How does Wilfred Owen express his experience of the Great War in his poem “Dulce et Decorum Est”?
How does Wilfred Owen express his experience of the Great War in his poem “Dulce et Decorum Est”?
Dulce et Decorum Est is a well known war time poem set in the Great War, written by Wilfred Owen.
Wilfred Owen was born 18 March 1893 in Oswestry, Shropshire. From the age of nineteen, Owen had wanted to become a poet and wrote poetry that had no great importance. From 1913 to 1915 he worked as a language tutor in France. After feeling pressured from the propaganda that was circulating, Owen enlisted as a soldier with high spirits and optimism. Despite his high boyish spirits at the start, Owen had experienced the full horrors of the war and had lost all morale. At the psychiatric hospital in Edinburgh which he had resided in later during the war, he met Siegfried Sassoon who had a profound effect on him and inspired him to develop his war poetry. In 1918 he was sent back to the trenches and also won the Military Cross award. Altogether, there are 69 collected poems of Wilfred Owen with many of the poems that he writ to his mother, and about war, not included in this collection. His poetry is characterised by powerful descriptions of the conditions faced by soldiers in the trenches. Owen, it seems, is narrating the poem ‘Dulce et Decorum Est” as first person pronouns are continuously used. The poem is set on a war field, most likely during a battle. The surroundings seem to be chaotic, as if the war is playing around him- or through him. Owen also seems to be engaging in the war while narrating the poem. The poem intends to reveal the horrors and realities of the Great War and is addressed to readers on the Home Front with a purpose of trying to confront the biased and misleading propaganda. The people at home will have been fed the images of heroicness in war but Owen seems to want to confront the propaganda and make it clear that the propaganda is deceitful. “Dulce et Decorum Est” is also trying to confront young wannabe soldiers to tell them that the war is
Dulce et Decorum Est is a well known war time poem set in the Great War, written by Wilfred Owen.
Wilfred Owen was born 18 March 1893 in Oswestry, Shropshire. From the age of nineteen, Owen had wanted to become a poet and wrote poetry that had no great importance. From 1913 to 1915 he worked as a language tutor in France. After feeling pressured from the propaganda that was circulating, Owen enlisted as a soldier with high spirits and optimism. Despite his high boyish spirits at the start, Owen had experienced the full horrors of the war and had lost all morale. At the psychiatric hospital in Edinburgh which he had resided in later during the war, he met Siegfried Sassoon who had a profound effect on him and inspired him to develop his war poetry. In 1918 he was sent back to the trenches and also won the Military Cross award. Altogether, there are 69 collected poems of Wilfred Owen with many of the poems that he writ to his mother, and about war, not included in this collection. His poetry is characterised by powerful descriptions of the conditions faced by soldiers in the trenches. Owen, it seems, is narrating the poem ‘Dulce et Decorum Est” as first person pronouns are continuously used. The poem is set on a war field, most likely during a battle. The surroundings seem to be chaotic, as if the war is playing around him- or through him. Owen also seems to be engaging in the war while narrating the poem. The poem intends to reveal the horrors and realities of the Great War and is addressed to readers on the Home Front with a purpose of trying to confront the biased and misleading propaganda. The people at home will have been fed the images of heroicness in war but Owen seems to want to confront the propaganda and make it clear that the propaganda is deceitful. “Dulce et Decorum Est” is also trying to confront young wannabe soldiers to tell them that the war is