'Dulce Et Decorum Est': A Literary Analysis

Owen explores the lingering effect that death has on those soldiers who survived the war, with emphasis on the speaker of The Sentry who ‘tries not to remember these things now’ and the soldiers’ debilitating experience of PTSD, alluded to in Dulce et Decorum Est as ‘haunting flares’. The impact of witnessing the death of war-victims reigns over the despondent survivor’s minds where the speaker in Dulce et Decorum Est states ‘all his dreams’ being consumed by ‘helpless’ grief. The final line of The Sentry utilises symbolism to contrast between ‘seeing your lights’, the hopeful positive reach by the victim, and the changing perspective to the speaker who reveals ‘ours had long died out’ referring to their metaphorical death. Owen alludes to death as the only outcome for the hopeless soldiers in Dulce et Decorum Est and The Sentry who were handed a lifelong sentence of anguish caused by witnessing the deaths of their suffering

In Wilfred Owen’s poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” the speaker’s argument against whether there is true honor in dieing for ones country in World War I contradicts the old Latin saying, Dulce et Decorum Est, which translated means, “it is sweet and honorable to die for the fatherland”; which is exemplified through Owen’s use of title, diction, metaphor and simile, imagery, and structure throughout the entirety of the poem.

Dulce Et Decorum Est illustrates how something as petty as fighting is never worth the loss of human life. In the poem, it describes a soldier's hatred to the fighting by saying, “Many had lost their boots but limped on, blood shot. all went lame; all blind; drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots of tired, outstripped

Lt. Cross will have to carry the weight of Lavender’s death for the rest of his life. He felt ashamed and hated himself. (O’Brien 16). Lt. Cross trembled and tried not to cry as Kiowa explained how Lavender died. “Kiowa, who saw it happen, said it was like watching a rock fall, or a big sandbag or something—just boom, then down.”(O’Brien 6)

In the poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, it is very tragic and full of anti-war thoughts. In “Who’s for the Game?” by Jessie Pope, the author is pro-war because she talks about feeling the rush in war. The poems are very different from each other and both have a lot of good points. The mood and tone are very different and the author's ideas differ. They are both going to give you a different side on the war, weather you should or shouldn't go to war.

The Call and Dulce et Decorum Est poems seem to emphasize on the concept of dying for one’s nation. In fact, as they retreat to their camp, they are attacked with some poisonous gases that are likely to kill them instantly. It is after one member shouts informing them of the gas that they all put protective masks but unfortunately lose one of them. Owen describes seeing the corpse as Satan who has had enough of sins which further asserts that disgust on his face. In fact, he mentions that there is froth and cud from the dying soldier’s mouth which also illustrates the gross state of his death.

The first poem, “Dulce et Decorum Est”, discusses many ideas pertaining to war. For instance, in the first stanza, the author talks about their experiences in war. The poem states “Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, till on the haunting flares we turned our backs”. This quote from the poem helps illustrate the author’s experiences or what it would be like in war. In the second stanza, they describe their challenges and struggles during war. In the poem, the author mentions “Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, but someone still was yelling out and stumbling and flound’ring like a man in fire”. This insert from the poem helps demonstrate the how war will make you feel when you start to see everything falling apart. Finally, in the last stanza, the author tells how their troubles and triumphs changes them. The poem states “And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, his hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; my friend, you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some

The poems I have chosen to compare in this essay are Wilfred Owen's “Dulce Et Decorum Est” and Jessie Pope's “Who's For The Game?”. The two poems I have chosen to compare are both about the first world war. Yet the two poems have very different opinions on the Great War. My first poem, Dulce et decorum, is against the war and the injustice of it all. It is narrated by one of the soldiers who is fighting in the Great War and having to face the horrors of war. On the contrary my second poem, Who's for the game, is a recruitment poem.

