War Poets and the five senses.

Poetry can evoke a wide spectrum of emotions ranging from sadness to exultation through the poet's manipulation of the 5 primal senses; sight, sound, taste, smell and touch. This essay shall explore the emotive language used by Great War poets in order to evoke the senses in the reader, so that the more abstract issues in war can become tangible in those who are lucky enough to have never experienced battle. "All forms of imaginative literature, …

…to feel the poetic message in a more primal way. Wilfred Owen and Sigfreid Sassoon surely understood this as the senses are strong components of their respective works. This allows their poetry to speak to any reader, and explains their huge popularity among the poetic world. The five senses are difficult to describe and harder to use, but without them abstract issues such as in "Dulce Et Decorum Est' would be difficult indeed to appreciate.