Wilfred Owen Use Similes In Dulce Et Decorum Est

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.

Throughout the ages, poetry has played--and continues to play--a significant part in the shaping of a generation. It ranges from passionate sonnets of love to the gruesome realities of life. One such example of harsh realism is Wilfred Owen 's "Dulce et Decorum Est." Owen 's piece breaks the conventions of early 20th Century modernism and idealistic war poetry, vividly depicts the traumatizing experiences of World War I, and employs various poetic devices to further his haunted tone and overall message of war 's cruel truths.

Wilfred Owen’s poetry effectively conveys his perspectives on human conflict through his experiences during The Great War. Poems such as ‘Futility’ and ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ portray these perceptions through the use of poetic techniques, emphasising such conflicts involving himself, other people and nature. These themes are examined in extreme detail, attempting to shape meaning in relation to Owen’s first-hand encounters whilst fighting on the battlefield.

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.

With the opening stanza, Owen starts off with a simile in line one, “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks”. The poet is trying to stem away from the ideal that people believe soldiers are suppose be fresh, strong, and healthy because of how propaganda influenced them to think that way. Through the use of the first line, he shows the true, harsh reality by presenting the boys as filthy beggars and not the strong willed and handsome men they were thought to be. Another simile used to show the harsh reality of World War 1 is, “coughing like hags”, as it “indicates a state of severe fatigue and serious illness” (Benson 43) that the men suffered through in the trench warfare. Finally, Owen uses the simile, “Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud”, to help allude to the “vileness of a disease

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).

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

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 Wilfred Owen’s poem, “Dulce Et Decorum Est”, Owen addresses the harmful lies with which war is presented, portraying war as the horrific brutality that it is rather than the glorified, honorable act that it is typically presented as. Owen asserts that war is not glorious, but rather a monstrosity. In order to emphasize this point, he utilizes various forms of imagery to illustrate this reality fully. Owen’s use of imagery places the reader with the soldiers, forcing them to imagine the grotesque scene and picture themselves there with the soldiers.

Wilfred Owen's poem ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ shows how harsh and terrible war really was. Owen uses language features such as similes, personification and strong adjectives to make the readers feel pity, disbelief and disgust at the struggles these men went through during the war. Throughout the poem the poet makes the reader feel disgust using violent imagery to show the harsh conditions that the soldiers experienced, and how the war affected them. This is shown when an unlucky soldier is described dying in a gas attack.

Wilfred Owen’s poetry acts as a medium for people to deepen their understanding of the terrors of war, such as death, suffering, pain and hopelessness. He speaks for those who have been to war, they can truly understand war as they lived and experience these horrors. While those back at home are ignorant to these facts due to the jingoistic propaganda by the government, Owen attempts to open their eyes to this atrocity. These narratives of war are made terrifyingly apparent in “Dulce et Decorum Est” where the responders breathe the air of death. While in “Futility”, Owen uses an extended metaphor of the sun to reinforce how there is no hope of life for the personas.

(l. 16) meaning he’s petrified of being gassed after watching his fellow soldier. As the poem ends, Owen uses two metaphors to describe how horrible war is. He describes: “ Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud,” (l. 23) which explains that war is as destructive as cancer.

Wilfred Owen’s condemnation of war and its cruel ability to dehumanise individuals displays to readers the brutal nature of war, portrayed through the perspective of a soldier’s own experience. This true insidious nature of war is explored throughout his poems ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ and ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’. Owen’s use of poetic devices as well as the representation of the soldier’s perspective allows him to challenge the political ideologies of the time and reveal the true atrocities of war, exposing the lies of the government’s propaganda.