Essay about The Beauty of Dulce et Decorum est

     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

    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.

‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is another of Wilfred Owen’s poems that conveys inner human conflict, in terms of past doings in World War I. The poem was written in 1917 at Craiglockhart (Owen’s first battle after his rehabilitation due to ‘shellshock’). It portrays an inner change in his approach to war and it’s gruesome environment:

His motivation to write this poem was to warn people about war using different literary tools. The poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, in the title as well as the closing sentence means that it is sweet and honorable to die for the fatherland. The statement “Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori” is undermined by the poem’s sensory detail, tone, and word choice.

In the first stanza, Owen describes a regiment marching through sludge, something not unusual for soldiers at the time. In the second stanza, however, he introduces a new threat, mustard gas. The speaker exclaims: “Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!” (Owen L9). As most of the soldiers are putting on their gas masks, one fails to do so. The speaker is left watching the man struggle: “flound’ring like a man in fire or lime…guttering, choking, drowning.” (Owen L12-16). After watching his fellow soldier succumb to the hellish effects of the gas, the speaker could not erase the images from his memory. In the last stanza, he chastised the people at home who romanticize war and challenged them to think about how admirable it is to watch a man die: “the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin” (Owen L19-20).

Wilfred Owen’s poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” makes the reader acutely aware of the impact of war. The speaker’s experiences with war are vivid and terrible. Through the themes of the poem, his language choices, and contrasting the pleasant title preceding the disturbing content of the poem, he brings attention to his views on war while during the midst of one himself. Owen uses symbolism in form and language to illustrate the horrors the speaker and his comrades go through; and the way he describes the soldiers, as though they are distorted and damaged, parallels how the speaker’s mind is violated and haunted by war.

“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.

Owen begins with a graphic description of men during battle. He uses words such as “old” (1), “hags” (2), “fatigue” (7), and “deaf” to get across the image of men who are worn out, exhausted, and elderly. In the first two quatrains, the iambic pentameter also helps get the point across by putting emphasis on the words stated previously. While this is not the most potent image in the poem, its immediacy works to show the reader

Another tool in developing the effectiveness of the poem is the use of compelling figurative language in the poem helps to reveal the reality of war. In the first line, the metaphor, ?Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,?(1) shows us that the troops are so tired that they can be compared to old beggars. Also, the simile "coughing like hags"(2) helps to depict the soldiers? poor health and depressed state of mind. Owen makes us picture the soldiers as ill, disturbed and utterly exhausted Another great use of simile, ?His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,?(20) suggests that his face is probably covered with blood which is the color symbolizing the devil. A very powerful metaphor is the comparison of painful experiences of the troops to ??vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues.?(24) This metaphor emphasizes that the troops will never forget these horrific experiences. As you can see, Owen has used figurative language so effectively that the reader gets drawn into the poem.

In his poem, “Dulce Et Decorum Est” poet Wilfred Owen utilizes horrific imagery, angry and disgusted tones, and a contrasting title to engage readers.

In his poem "Dulce et Decorum Est," Owen emphasizes the reality and brutality of actual warfare through his use of disturbing connotation and vivid imagery. Wilfred Owen was born in Oswestry,

In the poem, Owen uses this line to convey a haunting mood “If you could hear at every jolt, the blood come gargling… obscene as cancer, bitter as cud” this creates a haunting mood because when the narrator heard every time the man started choking he became some what to an emotional shock which will haunt him. In the song “Hero of War” Rise Against used to convey a painful mood was in the line “ A hero of war… just medals and scars” (52-54 Rise Against). This shows a painful mood because the narrator is trying to say that people just see the medals and scars that he got from war, but they don't realize that he had to go through painful, terrifying and dangerous events to get those scars and

The title is ironic as Owen later describes the destruction and horrors of war and how it is anything but a 'sweet' experience. The first stanza incorporates similes, and refers to the young soldiers as "old beggars" then mentions them "coughing like hags", which Owen has incorporated to portray how the soldiers aged before their time. The second stanza begins with the use of short words, "Gas! Gas! Quick boys!", which is used to draw attention. The soldiers are described to put their gas helmets in "an ecstasy of fumbling", where Owen incorporates a personification by describing the helmets as 'clumsy'. He uses a metaphor to compare the gas to a "green sea", where he sees a soldier "drowning". The third stanza is short where Owen describes his guilt for witnessing the death of the soldier, seeing him " guttering, choking, drowning", and not being able to save him. The fourth stanza accents the horrors of war where Owen describes the death of the soldier, and hearing "the blood Come gargling from the froth corrupted lungs". The poems concludes with Owen saying "The old Lie:"Dolce et decorum est Pro patria mori", which is highlights how the war is the exact opposite as many perceived

Maricris M. Etnel English 102 Kay - 4 Poetry Paper 22 June 2015 Explication of “Dulce et Decorum Est” In the poem by Wilfred Owen “Dulce et Decorum Est” was written in regards his experience during the war of World War I. Owen writes about the repugnance of the war that the civilians does not know about and fully understand. The speaker himself was in the military, and her is showing his readers through his poem the reality the soldiers have to face in the battlefield. He explains in his poem the naivety of people by encouraging young men to fight for their country which in turn sentence them to an unnecessary death.

Gas! Quick, boys an ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time", showing how little time they had to get their mask on. The poet then gives a graphic description of a soldier "floundering like a man in fire or lime", this description gives us an idea of what it looked like when someone was affected by the gas. He then shares his own view of the soldier "misty panes and thick green light, as under a green sea, I saw him drowning." Owens makes this comparison of gas to a deadly sea to show how awful he felt and how awful the situation was.