Wilfred Owen's 'Dulce Et Decorum Est'

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 conclusion, “Dulce et Decorum” by Wilfred Owen is a poem written with the clear purpose of destroying the heroic tradition by telling the truth about war. It doesn’t sugar coats the ugly reality of war, but describes in vivid disturbing details. Even if the poet died during the battles of the Great War, we can be very grateful that some of his works survived to tell the tale as it is. Not noble, regal nor godly, but

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.

One is to think of war as one of the most honorable and noble services that a man can attend to for his country, it is seen as one of the most heroic ways to die for the best cause. The idea of this is stripped down and made a complete mockery of throughout both of Wilfred Owen’s poems “Dulce Et Decorum Est” and “Anthem for Doomed Youth”. Through his use of quickly shifting tones, horrific descriptive and emotive language and paradoxical metaphors, Owen contradicts the use of war and amount of glamour given towards the idea of it.

‘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:

In the Henry V play, war is portrayed as a glorified game which makes war sound easy and harmless to the soldiers proceeding to fight. The quote "I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, straining upon the start" suggests the soldiers are ready to fight and are "straining" to set off, to start fighting. The quote "The game's afoot" suggests that war is described as a game, and that the "game" has started. This links to the poem "Who's For The Game?" written by Jessie Pope. The poem "Who's For The Game?" is deliberately written in a lyrical form, like a nursery rhyme so it is easy to remember. This creates an effect on the reader because it makes the reader remember the words of the poem, which would occupy their mind to make them think that they should recruit in war. "Who's For The Game?" is a

In the poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, it is very tragic and full of anti-war thoughts. In “Who’s for the Game?” by Jessie Pope, the author is pro-war because she talks about feeling the rush in war. The poems are very different from each other and both have a lot of good points. The mood and tone are very different and the author's ideas differ. They are both going to give you a different side on the war, weather you should or shouldn't go to war.

This image is definitely not the glamorous picture of glory that, say army recruitment presents; worse, the soldiers are doing worse than civilians. As soon as the next stanza “[m]en marched asleep. Many had lost their boots” (5). They have lost their usual awareness and move mechanically; that doesn’t sound appealing! It gets worse: “[b]ut limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind” (6). So now they’re limping, apparently wounded, covered in blood, and can’t even see? It worsens further, “[d]runk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots/ Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind” (7-8). The soldiers are so exhausted it incapacitates them, and they can no longer hear the bullets being fired. This poem sounds like a distorted nightmare, except the speaker is living it, and even reliving the torment of the soldier’s death while he is unconscious. Owen’s wording expresses that the soldiers are merely men, deteriorating and inconceivably overwhelmed the opposite of positive war poetry containing glory and honor.

The poems I have chosen to compare in this essay are Wilfred Owen's “Dulce Et Decorum Est” and Jessie Pope's “Who's For The Game?”. The two poems I have chosen to compare are both about the first world war. Yet the two poems have very different opinions on the Great War. My first poem, Dulce et decorum, is against the war and the injustice of it all. It is narrated by one of the soldiers who is fighting in the Great War and having to face the horrors of war. On the contrary my second poem, Who's for the game, is a recruitment poem.

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

The author portrays and convinces the reader not to go to war. In contrast, the second poem is an opposition to the poem " Who's for the Game?" The poem tries to explain that war is not at all glorious, nor is the death of a soldier sweet nor pleasant. In addition, the author says, "For there's only one course to pursue," meaning that our country has a goal to destroy another country in the war and the soldiers have to pursue this goal.

As an anti-war poet, Wilfred Owen uses his literary skills to express his perspective on human conflict and the wastage involved with war, the horrors of war, and its negative effects and outcomes. As a young man involved in the war himself, Owen obtained personal objectivity of the dehumanisation of young people during the war, as well as the false glorification that the world has been influenced to deliver to them. These very ideas can be seen in poems such as 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' and 'Dulce ET Decorum EST Pro Patria Mori'. Owen uses a variety of literary techniques to convey his ideas.

Conversely, Pope adopts a colloquial, sing-song-like tone in an effort to inaccurately characterize war as simple and effortless. Her application of the word “laddie” throughout her poem The Call communicates the informal and conversational presentation of the topic, for the word is often used in everyday, casual settings. Such a careful choice of language demonstrates her subtle downplay of the seriousness of war, for choosing to converse in such an informal manner when discussing a subject of this magnitude highlights her intention to equate war to the everyday connotation of her word choice. In addition, it allows her to appeal to her audience on a personal level. Rather than merely posing questions to her audience every other line, Pope chooses to address them personally with the inclusion of “my laddie”. Perhaps this intimate acknowledgment contributed to her poem’s success in persuading men to enlist. Likewise, the entirety of The Call exhibits her deliberate illustration of war as a sport or game, specifically in lines such as, “Who longs to charge and shoot” and “Who’s keen on getting fit” (Pope 11,13). These understated comparisons accentuate her sing-song-like tone, for they are consistently followed by rhetorical questions that challenge a reader’s loyalty and commitment. This rhythm Pope develops in The Call results in a forced steady read, much like that of nursery rhymes. Although indistinct, the rhythmic similarities between nursery rhymes and The Call

In the first quote, Jessie Pope is referring to the war as a sport such as rugby where you would be doing something brave, because it is slightly dangerous. Also you would be playing for a team, so by trying hard and putting all of your effort into the game you would be helping your team to win. The second excerpt is acknowledging the fact that you may get injured, but not seriously, and people would admire you for getting injured for the good of

?Dulce Et Decorum Est? belongs to the genre of sonnets, which expresses a single theme or idea. The allusion or reference is to an historical event referred to as World War I. This particular poem's theme or idea is the horror of war and how young men are led to believe that death and honor are same. The poem addresses the falsehood, that war is glorious, that it is noble, it describes the true horror and waste that is war, this poem exhibits the gruesome imagery of World War I, it also conveys Owens strongly anti-war sentiments to the reader. He makes use of a simple, regular rhyme scheme, which makes the poem sound almost like a child's poem or nursery rhyme. Owens use of