The Harsh Realities of War Illustrated in Dulce et Decorum Est?

During the course of Dulce et Decorum Est, by Wilfred Owen, the Horatian image of a glorified and idealized war is stripped away to reveal the bitter and vicious nature of a new era in the history of conflict. Language and imagery are employed to great effect in conveying this notion, in the rejection of the ‘strong and patriotic soldier’ stereotype, the description of the chlorine gas attack, the portrayal of the agonized and dying soldier, and the final scathing invective against those who exalt war, for example the intended target of the poem, Jessie Pope.

Stanza One of the poem uses depressing and pathetic language to convey an image of a ragged band of soldiers forging on through a torn-up battlefield. Owen describes the soldiers as ‘bent double, like old beggars’. This dispels the romanticized notion of soldiers as proud, upright, masculine beings, presenting them instead as broken and exhausted, stumbling onwards, thinking only of survival and rest, not patriotism and upholding the nation. Their crumbling exterior state reflects their internal psychological weariness and underlines the devastating mental impacts of such a brutal conflict. The word ‘cursed’ is utilized as a verb in the phrase ‘cursed through sludge’- the effect of this being that the men are presented as resenting everything about the War and have become bitter and disillusioned. The nightmarish quality of the war is highlighted by the description of men ‘marching asleep’, this enhances the notion that War is so far removed from the normalities of life it almost seems unreal- a strange and terrifying dream from which there is no real escape. An alternative reading of this quote could suggest that the men have become less than human beings, they are reduce...

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... nature of the Horatian concept as dead and useless. By carefully selected words and phrasing, Owen is able to expose the horror of war and condemn those who pretend it to be something other than what it really is.

If ever there was a war poem that holds more influence and power in the minds of the people, a war poem that ever did more to expose and dethrone the illusion of a glorious war, it must have been wrought by a master. Although it has points of criticism, such as awkward similes, it is for all its flaws a masterpiece of horror and harsh description that reveals the dark heart of the First World War. Owen’s impressive and total command of the English language, and the images that he forms in our minds utterly overshadows every false piece of nationalistic fiction that drew thousands of men in search of adventure and delivered them into the hands of Death.