Dulce Et Decorum Est Irony Essay

A similar attitude can be found in Wilfred Owen’s poem Dulce et Decorum Est in which the author reveals the horrors of war through several poetic devices. Owen’s attitude toward war is first revealed through vivid imagery found on lines 9-16 at which point the author illustrates the scene of a soldier failing to put on his gas mask and dying in mustard gas. Within this scene the author also uses aggressive diction with words such as “drowning”, “guttering”, and “choking”, all of which invoke in the reader a sense of sympathy and understanding of the horrible acts both witnessed and experienced by soldiers. Owen’s also employs different purposes for each stanza in the poem, the first stanza is very literal in the description of the soldiers, with a constant meter, until it is broken by different punctuation, seemingly representing the struggle of the broken down group to keep pace. The second stanza reveals an ugly and horrific side of warfare with the appalling description of a soldier in “an ecstasy of fumbling” for his gas mask but unfortunately fails to put it on in time. Owen then uses the word “drowning” to describe said soldier, which is both metaphorical, as he is lost “under a green sea”, but also to describe the atrocious effects of mustard gas which liquefies the lungs of its victims. The third stanza

     The irony in the poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” is that it is not sweet and fitting to die for one’s country when you have actually experienced war. Owen is describing how psychologically and physically exhausting World War I was for the soldiers that had to tolerate such a cruel suffering and not how patriotic and honorable it was. It shows the true life of a soldier, lying low, ill, endlessly marching through mud with bloody

From the earliest records of history, accounts of war have been portrayed as valiant acts of heroism. Children and adults alike have gathered together to hear tales of war and its glory. From the stories of Alexander the Great to recent-day movies like Saving Private Ryan, war has been praised and exalted with words such as bravery, honor, and freedom. However, Wilfred Owen's poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" shows the ugly, horrible side of fighting. By use of gripping words and vivid descriptions, Owen paints incredible pictures of what World War I was really like. He tears away the glory and drama and reveals the real essence of fighting: fear, torture, and death. No

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.

The writers of the poems “War is Kind” and “Dulce et Decorum Est” use not only imagery, but irony in their works. Specifically, in “War is Kind”, Stephen Crane states in stanza two, “Great is the battle-god, great, and his kingdom-- A field where a thousand corpses lie.” From this quote one can note the use of irony in the piece. Crane is comparing a soldier to a battle-god to display how people perceive war from the outside. One would not expect the kingdom of a battle-god to be a field filled with corpses. He uses these contrasting images to reveal to readers that war is not what is perceived by the general public. Many believed that war was glorious, but he uses this line to show the truth about war and what he experienced by incorporating the irony of the perception and reality of war. Wilfred Owen also uses irony in his poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” when he says that “someone still was yelling out and stumbling, and flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.” The title of this poem is “Dulce et decorum est”, meaning “It is sweet and right”. The title is contradicting to the horrific events that are demonstrated throughout the poem. He uses the poem to oppose the opinion that it was sweet and right to die for your country. The man in the poem did not die a glorious death that many believed the men serving in war

“It is sweet and honorable to die for one’s country” (Horace). Although many American’s believe this statement to be true, Wilfred Owen disputes it in his poem “Dulce et Decorum Est”. Owen uses an oppressed and fearful but accusatory tone along with similes, imagery, rhythm, and diction to show his disapproval of the war. With the diction and rhythm used in the story of a gas attack paired with figurative language, Owen brings his audience into the war with him and proves that it is anything but sweet to die for one’s country.

“Dulce et Decorum Est” is a poem written by English soldier and a poet, Wilfred Owen. He has not only written this poem, but many more. Such as “Insensibility”, “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, “Futility”, “Exposure”, and “Strange Meeting” are all his war poems. (Poets.org) His poetry shows the horror of the war and uncovers the hidden truths of the past century. Among with his other poems “Dulce et Decorum Est” is one of the best known and popular WWI poem. This poem is very shocking as well as thought provoking showing the true experience of a soldiers in trenches during war. He proves the theme suffering by sharing soldiers’ physical pain and psychological trauma in the battlefield. To him that was more than just fighting for owns country. In this poem, Owen uses logos, ethos, and pathos to proves that war was nothing more than hell.

The irony in Dulce et Decorum Est starts with the title as the translation for it means: “"It is sweet and honorable to die for your country", which is in complete contrast with what Owen states in the poem. Owen’s poem starts by depicting the severity of injuries soldiers suffer “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, /Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, The soldiers in the poem seemed to be involved in trench warfare which was a brutal place for soldiers in World War 1. These first three lines use imagery to show how the soldiers are crippled, mentally and physically overcome by the weight of their experiences in war. Lines 3-8 show that the day is coming to an end and that the soldiers are starting to march back to their camps. They are walking like zombies due to them being greatly exhausted from the day. “Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,/Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;/ But someone still was yelling out and stumbling /And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime... I saw him drowning” just as the men start to leave, they are hit with a gas attack, which comes at the worst time ever. The soldiers scramble for their gas masks in a frantic attempt to save their own lives.

