Dulce et
Analyse how the writer uses language to influence the reader’s attitude towards a particular issue.
In the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est, Wilfred Owen uses language to attempt to influence the reader’s attitude towards the issue of war and the effects of it. Before reading Owen’s poem my personal views on war were vague and unclear and (like most of my generation), I had become desensitised through television and video games. Owen’s use of language and strong imagery has clearly shown me the ugly reality for soldiers who were often of a similar age to myself.
Dulce Et Decorum Est is a visually disturbing poem that graphically portrays the experiences soldiers faced during the First World War. The poem title translates from Latin to “It is sweet and right”. This gives the reader a false sense of security before starting with a jolt, throwing the reader straight into the very worst aspects of war as experienced by young soldiers. Owen uses language features such as personal pronouns, similes, negative connotations, listing, visual imagery, emotive language and rhyming couplets to highlight these traumatic experiences.
He makes it personal to the reader with lines such as “If in some smothering dreams you too could pace. Behind the wagon that we flung him in”. Here Owen invites the reader to step into a soldier’s boots and bear witness to these experiences. Owen’s use of “I” and “our” places him directly in the setting, adding weight to his words. Owen uses simile to describe the deterioration of the physical conditions of soldiers at war. Soldiers are typically portrayed as healthy, fit and robust men, however Owen erases this image and replaces it with soldiers “bent double like old beggars under sacks”, their bodies in a state of submission. He also uses this language feature to describe the intensity of the panic felt by these soldiers during the gas attacks “But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime .
In the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est, Wilfred Owen uses language to attempt to influence the reader’s attitude towards the issue of war and the effects of it. Before reading Owen’s poem my personal views on war were vague and unclear and (like most of my generation), I had become desensitised through television and video games. Owen’s use of language and strong imagery has clearly shown me the ugly reality for soldiers who were often of a similar age to myself.
Dulce Et Decorum Est is a visually disturbing poem that graphically portrays the experiences soldiers faced during the First World War. The poem title translates from Latin to “It is sweet and right”. This gives the reader a false sense of security before starting with a jolt, throwing the reader straight into the very worst aspects of war as experienced by young soldiers. Owen uses language features such as personal pronouns, similes, negative connotations, listing, visual imagery, emotive language and rhyming couplets to highlight these traumatic experiences.
He makes it personal to the reader with lines such as “If in some smothering dreams you too could pace. Behind the wagon that we flung him in”. Here Owen invites the reader to step into a soldier’s boots and bear witness to these experiences. Owen’s use of “I” and “our” places him directly in the setting, adding weight to his words. Owen uses simile to describe the deterioration of the physical conditions of soldiers at war. Soldiers are typically portrayed as healthy, fit and robust men, however Owen erases this image and replaces it with soldiers “bent double like old beggars under sacks”, their bodies in a state of submission. He also uses this language feature to describe the intensity of the panic felt by these soldiers during the gas attacks “But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime .