Dulce Et Decorum Est By Wilfred Owen: Poem Analysis

World War 1 was the bloodiest war, and was a very important part of history, yet so many people only know one side of the war. Most people know the side of Jessie Pope and the Armchair Poets. Jessie Pope and the Armchair poets wrote poems about war, sitting in the comfort of their own home. Jessie Pope praised war; she made war sound so wonderful and encouraged young men to join the war efforts. Wilfred Owen did not like that those poets did not truly know what was going on, yet pretended that they did know. Wilfred Owen’s poem is very significant in the way that the poem shows what war is really like. Owen’s poem quickly became my favorite poem ever written. Therefore, I recommend that you keep Owen’s poem “Dulce et Decorum Est,” because he uses imagery and alliteration to effectively relay that war is cruel, and war is lied about. Through effective visual imagery, Owen shows the harsh reality of the war. Owen describes the soldiers as “bent double like old beggars under sacks…” (line 1). The connotation of the word beggars is not a positive one. Beggars are seen as poor and in desperate need. During the war the soldiers were not in the best condition, they would do almost anything to get food. The sacks being described in that quote are the bags that the soldiers have on their backs that have
In Part 2 of Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama and Writing under “War Poetry” it states, “My subject is War, and the pity of War” (page 711). Wilfred Owen’s poem proves that war is pity through his literary technique. Also the paper says “all a poet can do today is warn.” (page 711). Owen uses literary techniques to warn others of the horrors of war. Owen’s poem was in response to Jessie Pope and the Armchair Poets. While Pope was writing to entice young men to join the war efforts, Owen was warning people about the true horrors of war since he was living in