Owen, Magnesium Pane And Quicklime In Owen's War

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

This is demonstrated in the line, ‘All their eyes are ice.’ The metaphor can be interpreted literally as the dead soldier’s eyes freezing solid due to harsh weather. On the other hand, the metaphor can be interpreted contextually, linking to the reality of war. The inner world of soldiers were impacted and altered thoroughly by the cruel savagery of war. For people, eyes are used to perceive and interpret the world. But by referring to the eyes as ice, Owen hints at the negative change in the way how soldiers perceive the world. Now with their cold, iced eyes, they view the world more cynically. On the whole, the metaphor conveys that the war had caused soldiers to have permanent trauma, as well as physical damage. As a result, this metaphor illustrates the traumatic reality of war beneath the government’s puffery propaganda. By presenting the negative aspect in the reality of war, Owen insinuates his anti-war

The use of repetitant capitalisation of the first "GAS" and the use of exclamation marks creates this mood. The next line "An ecstasy of fumbling" adds to the current poem atmosphere with everyone fumbling to have the masks on before being affected by gas. An anti-climax of helmets being fitted "just in time" misleads the reader into thinking that the helmets all were put on successfully but in the following plosive conjunction "but" the reader now understands this is not the case. Again in the last line Owen requests for the attention of the reader with the personal pronoun and simile "As under a green sea, I saw him drowning" an image of the fog of green air in which the soldiers disappear in is generated in the mind of the reader.

Wilfred Owen uses language and poetic devices to evoke sympathy for the soldier in the poem by using in-depth descriptions. An example of this is in the first stanza where the soldier in the poem ‘shivered in his ghastly suit of grey’. The ‘g’ sound in the words ‘ghastly’ and ‘grey’ emphasises the horror of ‘ghastly’ combined with the dreariness of ‘grey’, which are now the two main features of his life. The word ‘ghastly’ shows something that is strange and unnatural. The adjective ‘grey’, which has connotations of bleakness, portrays an image of darkness and monotony. Furthermore, the verb ‘shivered’ shows that he is vulnerable and exposed. In the phrase, ‘Legless, sewn short at elbow’, the sibilance at the end of ‘Legless’, and in ‘sewn short’ tell us that the short-syllable words are ruthlessly to the point, so it emphasises the fact that the soldier has no arms and legs because of his wounds.

The men were also “Drunk with fatigue” because they never had time to rest from the fighting and marching, and this metaphor makes it apparent that the men are so tired they are actually stumbling and staggering to continue much like someone who is inebriated would (7). The speaker goes on to use a simile to describe a man who did not get his gas mask on fast enough and now he “was yelling out and stumbling / And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime” because the gas was melting his insides and was acting much like a fish out of water would, suffering from excruciating pain (11-12). The speaker further describes the man suffering because of the gas, while he himself had his mask on fast enough, “As under a green sea, I saw him drowning” (14). When the speaker uses this simile describing the man drowning under the green sea, he is actually referring to the man literally drowning in his own blood because the sea of green gas had melted his lungs causing him to choke and die on his own blood. It is evident that the similes and metaphors the speaker is using to describe the soldiers and the entire situation of the war he is stuck within are becoming more and more gut-wrenching, and the speaker’s tone becomes more and more corrective and angry. The

Wilson Owen (1893-1918), a soldier that fought in WWI, uses aspects of prosody in his poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” (1917) to convey how trauma generates significant impact because one suffers from confusion during a deathly situation. The poet describes an experience he had while in war: “In all my dreams before my helpless sight, / he plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning” (Owen 15-16). Owen uses imagery to set the scene by describing his situation as something he cannot help. A fellow soldier is enveloped in tear gas and cannot find a gas mask so he plunges toward the author in attempt to receive his. Furthermore, he changes the rhythmical structure from iambic to trochaic in the last two beats, “choking, drowning” (Owen 16).

Wilfred Owen's poem, "Dulce et Decorum Est", uses striking and vivid imagery to convey the horror of gas warfare during World War I. Owen opens the poem with a description of soldiers retreating from battlefield. These men are exhausted as they "marched asleep." (line 6) The agonizing physical state soldiers lived through is grusesome and detailedly depicted by Owen. He explains how they "bent double like old beggars inder sacks/Knock-kneed, coughing like hags" (lines 1-2). Soon, "Gas! GAS!" (line 9) is shouted and the men go into an "ecstasy of fumbling" (line 9) to secure their masks against the green poison trying to invade their lungs. This new chemical warfare introduced in World War I was a deadly enemy that many were not prepared for.

