Dulce et Decorum Est
Wilfred Owen
Owen's poem Dulce et Decorum Est is a passionate expression of outrage
at the horrors of war and of pity for the young soldiers sacrificed in
it.
From the title of this poem people back home would have expected an
understanding poem, helping to overcome their grief at the loss of a
loved one, instead what they got was a poem expressing outrage at the
lies surrounding the ‘Great’ War.
The quote by Horace translates as ‘It is sweet and right to die for
ones’ country’, but the poem is about proving to people at home that
this isn’t a sweet and honourable way to die (if there is any). It
goes through the worst parts of the war and describes them in detail.
The horrors in these descriptions contradict the glorification of the
war
The poem consists of four stanzas, the first describes the soldiers,
the second a gas attack, the third Owen’s nightmares and last an
accusation to the people back home.
Owen’s poems are suffused with the horror of battle, and yet finely
structured and innovative.
The first stanza sets the scene as it describes the conditions the men
fought in and their feelings.
Owen immediately shocks the readers by describing the young soldiers
as ‘bent double’ emphasising their exhaustion and the way they slump
along, deformed by fatigue, I think this is an effective simile
because no one back home will be expecting their proud soldiers
described as beggars. The simile ‘coughing like hags’ was used
because the men who went into battle were relatively young, yet after
battle they looked old and ugly, hence hags. With this one sentence
Owen implies health conditions that no one at home would ever dream
of. Words like Hags, Cursed and Haunting are used as they all have
connotations of evil to emphasise the misery and hardship of the front
lines. Owen chooses his word carefully using ones the readers will
understand to describe processes they can’t, ‘Drunk with fatigue’
(Line 7), comparing the effects of being drunk to being overly tired,
for example the wavering walk, tripping and stumbling. This is
effective because everyone reading would know what it’s like to be
drunk. The ‘tired, outstripped Five-Nines’ being a type of gun, but
also the soldiers being sent from the trenches for some rest and
relaxation. He uses words like We, Our to show that he is part of
this mayhem. He seems almost detached as if he has seen this so
often, that to him it has lost the horror value that we feel.
In the second stanza there is a dramatic change in pace to demonstrate
In conclusion, depending on the position from which one views war, the standpoint may vary ranging from being supportive of the soldiers because those who die are dying for the country or they are completely unsupportive of war activities because it is a brutal and gruesome experience involving countless unnecessary injuries and deaths. Affected by a number of factors, the authors of the two poems have chosen opposing standpoints on the issue of war where Tennyson glorified it with the main message that it is an honour to die for one's country whereas the other, Owen suppresses the idea of war by illustrating all the horrid experiences of a soldier.
All exceptional poetry displays a good use of figurative language, imagery, and diction. Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est" is a powerful antiwar poem which takes place on a battlefield during World War I. Through dramatic use of imagery, metaphors, and diction, he clearly states his theme that war is terrible and horrific.
Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” and E. E Cummings’, “next to of course god america i” are poems that critique patriotic propaganda. Both poems use words and images to effectively depict the influence that patriotic propaganda has on war. “Dulce et Decorum Est” uses descriptive words to create realistic images of the horrors soldiers are faced with during combat, whereas “next to of course god america i” uses sarcasm to inform readers that the abuse of propaganda can be used to manipulate others. The attitudes they convey are quite similar; both suggest that propaganda is a lie; it is not sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.
Owen uses imagery constantly to convey the conditions and feelings experienced during this war. Firstly I will be exploring Metaphor as it is used so much in this poem. The first metaphor which I will examine is: “Haunting Flares” on line 3 of the first stanza. This quote has so many connotations, my first opinion on this was that the flares which the enemy are firing to light up the battle field are said to be representing the souls of the soldiers fallen comrades. This could also be said to represent the power the enemy has on their own mortality as the bright flares would light up the battle-field exposing everything to their view, this indicates that the enemy always seem to have power upon the soldiers, almost godly. The second metaphor which I will explore is:
Owen as a young soldier held the same romantic view on war as majority of the other naive soldiers who thought that war would be an exciting adventure. The documentary extract illustrates how markedly Owen’s perspective of the war changed, as noted in a letter to his mother while he was still in the front lines: “But extra for me, there is the universal perversion of ugliness, the distortion of the dead ... that is what saps the soldierly spirit.” In ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’, Owen’s change of heart is evident through the irony of the poem title and the ending line “The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est, Pro patria mori.”, an allusion to the Roman axiom made famous by Horace, which translates to “The old Lie; It is sweet and right to die for your country.”. The line depicts Owen’s realisation that the horrific nature of war through human conflict is not sweet and right at all, rather, it is appalling and “bitter as the cud” as death is always present on the battlefield. Additionally, Owen indirectly responds to Jessie Pope’s poetry, a pro-war poetess, through the reference “My friend, you would not tell with such high zest… The old lie…”, further highlighting his changed perspective towards the war which has been influenced
The poem is divided into three sections with each part dealing with a different stage of the experience. In the first stanza, Owen describes the state the soldiers are in. The first line states that the platoon is “Bent double, like old beggars” (1). This gives the reader a vision that they are exhausted and compares them to the look of beggars on the street, who often times, look very ragged and shabby. The line “coughing like o...
