English Practice Speech

Think of a world where your voice is trapped and held back from societal norms and your identity is only defined by your role and not your character. (Pause)

Like a mirror, these poets reflect on their isolating experiences from these expectations. As esteemed by both Browning and Owen, we explore the power of poetry to affirm or challenge these concerns of their time.

The first poem, Porphyria's Lover, is a Victorian-era monologue where Browning affirms the contextual concerns of gender inequality between men and women and stringent societal norms of men objectifying women to be a certain way. During the Victorian era, domesticity was a woman’s primary role and the man was the “breadwinner.” Women's rights were extremely …show more content…
“That moment when she was mine, mine, fair.” There is an aggressive and passive tone through the repetition of “mine” to highlight his superiority and dominance juxtaposed with her inferiority.

Moreover, in the quote “One long yellow string of hair I wound three times around and strangled her.” the visual imagery of Porphryia’s hair symbolises her purity and emphasises the control and possessiveness the soldier has over her. This reveals the intersection of love and power from the soldiers' obsession, reinforcing the idea that there was inequality between men and women. This reflects the Victorian society's nature where a woman is viewed as an object rather than a subject, reiterating the gender inequality that ruled the era.

Ultimately, Browning affirms the strict norms and the inequality depicted at the time through tone and striking …show more content…
He contrasts his pre-war life as full of hope, but the truth remains “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori,” it is sweet and right to die for your country. How can it be sweet and right to die and suffer for your country in the face of such brutality?

Owen represents the brutality of war, stating “Legless, sewn short at elbow.” Through the graphic visual imagery, his disability is emphasised. Owen uses the word “legless” to harshly describe the state of his body, which indicates the irreversible damage left after the war, not only physically but mentally. This portrayal challenges the romanticised vision of war by highlighting its savage reality.

Furthermore, we can see that Owen challenges the expectations of the men through the metaphor, “And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race.” The “hot race” expression represents the soldier's sense of competition and ambition. This emphasises the moment when young men saw World War One as an opportunity to be victorious heroes. The use of the word “hot” creates a sense of his passion, implying that the soldier once lived a life of vibrant pursuit, to be “lapsed” from the race of life and then confronted by reality. There has been a shift from his pre-war to post-war attitude as a result of the horrific effects of