Owen reminds us that we have treated our soldiers shamefully and are complicit in their misery and suffering. This is the final point in ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’. The title itself works ironically, playing with the expectations of the audience who would have known the phrase, ‘It is a sweet and fitting thing to die for one’s country,’ and would have expected a poem about the greatness of war. Having described the appalling death

William Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” is a poem of inconsistent threads of an iambic pentameter theme. The poet seems to follow the iambic pentameter theme barely, but the further into the poem he gets, the less like an iambic pentameter the poem becomes. The first stanza/paragraph is eight lines of a consistent ABABCDCD rhyme scheme. After the first stanza/paragraph, the poem begins to fall apart and unravel as the poet becomes more infatuated with the terrors and the revulsions of the war. The second stanza/paragraph contains an ABABCDCD rhyme scheme, but the rhyming becomes more vague and forced as the intensity of the war nightmare increases. The last stanza/paragraph continues the same rhyme scheme, but contains twelve lines of rhymes instead of the typical eight line. The inconsistency of the line count through stanzas in this poem portrays a sense of the overwhelming mindset the poet is experiencing while seeing all of his fellow soldiers and friends gruesomely dying as he fights for his country and his life. The barbarity this man is encountering on the battlefield is messing with his head and is affecting his perception of keeping the poem within the form of a typical iambic pentameter theme.

Some of the most convincing stories are lies. Before the media unveiled the cruelty of war to the American public, it was up to those who lived through the horrors of war to do so. During World War I, many families believed sending a child to war was an honorable and romantic thing to do. They thought their son would be gone arguing diplomatically for justice and freedom. They thought they'd return just like they left, in one piece. Americans all over encourages young men to drop everything to go and fight. It wasn't until people like Wilfred Owen wrote home and described the reality of their decision, did people realize just what they were asking their boys to sign up for. In his poem, Dulce et Decorum Est, Owen’s use of tone

‘Dulce et decorum Est’ and ‘anthem for doomed youth’ are poems written by Wilfred Owen about his time in ‘the great war’ and all the terrible things the soldiers had to go through and all the pain it caused to not only the soldiers but also the people still at home and because of this and many other reasons these poems do reflect their context really well. And in these poems we get a first person view over the war as Wilfred Owen was also in the war, so he wrote a much clearer poem than those who weren’t in the war or who stayed home during the rough times.

Wilford Owen was a war poet that fought in France during World War 1. Parfitt, a literary critic, wrote an analysis concerning one of Owen’s best-known works, Dulce et Decorum Est. Owen had written a large portion of this poem while in Craiglockhart War Hospital (Parfitt, 3). He had to fight in trench warfare which was a very stressful experience for all soldiers involved. The war, itself, lasted approximately four (4) years from 1914 to 1918, but the after-effects that stemmed from it still exist to this day. According to an article analyzing Dulce et Decorum Est “the gas, whose effects Owen describes in the second stanza, is the odorless and colorless mustard gas frequently used after July, 1917” (Parfitt, 2). Therefore this poem can be attributed to the latter half of the war. The war itself was largely a stalemate due to the stagnant military practices that was over a century old, trench warfare, despite the technological advancements in weaponry such as the machine gun and gas bombs. Trench warfare (a very taxing and unproductive effort) become a stalemate where the soldiers on both sides were only losing their lives and their sanity.. This poem utilizes graphic imagery to display the despairing nature brought forth by the cruel side of war and the grueling deaths that were a consequence of it.

In Dulce et Decorum Est… Wilfred Owen informs the reader of the physical and emotional torment soldiers go through during and after war. In the opening verse Owen describes the soldiers physical health as they sluggishly make their way through the muddy terrain. Owen makes effective use of similes in lines 1 and 2.

Dulce et Decorum Est was the document that really resonated with me. Although the authors of the other three documents provided plenty of details and specifics rationalizing their viewpoints, I felt that Wilfred Owen offered a rare window into the frontlines of the Great War. Rather than trying to sway people by speaking of his ideas of modernity, Owen described in great detail being attacked by gas shells and watching his friend die from the gas in the attack (Pollard, et al., 2015, p. 716). Knowing that the general public tends to detach themselves from the horrors of war while simultaneously praising the war for the changes they are seeing or believing are happening, Owen used his poem to compel people to see the frontline, not just the outcome they are looking for. His last few lines most powerfully relayed his position on the war.