Disabled And Dulce Et Decorum Est

The poems Disabled and Dulce et Decorum Est have one main theme in common: War and Conflict. The poets have explored and presented this theme in similar ways through their commentary and the way individuals should react to the poems’ content. Disabled expresses the tormented thoughts and memories of a teenaged soldier in World War I who has lost his limbs in battle and is now trapped, helpless, to a wheelchair making him useless. Whereas in Dulce Et Decorum the Poet says it is not honorable to die and kill for one’s country Also, when one reads both the poems, the reader will understand that the poets have experienced war and gone through a lot.

The soldier in the poem Disabled has suffered a personal tragedy, the loss of his limbs. This has led to him feeling isolated and bitter as he listens to those who have not experienced war, taking life for granted, playing outside his window. Then persona spends his time sitting ”in a wheeled[ed] chair, waiting for dark”. ‘Waiting’ suggests that he has nothing and no-one to
distract him from his thoughts or to help him fill time. This is really disturbing as he has no-one to help him ease his pain because of his disability. This reflects the brutality of war and its devastating results. This has a visual effect on the reader and paints a melancholic picture in the one's mind.

Owen uses a simile to express his opinion on the soldier's’ physical condition. "Bent double, like old beggars under sacks" is a simile, which compares the men marching to beggars. ‘Beggars’ is the key word as it describes the condition of soldiers: poor and weak. "doubled" creates the possibility that the soldiers really have become two people, one before war and one after war. The soldiers have gone through a lot because of the war and their backs have bent like they had scoliosis because of bad posture and discomfort due to war. The reader would again have a visual effect as they image the soldiers with bent backs. Owen builds upon the sense of loss and despair that he has created and compares the soldier’s life before, full of excitement, promise, and hope, and after, lonely and hopeless.
“Town used to swing so gay...before he threw away his knees”. The word ‘gay’ is significant as it describes his life as happy. The tone changes from happy to sad as he shifts from Line 1,2,3 to Line 4. This makes the reader empathise for him.

Fighting in war is tiring and tough, which means that soldiers have to be fit and strong. "Men marched asleep", this quote is quite different from the other quotes. ‘Asleep’ is a powerful word here as it shows how tired the soldiers are, fighting the war. Even though the soldiers are fit, they are tired and weak fighting the war, and so to emphasise that, Owen makes this abnormality the norm that seems to be one of the major functions of this war. The reader would have a visual effect as he will imagine a fit man looking so
weak. Owen wants to show that forced celibacy will now be the disabled soldiers as anyone would look at him as an object of pity. “Tonight, he noticed how the women’s eyes... that were whole”, this relates to the soldier’s love life because of his irreversible state. “Whole” is powerful as it points to people with all the necessary body parts and so the soldier is no whole. This is very sad as he lost everything in his life, including love life, which makes his life not worth of living in. The reader would become sad as he reads this poem as one cannot just imagine the hardships in the soldier’s life.

Owen shows that after going to war, all parts of soldier’s body become weak. “Knock-kneed, coughing like hags”, shows that they have weak lungs, possibly because of use of chemical gases which would weaken their lungs. “Hags” is key here as it symbolizes the old women (or witches). It is suggesting that the state the soldiers are in is similar to that of an old woman, It has an even more powerful effect on the reader as the quote is a simile. The reader would have a visual effect as he/she would imagine the soldiers coughing and wheezing.

Int both the poems, the soldier had a good life before war and all the things that made his life fulfilling and enjoyable were irretrievably lost. Owen himself had seen war and experienced it, and also he wrote ‘Disabled’ while a patient in a military hospital. He would have been well aware of the kinds of life-changing injuries that soldiers invalided out of the Great War could receive. These facts make the oem even more realistic and believable.