. Owen's poem examines the physical and mental effects of war in a very personal and direct way - his voice is very much in evidence in this poem - he has clearly seen people like the 'mental cases' who are described. It is also evident that Owen's own experiences of the war are described: he challenges the reader with terrifying images, in order that the reader can begin to comprehend the causes of the madness. Graves on the other hand is far more detached. His argument is distant, using ancient images to explore the immediate and long-term effects of war on the soldier. The poem is a meditation on the title, Graves examining the developing experiences and memories of war with a progression of images and metaphors.
English: Portrait of Wilfred Owen, found in a coll...
- the grave in communal cemetery
English: Portrait of Wilfred Owen, found in a coll...Mental Cases is a forceful poem, containing three substantial stanzas which focus on different aspects of Owen's subject. The first stanza is a detailed description of what the 'mental cases' look like. Their outward appearance is gruesome, Baring teeth that leer like skulls', preparing the reader for the even more horrifying second stanza. The second verse concentrates on the men's past experiences, the deaths they have witnessed and the unimaginable nightmares they have lived through: Multitudinous murders they once witnessed. The last stanza concludes the poem, explaining how the men's lives are haunted by their experiences, they go mad because the past filters into every aspect of their present lives, the men retreat away from the memories and into madness. The form of Owen's poem is, therefore, built around three main points: the appearance of the men, their...