Dulce Et Decorum Est Analysis Essay

‘Dulce Et Decorum est’ is a poem written during World War I in which Wilfred Owen tries to persuade people that it is not “Sweet and Fitting” to die for ones country. Wilfred Owen uses his own experiences to describe gas attacks he was part of as he and the group of soldiers left the front line trenches. He then goes on to say what it was like to the horror of watching someone who can not get the gas mask on in time and then has his own techniques to describe the image of death, caused by gas. He uses a variety of different techniques to explain what he feels about war and tries to get the reader to understand why they shouldn’t b using jingoistic phrases so light heartedly.

In the first stanza Wilfred Owen uses a variety of different techniques.
He uses metaphors to tell you that the men were tired, which is why “Men marched asleep.” He also uses similes “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks” and “Coughing like hags”. “Bent double” gives you the image that they had a great pressure on them, “old beggars under sacks” that they have physically changed and have lived in poor conditions. “Coughing like hags” has the impact that they are old women. Wilfred Owen also uses the senses as well, an example of this is “all blind” can not see any thing, “Deaf even to the hoots of tired, outstripped Five-nines” as though they can not hear them anymore as they are use to them. This is the first stanza that you are able to see that Wilfred Owen is going to be a ‘government’ solider, that he is saying what is really going on.

In the second stanza Wilfred Owen uses less poetic techniques but still has the same effect. The first point is that he doesn’t name the man “But someone still was yelling out and stumbling ,” he doesn’t name the man out of what could be respect. “Gas! Gas! Quick boys!” the person who said this also remains unnamed. Wilfred Owen doesn’t name either man though h would of known who they were. “Dim, through the misty panes” is referring to the gas mask glass. Wilfred Owen also uses links within different lines in the stanza “as under a green sea” links with the idea of “drowning” which is how he describes it in line 14 and 16. Wilfred Owen gets more personal in lines 15 and 16, “In all my dreams” he has had these dream and still is having these dreams and thinks that they may continue, “before my helpless sight”, he blames himself though whether he means in the dreams or the past event or both isn’t stated, “He plunges at me” he is making a personal statement saying that the unknown man was going directly for him and no one else, “guttering, choking, drowning” all has a flow leading to something worse ending with drowning, which links with line 14 “sea” effect.

The third stanza is one long sentence from beginning to end.
He uses the senses the most in this stanza as that is the most useful technique to get the horrors across. “And watch the white eyes writhing in his face” is a powerful line because the way it has been described you can see it in your minds eye, another example of his use of sight is “His face hanging, like a devil’s sick of sin”, this line also contains a simile. Sounds are another way Wilfred Owen uses to describe this event, onomatopoeia is used “If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood, come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs” is an example from lines 21 and 22, the way the onomatopoeia is place can not only get you to hear the sounds of the “jolt[ing]” and the “gargling” but you can see them in away. Taste is a very hard sense to put into a poem but it has been used once on line 23 with “bitter as the cud” this not only makes the impression of a very sickly, bitter taste it also makes you feel as thought you are nothing more than an animal. In the last four lines, lines 25-28, Wilfred Owens true meaning comes in to light on line 25 “would not tell with such high zest”, he is not saying not to say it because it is up to you but he is linking this with the poem and other of his experiences to say you would not if you where there you would not be saying these jingoistic phrases “to children ardent for some desperate glory” because children are easy to be moulded into the believing that it is a good
thing and it isn’t. It finishes with a powerful ending linking to the title, in fact it is the whole title and the ending of the original saying “Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori” means “It is sweet and fitting to die for your country” the three words Wilfred Owen has used to describe this saying is “The old Lie”.

In conclusion the last point that I am going to make is not only can Wilfred Owen use up front methods to try to get his point across he also uses an underlying method hidden, this is a social, the soldier’s slowly go down the social ‘ladder’ with them starting of as “beggars” they then go down to women with “hags” they then go down a massive drop to animals eating “cud”, it takes a turn then as these where the soldiers the people who weren’t who were the ones with the power over the children possibly teachers are in the last part, the last four lines, he gives no words to describe them but it is as if they are the ones who could change this for the better and didn’t want only a section of people doing this, he wanted every body to help.