Fury of Aerial Bombardment, by Richard Eberhart,

¶ … Fury of Aerial Bombardment, by Richard Eberhart, and "Dulce Et Decorum Est," by Wilfred Owen. Specifically, it will compare and contrast the two poems. These two poems show how different writers can handle a common subject very in their own unique style and voice.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

Both of these poems discuss the horror and stupidity of war, in very different styles. Eberhart writes of the fear of bombardment from the air, but even more, he questions why God allows war to happen, and why he created man so warlike and violent. "Was man made stupid to see his own stupidity? / Is God by definition indifferent, beyond us all?" (Eberhart). His questions are questions most people ask themselves when something horrible happens. They wonder where God is, and why he allows such things to occur, just as Eberhart wonders if he is "indifferent" to our suffering and stupidity.

Owen, on the other hand, does not question God, or wonder why he allows wars to occur. He simply describes the ultimate horror of war, watching a comrade die a horrible death. "And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, / His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin, / If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood / Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs / Bitter as the cud / Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, -- " (Owen). This is the ultimate waste of war, the loss of life for a goal that is often unknown and misunderstood. Eberhart also remembers the dead, but not in the horrific detail of Owen's solider. "Names on a list, whose faces I do not recall / But they are gone to early death, who late in school" (Eberhart). Eberhart illustrates the namelessness of war, and the uselessness of the dying, while Owen illustrates the final awfulness of death on the battlefield. His dead soldier is not nameless, he is a friend, and that makes his death all the more difficult and disgusting to the reader.

Owen also demonstrates the monotony of war - the marching in wet, muddy boots, the fear of the gas attack and bombs, the exhaustion and the endless feeling that the war being fought will never end. Men in war become almost immune to the suffering, they are almost like animals simply doing what needs to be done to survive. "Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, / But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind; / Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots / Of gas-shells dropping softly behind" (Owen). Eberhart also demonstrates the uselessness of war, by commenting on history looking back on wars, and still not understanding why they were really fought. "You would think the fury of aerial bombardment / Would rouse God to relent; the infinite spaces / Are still silent. He looks on shock-pried faces. / History, even, does not know what is meant" (Eberhart). He is still crying out to God for some meaning or understanding of war, but Owen has given up on God, and is simply trying to survive the experience.