Just as the poem is written in a rhyme and rhythm that makes poetry easy to follow, the vivid imagery helps one to picture more easily what is going on in the poem. Owen brilliantly chooses words and phrases that illuminate the scene, making the reader feel as if he is physically in the scene along with the characters. For example, Owen describes that the Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots/ But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;/ Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots/ Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind (Gioia 782). A feeling of sadness and pity is felt as one hears the previous words. It is almost as if the scene of the soldiers trudging through the battlefield is being painted for the reader to actually visually ...
Wilfred Owen's poem "Dulce Et Decorum Est" was written during his World War I experience. Owen, an officer in the British Army, deeply opposed the intervention of one nation into another. His poem explains how the British press and public comforted themselves with the fact that all the young men dying in the war were dieing noble, heroic deaths. The reality was quite different: They were dieing obscene and terrible deaths. Owen wanted to throw the war in the face of the reader to illustrate how vile and inhumane it really was. He explains in his poem that people will encourage you to fight for your country, but, in reality, fighting for your country is simply sentencing yourself to an unnecessary death. The breaks throughout the poem indicate the clear opposition that Owen strikes up. The title of the poem means "It is good and proper to die for your country," and then Owen continues his poem by ending that the title is, in fact, a lie.
Wilfred Owen's, ‘dulce et decorum est’ allows readers to see what actually happened during warfare, challenging the government's way of recruiting young soldiers (like Owen's at the time) via propaganda and the ideas of war. Owen's challenges these ideas through his poetry by creating sensory imagery through the dehumanization of the soldiers, and by creating irony through juxtaposition and the title. The dehumanization of the soldier is framed by depicting the reality of warfare to the audience by projecting sensory imagery throughout the poem. The government represented war to be for handsome, young, honourable men but Owen's is giving the readers imagery that contradicts those ideas.
Although war is often seen as a waste of many lives, poets frequently focus on its effect on individuals. Choose two poems of this kind and show how the poets used individual situations to illustrate the impact of war.
The words Owen chooses to use in the poem describing the soldiers are peculiar choices. The speaker refers to them as “[b]ent double, like beggars in sacks” (line 1), very different from a typical idea of a soldier. From the beginni...
The poem ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen portrays the horrors of World War I with the horrific imagery and the startling use of words he uses. He describes his experience of a gas attack where he lost a member of his squadron and the lasting impact it had on him. He describes how terrible the conditions were for the soldiers and just how bad it was. By doing this he is trying to help stop other soldiers from experiencing what happened in a shortage of time.
Owen was able to evoke emotions through the use of imagery, as well as the usages of literary devices. This poet tends to use a lot of similes, metaphors and personification to express his image of the death and destruction of the war. ‘The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires.’ The use of personification gives the reader a clear feeling of what Owen is trying to express. Furthermore, sense of demonic force is also shown about torture for the soldiers. . Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle’- personification, alliteration and onomatopoeia combine as methods to make war seen more brutal, violent and cruel. His uses of describing ...
Owen emphasises that the massacres caused by war do lead to crippling physical damage. In ‘DEDE’, he conveys this by the use of simile paired with alliteration “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags”. These two lines, to begin ‘DEDE’ sets the mood of the poem, giving the audience a bitter greeting and asserts their fatigue. The comparison the men to beggars emphasises their ageing prematurely and that they have a lack of control over their life. Owen forcefully highlights how these men are going to war young but dying old due to the ageing of this war
In the first stanza Owen uses strong metaphors and similes to convey a meaningful warning. The first line, “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks”, describes the soldiers tremendous exhaustion. They have been brought down to a beggar’s level and are being compared to low society. To reinforce this the speaker says, “And towards our distant rest began to trudge” (3). Everything seemed farther and so the troops desire for relaxation and peace. Owen uses metaphors:”Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots/B...