Poetry Ducle Et Decorum Est
“My subject is war and the pity of war. The poetry is in the pity.” How does Owem create a sense of the pity of war in Dulce et Decorum Est ?
Wilfred Owen was a poet born in 1893, and the poem Dulce et Decorum Est was probably his most famous one. Owen wrote this poem in hospital after suffering from both physical and mental injuries of the First World War. Having experienced war himself, he had a realistic view of the war and tried to convey this to others before he died at twenty-five years old. Dulce et Decorum Est focuses on a gas attack, and portrays that war is not honourable and sweet, as the title suggests in Latin.
The poem begins by describing the physical state of the soldiers. The poet uses similes to convey the ill-health of the men. The soldiers are described as being “Bent double, like old beggars” which characterizes soldiers as being prematurely old, and extremely weak for their young age. Metaphors are also used to draw attention to their weak state of mind, “Men marched asleep” is used to imply the exhaustion of the fighters, not only the soldiers are here physically but suggests also as they are mentally and “Drunk with fatigue”. The poet uses the personification of bombs when he writes “disappointed shells” which suggests the soldiers from the enemy side had thrown bombs and grenades unsuccessfully. This implies that in war, soldiers had a lot of chances to be bombed easily.
From the second stanza, we experience war through the naked eyes of a soldier during a sudden gas attack. The tone of the poem changes from a pessimistic calm with the slow walk of soldiers through the “sludge” to a tone of panic due to the gas attack. “GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!” these exclamatory sentences create urgency, which shows how the soldiers had to live in fear every day. From the gas attack, the poet uses again a personification by using “clumsy helmets” to explain that the gas masks provided were inefficient, and that soldiers almost had no chance of
Wilfred Owen was a poet born in 1893, and the poem Dulce et Decorum Est was probably his most famous one. Owen wrote this poem in hospital after suffering from both physical and mental injuries of the First World War. Having experienced war himself, he had a realistic view of the war and tried to convey this to others before he died at twenty-five years old. Dulce et Decorum Est focuses on a gas attack, and portrays that war is not honourable and sweet, as the title suggests in Latin.
The poem begins by describing the physical state of the soldiers. The poet uses similes to convey the ill-health of the men. The soldiers are described as being “Bent double, like old beggars” which characterizes soldiers as being prematurely old, and extremely weak for their young age. Metaphors are also used to draw attention to their weak state of mind, “Men marched asleep” is used to imply the exhaustion of the fighters, not only the soldiers are here physically but suggests also as they are mentally and “Drunk with fatigue”. The poet uses the personification of bombs when he writes “disappointed shells” which suggests the soldiers from the enemy side had thrown bombs and grenades unsuccessfully. This implies that in war, soldiers had a lot of chances to be bombed easily.
From the second stanza, we experience war through the naked eyes of a soldier during a sudden gas attack. The tone of the poem changes from a pessimistic calm with the slow walk of soldiers through the “sludge” to a tone of panic due to the gas attack. “GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!” these exclamatory sentences create urgency, which shows how the soldiers had to live in fear every day. From the gas attack, the poet uses again a personification by using “clumsy helmets” to explain that the gas masks provided were inefficient, and that soldiers almost had no chance of