Critical Analysis Of The Poem Dulce Et Decorum Est

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, my friend, you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory, the old lie: dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.

Though to those who returned from war, for them it felt like they had never left. The poem Mental cases sets the speaker observing returned soldiers who have been administered to a mental institution. In the first stanza of mental cases, the subjects are objectified with the use of ‘these’ ‘they’ and ‘their’. This is to challenge the speaker to think of what could of caused their conditions and with the subjects being nameless it spans the fact that there is more than one returned soldier like this.

Good morning (Afternoon) my fellow disciplinaries, These words from Wilfred Owen, which helped shape our understandings of the human condition, our understandings of the realities of war and the horrific deaths of which were experienced and witnessed by the soldiers of World War one. Known as one of the leading poets of the first world war. Owen’s poem Dulce et Decorum Est, themed the horrors of trench and gas warfare are heavily utilised to contrast the public’s perception of war of that era.

The speaker describes these soldiers as ‘shadows’ which rock in the twighlight. As described from the first 2 lines. Though the severity is amplified in the rest of the stanza. With description such as ‘Drooping tongues from jaws’, shows how demented these soldiers have become with the trauma they have experienced. Further effects of witnessing of the horrors of war are also sensed in the sixth line, ‘Gouged these chasms around the...

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... decorum est Pro patria mori, It is sweet and proper to die for one’s country. Though in this case those soldiers would not be thinking so.

(Finalise background of Wilfred Owen)

With that said, this poem by Owens was mainly addressed to those who rallied the youth of England, who urged them to fight for personal glory and national honor. Though if they could witness the physical agony or experience the emotional trauma that the speaker felt then it would have changed their views. For death is not glorious or honourable and either is war.

To conclude, Wilfred Owen was an extraordinary young man. With impressively unique works of poetry which were influential and enduring, they will always be well known in the English language indefinitely. His testaments of the horrors of the first world war which had impacted an entire youthful generation will never be forgotten.