Soon, this worry turns into horror as Owen describes the man as “guttering, choking, and drowning” (Owen 494) on the the air surrounding him. Owen explains to the audience that he wishes they could have been there to “watch the white eyes writhing” and “hear, at every jolt, the blood / Come gargling from fourth-corrupted lungs” (Owen 494), as the man is taken away. Also, by using such vivid words, Owen helps his audience to truly understand the casualties of war by creating an oppressed and fearful but accusatory tone.

Agent Orange was used to destroy crops and the jungle where the Viet Cong hid. Another U.S manufactured toxin was Napalm. The U.S. military combined Napalm with gasoline in incendiary devices to make flamethrowers that sent flames farther than traditional bombs. Napalm combined with gasoline gave off carbon monoxide when exploded which poisoned the air. “Among the more devastating explosives used in U.S. and South Vietnamese bombing runs was Napalm…”

Poison gas was used throughout WW1. Chlorine gas, phosgene gas and mustard gas were the types of poison gas used in WW1. Chlorine gas effects a person within seconds of inhaling its vapor. It destroyed the victim's respiratory organs, bringing on choking attacks. Chlorine is a yellow-green gas with a strong, bleach like odour.it smells as a mix of pepper and pineapple. Phosgene is a colorless gas with a mustly odor comparable to newly cut hay or grass. Phosgene gas reacts with proteins in lung alveoli, causing suffocation. Cause

Officer Owen has taught me a lot in D.A.R.E.. The biggest thing I have learned from him is how to live a Drug-Free life.

Owen also uses language of terror and powerlessness for the speaker as the poem progresses. Describing the soldier the speaker has seen fail to attach his gas mask, he says, “I saw him drowning” (14). He dreams of this encounter repeatedly, “[in] all my dreams, before my helpless sight/ He plunges at me” (15-16). In his dreams, he is not only powerless to aid this man, but

First, Owen uses logos to explain the horrible experience in WWI. The tile of this poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” means, it is honorable and sweet to die for own country, (Poetry Foundation), but the experience was too depressing. Owen uses the stanza like "But someone still was yelling…… man in fire or lime”, the ones who weren’t able to rich out their mask were choking and stumbling from toxic gas. Plus, a gas was all they needed to wipe out the field. (line 11,12) In line 5 and 6 he says, “Men marched asleep”, right before the gas blew off, some solders were men were sleep, as other limped their bloody feet as they lost their boots in battle

Slight confusion can actually be perceived, as the ‘ecstasy of fumbling’ ensues, with the soldiers obviously struggling to fit ‘the clumsy helmets just in time.’ This ‘just in time’ part implies that everyone is okay, and has successfully put on their gas-mask before the gas started to work its chilling effects. However, one soldier unfortunately fails to apply his mask, as is told as he was ‘yelling out and stumbling…flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.’ The horrible sight is witnessed by the narrator, ‘dim, through the misty panes (of the mask) and thick green light,’ which is actually the hazy, slightly luminescent fluid that hangs around them, probably chlorine gas. It is described as a ‘green sea’ in the next line, and so I think that this is a reference to the huge area it would cover, blighting anyone who crossed within the vicinity. The simile which compares the man’s actions to one who would be in ‘fire or lime’ is describing his desperate attempts – in vain – to help himself. Lime is a substance that would burn human tissue, much like acid.

This is when the poem switches from describing the setting to describing the one of the characters a dying soldiers. "And floundring like a man fire or lime" "As under a green sea, I saw him drowning" gives us a view of what they see using this simile as the one soldier dies very painfully not quick but its slowly. The narrator says that "In all my dreams, before my helpless sight" to let the reader know that he relives this moment over and over and is haunted by the sight. The gas weapon in the story is a very unique way that the soldiers can die and its not the typical way most people would think a soldier would die. Most peole think that death would be most common in battle with the enemy in a fire fight with bullets. The author does this on purpose to emphasize his theme, that it's not what most people believe about war.