Wilfred Owen Essay

Written by English poet and soldier Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Est Pro Patria Mori condemns the eponymous attitude towards war, which translates as “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.” Using point of view, syntax, and diction, Owen ironically subverts the title through the depicted horrors of warfare, lambasting those who repeat that “old Lie.” Owen begins the dramatic poem through a panoramic view of the battlezone, describing the soldiers en masse. Using periodic sentences, he stretches the lines as to reflect their sluggish trek towards “distant rest”. Moreover, Owen uses bleak diction to describe the soldiers, using similes comparing them to “old beggars” and “hags” as to suggest they are crippled by their extreme faitgure. In combination with this, he underscores their battle weariness through sensory deprivation, describing them as proceeding mechanically to their goal albeit “blind” and “deaf”; the parallel lines, “All went lame; all blind”, emphasizes their state of misery as ubiquitous amongst the collective of soldiers, rendering the slow fragmentation of body and soul

Qualifying the audience’s ability to share his experiences through “if” statements, he describes the now dying man from the previous stanzas in repugnant details, using similes to emphasize the dreadful sight. In addition, Owen employs sibilance to convey the surreal, repulsive nature of his experience, going as far as mentioning the “devil” in the same line; the sharp contrast between the writhing “white eyes” of the soldier and his “froth-corrupted lungs” create a blank-and-white presentation that further enhances the disturbing descriptions. Having communicated the horrors the audience is unable to share but through “smothering dreams”, Owen condemns the Latin phrase and title as an old Lie, lambasting the supporters of said lies who beguile their children with “high