Dulce Decorum
Taylor 1
Dying for a State through Poetry Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est uses vivid imagery which removes any romantic ideas that it is sweet and honorable to die for the fatherland. Randall Jarrell’s The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner uses ambiguity to compare death for the state and abortion. Both writings convey the horror of dying for a state. The Death of the Ball turret Gunner begins “from my mother’s sleep, I fell into a state and hunched in its belly until my fur froze.” This is saying that the gunner was born from his mother’s warmth into a cold state, as he is born in the belly of a high altitude bomber. The “State” is referred to as cold and less nourishing in Randall Jerrell’s poem.
In Dulce et Decorum Est the poem reveals hidden truths of the first world war, and showed the cruelties the soldiers had to face on a day to day basis. Dulce et Decorum est begins “Bent double, like old beggars” (5) All the turmoil’s that young men were put through making them feel and look older than they really were, breaking them down making them lose their spirit they had as young men. What makes this poem unique is the fact that Wilfred Owen was there to witness the horrors of the first world war. Owen continues “An ecstasy of fumbling fitting helmets.” As the soldiers ran from the gas bombs their helmets bouncing on their heads, putting them at bigger risk of dying for your country. War is often glorified by others that have not experienced how horrifying war can be and they think that they can be hero’s, because of stories they heard as a child from a mother or a father that makes war seem romantic and patriotic so they should enlist in the romance of being that hero not realizing that the war is truly a horrifying experience. Owen states at the end of his poem “to children ardent for some desperate glory” (25) Children who think it is sweet and honorable to die for ones country because someone who has no experience has told them stories of
Dying for a State through Poetry Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est uses vivid imagery which removes any romantic ideas that it is sweet and honorable to die for the fatherland. Randall Jarrell’s The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner uses ambiguity to compare death for the state and abortion. Both writings convey the horror of dying for a state. The Death of the Ball turret Gunner begins “from my mother’s sleep, I fell into a state and hunched in its belly until my fur froze.” This is saying that the gunner was born from his mother’s warmth into a cold state, as he is born in the belly of a high altitude bomber. The “State” is referred to as cold and less nourishing in Randall Jerrell’s poem.
In Dulce et Decorum Est the poem reveals hidden truths of the first world war, and showed the cruelties the soldiers had to face on a day to day basis. Dulce et Decorum est begins “Bent double, like old beggars” (5) All the turmoil’s that young men were put through making them feel and look older than they really were, breaking them down making them lose their spirit they had as young men. What makes this poem unique is the fact that Wilfred Owen was there to witness the horrors of the first world war. Owen continues “An ecstasy of fumbling fitting helmets.” As the soldiers ran from the gas bombs their helmets bouncing on their heads, putting them at bigger risk of dying for your country. War is often glorified by others that have not experienced how horrifying war can be and they think that they can be hero’s, because of stories they heard as a child from a mother or a father that makes war seem romantic and patriotic so they should enlist in the romance of being that hero not realizing that the war is truly a horrifying experience. Owen states at the end of his poem “to children ardent for some desperate glory” (25) Children who think it is sweet and honorable to die for ones country because someone who has no experience has told them stories of