The excessive use of irony throughout World War I literature paints a colorful scheme of thoughtfulness and style. Paul Fussell gives one explanation in The Great War and Modern Memory by stating that the war itself "is ironic because every war is worse than expected. Every war constitutes an irony of situation because its means are so melodramatically disproportionate to its presumed ends" (7). Writers obviously realized the irony of war and in turn wrote in this style maybe not by intention, but because it was inescapable.

The First World War was a time of great loss of life and bloodshed. Wilfred Owen, a soldier fighting with the British Army, wrote the poem Dulce et Decorum est to describe, possibly to the public, the horrific consequences of taking part and fighting in the war. During the poem, he describes the aftermath of a poison gas attack, and the injuries sustained by a soldier whom had inhaled the deadly substance. Owen uses gruesome imagery to vividly show in verse the horrible death the soldier faces, in the trenches of France. The poem Dulce et Decorum est is widely regarded as one of the greatest war poems ever written, and is a fine example of an anti-war protest in the form of poetry.

Wilfred Owens uses specific diction and imagery to set a gloomy, dismal mood, suggesting the irony of the title of the poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est”, which roughly translates to “It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country”. The word choice and the way it is arranged greatly impacts the poem. Owens utilizes strong grotesque language like “blood-shod”, “hags”, and “writhing” to display the truly disgusting and horrible truth of war. Additionally, he uses juxtaposition to bring out and emphasize this negative language.

“Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen takes its title from the Latin phrase that means “It is sweet and becoming to die for one’s country”. Quite often the barbaric nature of war is over romanticized and the author uses this title satirically to mock the public’s deluded view of war. The poem graphically describes the hell soldiers have to endure in their everyday battle for survival. These are tragedies of war that only veterans can fully understand and Wilfred Owen tries to enlighten the general public of these tragedies through imagery and similes throughout his poem.

In the poem "Dulce Et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen outlined numerous types of anguish and conflict that could be discovered World War I. Though in the poem, "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke, it demonstrates the torment and clashes of a little kid in a harsh home. In the “My Papa’s Waltz”, numerous strategies are utilized to demonstrate that there is tension between a father and his child. Roethke utilizes "waltz" in the title to be more subtle on the beating of the child. In spite of the fact that the poem may be perused as a warm memory of cheerful play, I believe that it is a negative poem when examined and interpreted closely, as depicted by the words and phrases the author uses.

In ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ irony was used in the title of the poem which means ’it is sweet and fitting’. This comes from the saying that was commonly used during World War One: “Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori” or “It is sweet and fitting to die for your country.” This title greatly contradicted the poems content, which described the gruesome death of a soldier from poisonous gas, which is a sickening and horrific, not sweet and fitting, way to die. In ‘Suicide in the trenches’ a rhythmic technique of iambic tetrameter was used to create irony. This creates a ‘sing-song’ effect, which is greatly contradicted by the diction of the poem. This describes a “simple soldier boy” committing suicide because the conditions of the trenches caused him to be “cowed and glum”. Irony was used in these poems to lull the reader into the belief that the poem was going to be cheerful and then shock the reader when they read the diction of the poem. The reader’s shock when they read the poem would have caused them to reconsider their thoughts on war and talked to them how disgusting war is and the poet’s purpose of how it’s wrong to disregard war or spread propaganda about it being glorious. The irony used also shocked me. which caused me to feel sympathy for the soldiers and the horrors they faced in the

The saying, “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori,” was once believed; it means that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. Because Wilfred Owen knew the horrors, he opposes this saying in his poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est.” The narrator provides vivid images of his experience in WWI which includes both the exhaustion the soldiers endured while walking to their next resting point and of the death of a fellow soldier due to gas. His PTSD shows us that the gas experience continues to haunt him: “In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, / He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning,” (ll.15-16). The narrator also explains why young men should reconsider joining a war if given the opportunity; it is not worth the horror. The war leaves, “incurable sores on innocent tongues,” (l.24), due to the overbearing evils war brings, leaving soldiers faces’, “like a devil’s sick of sin,” (l.20). Ironically, war is too much sin for the devil. The narrator emphasizes the vulgarity of a war, “Obscene as cancer, bitter as cud,” (l.23). Owen ultimately maintains that it is not glorious dying for one’s country because of the many horrors.