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How Is Dulce Et Decorum Est

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Wilfred Owen critically presents the horrors of war through his poems, “Dulce et decorum est” and “The letter”. With the use of strong language and vivid imagery of the event, Owen has managed to paint a striking picture revealing the true nature of warfare. In both the poems, he successfully portrays the evilness and obscenity of war in a brutally honest manner unlike other poets who focused more on glorifying it and honoring the soldiers’ sacrifices rather than addressing the hardships and long term psychological trauma they faced which puts his poems at a different level altogether.

The first stanza of “Dulce et decorum est” recounts the horrendous conditions of the soldiers during the war. The poet describes them as “old beggars” who were …show more content…

Here, Owen especially addresses her war poem “the call” which encourages young people to fight. He explicitly describes the aftermath of the horrible gas attack to her and the people back home who have been deceived by propaganda to believe that war is admirable. Using gruesome imagery like “the white eyes writhing in his face” and “the blood come … froth-corrupted lungs” Owen allows the readers to visualise the barbarous realities of war. He talks of how in some “smothering dreams” if Jessie too could see what it really was like in the battlefield, she wouldn’t be able to talk about it with “such high zest”. This evokes sympathy from the audience to the narrator and the soldiers who have been through this hell. Owen ends the poem the full saying “Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori” which he refers to as the old lie. As the poem progresses, the audience establishes that Owen is bitter about the encouragement given to go to war. He reveals the devastating truth of war and reflects on the horrific time he himself suffered. Through the use graphic imagery, strong language and a powerful voice, Owen convinces the reader that the old Latin phrase “Dulce et Decorum Est” is indeed nothing more than a …show more content…

The poem sets a buoyant mood in the beginning as the narrator says “we’re in the pink at present, dear” and “we’re out of harm’s way”. An almost hopeful tone can be detected as the narrator tells his wife “you mustn't fret” and talks about how he’ll be home soon. However, the readers soon establish that the narrator does not talk about the gruesome realities of war and remains positive so that his loved ones at home do not worry about his wellbeing. The self censorship used by the narrator is shown using parenthesis where he reveals the real situation which is juxtaposed with what he is actually writing in the letter to his wife. This self censorship represents how the letters sent home by the soldiers went through an officer first who heavily censored any gory details about their conditions in the battlefield, leaving their loved ones back home with falsely optimistic pieces of writing. As the narrator is trying to hide the horrors he faces in the battlefield from his wife, the parentheses - as mentioned before - clearly tells a different story. This makes the readers sympathise with the

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