Wilfred Owens’ “The Last Laugh” was an easy choice for me when it came to finding the poem that stuck and spoke to me the most. The graphic scenes, strong use of language, and the personification of weapons, which made them the main focus of the moan rather than the dying men, really shook me as I read through it the first, second, third, and even fourth time. It truly shows the human suffering against the machines and weaponry of war, and it does it in a way that differs from other poems completely. Not only this, but the detailed imagery through the very graphic words and phrases can make it truly gruesome to read.
I think this poem really puts into perspective how quickly a life can be taken away and how quickly lives were taken away during this war. So many stories ended much too early, all at the hands of the machines and ever-turning gears of war. This poem truly spoke to me with every line that I read, from the onomatopoeia that Wilfred Owen used all the way to the graphic and violent imagery that found itself imbedded in the poem as well. There were many great poems all throughout this semester, but this one specifically spoke to me the most by quite a bit.
I fully believe that poem is the perfect way to end and summarize the semester with its imagery and powerful use of language, very similar to some instances that we saw in “All Quiet on the Western Front”, and I was very happy that it came up in class Tuesday so we could all experience it together. It really was tough to pick just one poem at the end of all of this, but ‘The Last Laugh” was certainly it.