Analysis Of Wilfred Owen's 'Dulce Et Decorum Est'

Throughout the ages, poetry has played--and continues to play--a significant part in the shaping of a generation. It ranges from passionate sonnets of love to the gruesome realities of life. One such example of harsh realism is Wilfred Owen 's "Dulce et Decorum Est." Owen 's piece breaks the conventions of early 20th Century modernism and idealistic war poetry, vividly depicts the traumatizing experiences of World War I, and employs various poetic devices to further his haunted tone and overall message of war 's cruel truths.

The speaker addresses the reader by saying that it is desperate how war is glorified to soldiers who are innocent young men, they are lied about the true terrors one experiences in war and how cruel of a lie it is. This is an example of an act of courage, the speaker has seen the horrors that new technology in warfare is like. The speaker comes back to write about the true reality of how awful war is impacting how it is seen by normal people. The evidence presented is of great significance as it highlights the impact of World War I on redefining the 20th century and it does so through the courageous actions of Wilfred Owen. Despite the outcome, Owen had the bravery to speak out through his writing, not remaining silent in war.

Poem one, which is called “Ducle Et Decorum Est” and it’s written by Wilfred Owen. This poem is about a soldier who is vividly describing his journey as a soldier in World War I and all of the horrendous events that he recalls. The second poem is called “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” is written by Alfred Tennyson. Tennyson is writing about 600 soldiers riding into the battle of death, but he was not a soldier in World War I. Due to the authors lack of experience in dealing with war, we are going to see a lot of different opinions and views on the topics when we compare the two poems.

How does Owen’s portrayal of the relationship between youth and war move us to a deeper understanding of suffering?

One is to think of war as one of the most honorable and noble services that a man can attend to for his country, it is seen as one of the most heroic ways to die for the best cause. The idea of this is stripped down and made a complete mockery of throughout both of Wilfred Owen’s poems “Dulce Et Decorum Est” and “Anthem for Doomed Youth”. Through his use of quickly shifting tones, horrific descriptive and emotive language and paradoxical metaphors, Owen contradicts the use of war and amount of glamour given towards the idea of it.

?Dulce Et Decorum Est? belongs to the genre of sonnets, which expresses a single theme or idea. The allusion or reference is to an historical event referred to as World War I. This particular poem's theme or idea is the horror of war and how young men are led to believe that death and honor are same. The poem addresses the falsehood, that war is glorious, that it is noble, it describes the true horror and waste that is war, this poem exhibits the gruesome imagery of World War I, it also conveys Owens strongly anti-war sentiments to the reader. He makes use of a simple, regular rhyme scheme, which makes the poem sound almost like a child's poem or nursery rhyme. Owens use of

who have not slept in a bed for weeks on end. In the description "his

Through poems with blazing guns, spurting blood, and screaming agony, Wilfred Owen justly deserves the label, applied by critics, of war poet. Some critics, like W.B. Yeats who said, “I consider [Wilfred Owen] unworthy of the poets corner of a country news paper,” (362) satisfy themselves with this label and argue Owen lacked the artistic merit to be given much attention beyond it. However, many other Owen critics like David Daiches interest themselves in trying to identify what unique perspectives Owen’s poems present and why those perspectives captivate so many people. Daiches argues that Owen engages so many readers because “he penetrates into the inner reality” (363) of the war experience. He

These soldiers felt a brotherly bond between each other in the midst of battle, creating a sense to do whatever it took in order to survive. Though Owen is writing in the heart of the Great War, he justifies the sympathy in those who battled by attacking those who are pro-war and those who mourn the soldiers yet do nothing else to stop the war. This letter was to have others see that, even though the soldiers deserve empathy, the people who brought on war are not worthy of a soldier’s life and are the true

Owen uses the contrast of the soldiers’ state pre-war and post-war to highlight just how much the soldier has lost through going to war. Physically, pre-war, the soldier is described as ‘younger than his youth,’ and has an ‘artist silly for his face.’ Suggesting that his beauty is worth capturing permanently in paint. The words ‘younger ‘and ‘youth’ emphasise this man’s innocence and boyishness, the tautology places emphasis on how young he is thus outlining his immaturity before the war and making his loss at war even more tragic. The contrast once he has returned where Owen

Owen also demonstrates that war is evil by destroying society’s view of a glamorous and glorious soldier, of which time suggested, further vividly illustrating man’s inhumanity

Wilfred Owen can be considered as one of the finest war poets of all times. His war poems, a collection of works composed between January 1917, when he was first sent to the Western Front, and November 1918, when he was killed in action, use a variety of poetic techniques to allow the reader to empathise with his world, situation, emotions and thoughts. The sonnet form, para-rhymes, ironic titles, voice, and various imagery used by Owen grasp the prominent central idea of the complete futility of war as well as explore underlying themes such as the massive waste of young lives, the horrors of war, the hopelessness of war and the loss of religion. These can be seen in the three poems, ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ and

the horror of the unjust deaths of young soldiers. “Anthem for Doomed Youth” is a poem about Owen’s

In the First World War people wanted the young men to go to war, but

    Through vivid imagery and compelling metaphors "Dulce et Decorum Est" gives the reader the exact feeling the author wanted. The poem is an anti-war poem by Wilfred Owen and makes great use of these devices. This poem is very effective because of its excellent manipulation of the mechanical and emotional parts of poetry. Owen's use of exact diction and vivid figurative language emphasizes his point, showing that war is terrible and devastating. Furthermore, the utilization of extremely graphic imagery adds even more to his argument. Through the effective use of all three of these tools, this poem conveys a strong meaning and persuasive argument.