Analysis Of Dulce Et Decorum Est

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‘Dulce et decorum est’ depicts the intriguing and disturbing aspect of loss by personalizing it to focus on the death of one man, and its dehumanizing and inglorious nature. Owen reveals to the responder that modern war is inglorious; full of suffering that deprives the soldiers of human features. Owen uses imagery and sensory language to clearly portray the horrors in being caught unaware and of drowning in gas, to push the responder to question the use of propaganda. Transitioning from a slow start, the responders are thrown into the chaos to hint at the ruthlessness of war in being caught unaware. “GAS! Gas! Quick, boys! —An ecstasy of fumbling” a powerful enjambment depicts the moment of chaos and disbelief, expressing the soldiers rendered …show more content…

It is a shock when the soldiers suddenly spring into action at the start of the gas attack and the responder are given a chance to realize that the soldiers are really only young men, forced to mature through mental and physical burden. Owen conveys the vastness of the gas attack by employing a simile in “As under a green sea, I saw him drowning” the word ‘sea’ accentuates the thickness of the gas and the suffocating lack of air for the soldier. The dying of the man is personalized by positioning the responder in first person; “He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.” to create an emotional rapport between the two to elevate the feeling of loss. “If in some smothering dreams you too could pace behind the wagon that we flung him in” Owen creates empathy and pity from the responder through embedding them into the scene. Owen criticizes the loss of innocent life in “incurable sores on innocent tongues” to condemn the use of propaganda to attract innocent youths with false glory at stake. The poem moves from the battlefield, to an attack and the death of the man, to his dying and finally to the message “The old lie: It is sweet and honorable to die for one’s

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