Dulce Et Decorum Est

How many people are willing to risk their lives and be miserable to honor their names? The poem, “Dulce et Decorum Est”, written by Wilfred Owen focuses on that. The poem describes the horror and cruel side of war as the narrator vividly tells us how war tears apart a person both physically and mentally. The use of imagery, similes, and connotation help shape the poem for people to understand that war isn't glorious at all.

The vivid and detailed imagery throughout “Dulce et Decorum Est” gives readers a better understanding of how heinous war is because we feel as if we are there with the soldiers ourselves. At the beginning of the poem, Owen, gives us a clear image of the soldiers: “Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots / but limped
on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind” (lines 5-6). This appeals to our visual sense, giving us a horrific image of what the war has done to the soldiers. The image of the soldiers “blood-shod” gives us the visual of injured soldiers in a lot of pain. We can imagine the soldiers covered in their blood and probably others’ too. The description is also so lively that we feel as if we are besides the men marching back with them or watching them from afar. The men had lost their boots and were barefoot on a painful battlefield. Some of them had also gone blind from the poisonous gas in the air. War isn’t glorious at all, the men described are torn apart both internally and externally. The image is so depressing that we can’t help but hate war. The narrator of the poem describes a scene in which the soldiers are suffering: “If you could hear at every jolt, the blood / come from froth-corrupted lungs” (lines 21-22). This appeals to both sight and hearing. We could distantly hear the men coughing and suffering in pain as they take their last breaths. We could also hear the blood splashing in every movement. If this is happening in this war then it is probably happening on all the other battlefields everywhere. Why would war be glorious if there is so much misery and pain for those involved?

The comparison between two awful things throughout the poem, because of the use of similes, helps the readers depict that there is no bright side to being on the battlefield.
The narrator compares war to something else that’s depressing, showing that war can only be compared to something else as bad. The first lines of the poem introduce the mood with these lines: “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, / knock-kneed, coughing like hags” (lines 1-2). The narrator compares two fallacious things to each other. Old beggars lead depressing lives of poverty and desperation and the battlefield made the soldiers feel the same way. They were desperate and exhausted from fighting and getting injured. Their knees have gone weak and fragile from standing on their feet and crouching for too long. The comparison of these two things has a deep meaning because old beggars are sad and miserable and the soldiers probably feel the same way too. The narrator describes an unknown soldier who suffered in the battlefield, he said, “His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin” (line 20). This is also somewhat of a hyperbole. The narrator exaggerates the man’s pain by comparing him to a devil who is sick of death and suffering which is kind of ironic considering that the devil enjoys those things. This comparison relates to the readers because the readers can understand how death is too much of a terrible price to pay for honor. The devil is tired of death and so are the soldiers. The
man’s face is hanging which most likely means that he is afraid of death and the suffering. And all the pain and suffering isn't worth the glory that comes from it.

Many words in the poem hold a deep feeling behind them, the emotions the readers feel through the usage of connotation illustrates the theme even more because the readers feel emotion and have a better understanding of the inglorious idea of war.
The words have a bitter tone behind them and it shows the dislike the narrator feels towards war. His dislike for war makes the readers also dislike because the bitterness shows that war is ugly. An example of the bitterness the narrator feels is towards the end of the poem when he says, “My friend, you would not tell me with such high zest / To children ardent for some desperate glory / the old Lie: Dulce et decorum est / pro patha mori” (lines 27-30). The word “friend” is ironic in a way. The narrator obviously doesn't see this man as a friend, he sees him as the opposite of that. His words hold a bitter and distasteful tone to them. He doesn't want the propaganda of war being glorified. The narrator is upset and disgusted that children are being told that honor comes with war. The word “lie” also sounds angry, he knows that glory from war is a lie because he experienced it himself. The bitterness adds more to the theme that war shouldn't be glorified whatsoever especially to desperate, innocent children who don't know any better. People leave for the battlefield in desperate need for their names to be glorified. But it's not like that at all. War is brutal and miserable and shouldn't be glorified, it shouldn't be a method for people
to honor their names. The usage of connotation, imagery, and similes throughout the poem helps illustrate the harsh ways that war changes people and how at the end of the day, people are willing to risk their lives just for the glory of it.