Mollie Buxton – Poem comparisons
DEAD MAN’S DUMP – ISAAC ROSENBERG
STRUCTURE
 Long and short lines in the stanzas represent the landscape
 Poem is very long. This can reflect the length of war and the length of
pain.
 Enjambment is used frequently in this poem, mainly towards the end of
each stanza. This therefore allows the poem to constantly change
pace. This could be reflective of the constant different activities going
on in war, and the fast pace can keep the reader on edge, almost feel
tension.
 There is no rhyme pattern however there is occasional rhyming
couplets, e.g. foeman and woman. This allows the poem to be
unexpected as we are unsure of what to expect with the rhyme. This is
just like the journey through war, some aspects are unexpected.
LANGUAGE AND MEANING
 Lexical onomatopoeia is used frequently throughout the poem;
Shattered, Racketed, Crunched, Spurts, Splattered, Crying. This allows
the reader to really understand the experience and trauma the soldiers
went through. The onomatopoeia really pierces the reader with all the
emotions the soldiers could be feeling, and therefore allows them to
have a real outlook at the brutalities of war.
 ‘Earth has waited for them’ – Mother earth has waited for them, and
she can now take care of them. She feels like she has them at last,
waited a long time. She knew they would die during this experience of
war and she finally has them to nurture. This can be seen as an
oxymoron as mother earth is seen as a beautiful, natural thing yet she
wants men to die and to come to her.
 ‘Our lucky limbs as on ichor fed’. The lucky limbs are the soldiers
dealing with the bodies, they are lucky to be alive. Ichor is white puss
coming out of the wound which creates a negative image for the
reader. Again portraying the brutalities of war and this show’s just how
lucky the loving soldiers are for still being alive.
 ‘They left this dead with the older dead.’ Personally I feel this is
really powerful imagery. The image I’m left with in my head is quite
horrifying. The treatment of the dead after is like they are animals, or
not even living things. The bodies are chucked away with the rest of
the dead, piled on top of each other.
 The poem ends with a graphic image. ‘We heard his very last sound
and our wheels grazed his dead face’. This just indicates that the
soldiers collecting the bodies and dealing with them are emotionless. It
appears to be an everyday thing to them that they have now got use
too. They are not seen as humans, sons, fathers, uncles anymore.
 Repetition is used throughout the poem. ‘We heard his weak scream,
we heard his very last sound.’
Mollie Buxton – Poem comparisons
 Religious phrasing is used in the poem. ‘God-ancestralled essences’
sounds angelic and almost like some nice imagery however in the
context it is made to seem gruesome. The pastoral imagery tends to
darken it rather than soften it.
OTHER NOTE’S
 Alliteration is used throughout to help the poem flow. Sibilance is used


(alliteration of s) e.g. ‘spirits’ shadow shake the grass.’ This rolls off the
readers tongue when reading, allowing to help create a visual image as
it is also the use of pastoral imagery. Again this is used with the plosive
B allowing the phrase to sound harsh; ‘Burnt black’.
This is an ugly and raw poem allowing the true brutalities of war to be
portrayed.
This poem was written in 1917, this was after the battle of Somme
(1916), so everyone’s views and attitudes towards war had changed
and was very negative.
COMPARRISONS
DULCE ET DECORUM EST
Just like ‘Dead man’s dump’, Dulce et decorum est hides nothing about the
war, however Owen is still encouraging war. The title describes that it is
‘Sweet and fitting to die for ones country’, when describing the happenings of
war he explains the truth of it, death etc, yet in a softened way.
Imagery is also used frequently throughout both poems although the choices
of words used are completely different. The imagery used by Rosenberg is
horrifying where as Owen has a different take on describing the war in the
best way possible. ‘’Green sea’ is used to describe the polluting gas killing the
soldiers. Although this is a horrible thing the metaphor he has used makes the
setting seem quite peaceful.
FOR THE FALLEN
‘For the fallen’ can be seen as a great comparison to ‘Dead man’s dump’ as
the poem is so optimistic. Both poets of these two poems have had
experience of war yet they both have a different opinion which is interesting.
The main aspect of ‘Fallen’ is to highlight patriotism and everything in this
poem has been euphemised to really cover the true brutalities of war, this is
completely different to ‘dead man’s dump’.