Owen raises the theme of the pity of war in ‘Disabled’ and ‘Anthem for doomed youth’. ‘He sat in a wheeled chair’ and ‘Now he will never feel again how slim, girls waists are’ are representing the pity of war because simply within the first line of the poem you can already feel sympathy for the victim of whatever the tragic accident is to come. Also saying that he will never feel girl’s waists again makes you connect with the victim and feel sorry for the fact that most soldiers could be injured and maybe killed never being able to return home to the lives they used to live and enjoy their joys before the war. Similarly in Anthem for doomed youth ‘no prayers nor bells, nor any voice of mourning’ shows the pity of war by presenting us with a picture of a dull horrid funeral where which no – one actually knows who died because so many under aged children joined the army only ending up to die or be traumatised for life.  This line of the poem tells us that many died without friends or family necessarily knowing.

            The topic war is pitiful is explored by Owen’s choice of language in these two of his poems. In disabled the language used to convey the themes isn’t very sophisticated although the language which Owen uses in this poem is still highly effective to make us connect to the victim of the accident in the poem. For instance ‘solemn man’ uses imagery to make you picture this person so that the reader can feel for the victim by making them connect with his emotions which can give you a wider  eeling of the accident which happened to this ‘solemn man’. On the other hand in Owen’s Anthem for doomed youth uses more complex language which works slightly more effectively on the reader to connect with the targets of the poem. ‘Only the monstrous’ and ‘Their flowers the tenderness’ are two different sides to the scale since the monstrous anger of the guns is talking about the effect war had on the soldiers who joined simply for the pride for fighting for their country. Their flowers tenderness of patient minds is representing emotions that family members and friends felt when someone died and how much their death had an effect on them.