Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
"Dulce et Decorum Est" was written by Wilfred Owen during the First
World War . Owen explains the problems and difficulties the soldiers
had to face each day. The poet describes vividly yet honestly, what
trench warfare was like. The poem begins with Owen explaining the
feelings of the soldiers whilst they march towards the enemy. The
soldiers are scared and frightened due to the lack of hope as they do
not know when the terrible war will end. The dreadful conditions have
a major impact on the young men and as a result, they look frail and
elderly. Furthermore, diseases and general unhappiness were common
among the fighters. This was because of the lack of food, adequate
shelter and sanitation. However, they most importantly wanted to see
their families again. The soldiers were advancing forward when the
captain, Wilfred Owen, ordered the soldiers to run from "green sea"
which is approaching them and put on their gas masks. All the soldiers
instantly have to put on their gas masks, which causes a sudden rush
of "fumbling/stumbling" and, unfortunately, "drowning." The third
stanza, which is only two lines, emphasises the significant impact
this incident had on the poet .The stanza conveys a powerful image in
which the man dies, as he was too late in putting on his gas mask. In
the final stanza, Owen is angry with the generals and politicians for
encouraging young men to fight for their country. Moreover, the poet
explains what happened to the man that died from the gas attack and
consequently uses this incident to convince readers that it is not
"sweet and fitting" to fight for one's country. The ga...
... middle of paper ...
...it was unlike the majority of poems I have read about the
First World War. I found Wilfred Owen to be a shockingly realistic and
expressive writer. Nevertheless, he wrote an honest poem, which makes
it even more appalling since they incidents did occur. Secondly, I
feel that the name of the poem was suitable because many readers at
that time would have expected the poem to be about the successes the
British army had made. However, the poem painted a clear and evocative
image of life as a soldier.
The pain of this piece of writing is that it actually happened.
Furthermore, the reader learns from "Dulce" that war is an ugly,
brutal and frightening business, which has caused so much pain and
misery of last century. I feel that when this poem was first published
that it was aimed at intelligent and sensitive individuals.
“Dulce et Decorum Est” shows how one soldiers need to survive indirectly causes another soldiers death. From the very beginning of the poem the reader sees how the war affects the soldiers. Fighting in the war has aged the soldiers, the once young men now “bent double, like old beggars under sacks, knock-kneed, coughing like hags” trudge through the warzone (Owen 1-2). The men, completely drained f...
They had lost their lives to the lost cause of war, which also killed their innocence and youth. They were no longer boys, but callous men. Wilfred Owen's poem "Dulce et Decorum Est", Pat Barker's novel Regeneration, and Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, all portray the irony between the delusive glory of war and the gruesome reality of it, but whereas Owen and Sassoon treat the theme from a British point of view, Remarque allows us to look at it from the enemy's perspective. The poem "Dulce et Decorum Est", an anti-war poem by Wilfred Owen who was an English footsoldier, states that it is not sweet and fitting to die a hero's death for a country. Right off in the first line, Owen describes the troops as being "like old beggars under sacks" (1).
Both Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” as well as “next to of course god america i” written by E.E. Cummings preform critic on war propaganda used during the first world war. Besides this the influence war propaganda has on the soldiers as individuals as well as on war in more general terms, is being portrayed in a sophisticated and progressive manner. By depicting war with the use of strong literary features such as imagery or sarcasm both texts demonstrate the harshness of war as well as attempt to convey that war propaganda is, as Owen states “an old lie”, and that it certainly is not honourable to die for one’s country. Therefore, the aim of both writers can be said to be to frontally attack any form of war promotion or support offensively
Another tool in developing the effectiveness of the poem is the excellent use of diction. The word "blood-shod" explains how the troops have been on their feet for days without rest. Also, words like "guttering", "choking", and "drowning" shows us that the troops are suffering in extreme pain and misery. If you haven't noticed, most of these words are examples of cacophony, which are words with harsh and discordant sounds. As this poem is about how harsh and terrible war is, Owen's use of cacophony is very effective in generating the tone of the poem.
Owen then moves on to tell us how even in their weak human state, the soldiers march on, until the enemy fires gas shells at them. This sudden situation causes the soldiers to hurriedly put their gas masks on, but one soldier did not put it on in time. Owen tells us the condition the soldier is in, and how, even in the time to come, he could not forget the images that it left him with. In the last stanza he tells the readers that if we had seen what he had seen then we would never encourage the next generation to fight in a war. Owen uses imagery constantly to convey the conditions and feelings experienced during this war.
Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” invites the reader to determine if they, like the speaker, would isolate themselves to preserve their present ideologies; while Wilfred Owen’s poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est” implores the reader to evaluate what they consider to be worthy of glorification. While the two poems are distinctly different in both time period and setting, Arnold’s poem is better interpreted by the extension of the imagery presented in his last stanza by the war setting in Owen’s “Dulce”. The imagery used in “Dulce Et Decorum Est” expands the reader’s understanding of “Dover Beach” by further illustrating the powerlessness of the position one is placed in, and that there is no difference between physical and mental isolation from the realities of change.
Ultimately, we have two poems which can be compared on the grounds of their subject, but are poles apart regarding their message. The structure of these poems is not what would be typically expected from a war poem, but are structured on the basis of these typical structures in order to create some sense of familiarity. Brooke’s poem expands on this familiarity while Owen attempts to deliberately sabotage it. In regards to content, Brooke shows throughout his perception of the nobility of dying for one’s country, whilst Owen uses all of his poetic techniques to show the opposite.
‘The Falling Soldier’ is one of many poems by Duffy which deals with the subject of human mortality. Duffy expresses what could have been over a harsh reality; this is characteristic of her as also seen in ‘Last Post’ and ‘Passing Bells’ which both seem to be largely influenced by poet peer Wilfred Owen’s personal experiences of war. In the ‘The Falling Soldier’ Duffy paradoxically captures the essence of Robert Capa’s famous photograph of a man falling after being shot during the Spanish Civil War (1936). She employs the form of an impersonal narrative voice, using second person to question the possibilities, to explore the tragic and cyclical nature of war. The futile reality of war contrasts to her central theme in ‘The Bees’ anthology of bees symbolising the grace left in humanity.
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...
The similes and metaphors used by Owen illustrate very negative war scenes throughout the poem, depicting extreme suffering of young men fighting during World War I. The first simile used by Owen describes the soldiers as “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks”, giving them sickly, wounded, and exhausted attributes from battle and lack of rest (1). Next, the soldiers are described as “Knock-kneed, coughing like hags”, which once again portrays these young men as sick...
“In what ways does the poet draw you into the world of poetry? Detailed reference to 2 poems”
The meaning of "Dulce Et Decorum Est" is "it is sweet and right", yet there is nothing sweet and right about going through what these soldiers went through on a daily basis in WWI. The first few lines use sad and depressing language to express an image of roughy soldiers pushing through an ever threatening battlefield. "Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, knock- kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through the sludge" (lines 1- 2) is the way Owen describes the soldiers. This dismisses the belief that the soldiers were happy, proud, and patriotic. This shows them as physically and mentally exhausted, still pushing forward towards the one and only goal of surviving. Their disintegrating body reflects their inner turmoil and tiredness. The horrendous quality of war is shown by the description of the soldiers "men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood shod" (lines 5-6) this enhances the fact that war is not normal. It seems unreal, much like that of a nig...
lost their boots but limped on blood shod" we get an idea of how long
“La Belle Dame Sans Merci” literally means “The beautiful lady without mercy”, written by John Keats. It is part of John Keats Romanic poetry. The poem is about a knight, described by an unknown person, who is “alone and palely loitering”. Later on in the poem, the knight starts telling his own story about a lady he met and his dream of Princes, Warriors and Kings who remembered the beautiful lady.
The Send-Off, by Wilfred Owen, is an ironic and dark humored description of how the soldiers The Send-Off The Send-Off, by Wilfred Owen, is an ironic and dark humored description of how the soldiers we’re sent off to the battlefront, during World War I (keyword “The Send-Off”). In this poem, Owen conveys to us that the soldiers are being sent to their doom. From the very start we sense the soldiers’ lost fate. The soldiers go to the train, they are singing joyfully, as if they are being sent to a country picnic, but of course the narration is omniscient, we know what lies ahead of them, and so simultaneously the lanes are darkening around them. Secondly, the soldiers are surrounded by wreath and spray, a wreath and a spray are decorative flower arrangements usually plac...