Dulce Et Decorum Est

* A Detailed Study of “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen * * * In the poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, we see how the author presents powerful messages using irony with the translated title meaning sweet and fitting to describe the horrors of war. This, poem in particular, highlights the horrors of such a situation through the life of a soldier. In the poem, we are presented with the setting of a battlefield where the author uses metaphors and similes to describe the trepidations of war. It is this utilization of metaphors and similes - and its link to the theme of the poem – that makes this poem significant, and helps the reader to imagine what is being described. * Written in four stanzas, the poet conveys his feelings about the haggard soldiers, who experiences a gas attack and then has to watch as one of their friends dies in front of them. This poem is written using first-person narrative. The entire poem is composed of a soldier’s journey away from a battlefield and the appalling events they see on the way. One of the main events descriptions is of how the soldier and friend died on the battlefield. By using first person, Owen keeps the poem limited to only the speaker’s views. He describes how, “In all my dreams, before my helpless sight he plunges at me”, conveying how nightmares are haunted by what he has seen. * The setting of this poem is on the battlefield during the First World War. In the first stanza the poet set the scene, the battlefield, “we cursed through sludge.” Which tells the reader how the soldiers are living and working in these terrible conditions, fighting to stay awake and alive. This is significant as; it shows the reader how these soldiers are trying there very best to carry on, even in the worst of conditions. This also gives the reader a good mental picture for the setting, which could also just be the author’s state of mind, in which he pictures this scene many times before. * The mood of this poem is sad and dreadful for the soldiers who constantly wonder what will happen next. Every moment that passes is agonizing. In the first stanza he (the speaker) detests the ground they walk on and is predicting this walk to be a walk to “our distant rest” which can be either taken as their deathbeds or the sleep of which they have been deprived whilst fighting. This creates a mood of exhaustion. In the second stanza the gas shells that had been carefully dropped behind them awaken all the soldiers. The third stanza, the shortest stanza, is a very hurried and almost frightened to capture mood of the soldiers where Owen uses metaphors to make the situation more realistic to the reader. The final stanza is very sad and accusatory. The speaker tells the reader that what is happening is not fair and that it should not be condoned. * The tone throughout this poem is very bitter; the speaker seems to be angry and frustrated. Throughout this poem we see how the tone is maintained. At the beginning of the poem it is sad and expecting tone but as the poem goes on the tone becomes more loud and urgent, as if the reader were yelling at us the audience. Also, the ending really attacks the reader. Here the author uses irony, as he refers to the reader as, “My friend”. The reader are not his friend but his enemy. * Owens’s writing style is very thoughtful, especially with the layout of poem starting with the aching beginning. Owen uses alternate rhyming patterns in his poem his pattern being stanza one: ABABCDCD, stanza two: EFEFGH, stanza three: GH, and stanza four: IJIJKLKLMNMN. This gives the poem a very clear, concise and purposeful rhythm, his rhythm in the poem varying from the chaotic mess of war. Also another technique that Owen used was the amount of syllables in each line was 10 syllables then 11 syllables and so on. * This poem, which is written in four stanzas, uses one caesura, “And floundering like a man in fire or lime …” Here the speaker uses the caesura to capture the scene and to let the reader truly picture what is happening to this man who failed to put his gas mask on. He then goes on to tell the tragic story of how the soldier came to him out of the smoke and into the speakers vision. Diction is another essential way in which Owen’s writing style is very introspective. * In the first stanza we see almost right away how the author uses similes, metaphors, alliteration and enjambment. He writes, “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,” The author use similes to give us the reader an unambiguous picture. He compares young soldiers to old beggars saying that the war has turned the men into old and haggard homeless individuals, and generate a picture that the readers can understand. In the second simile he refers to these young men again calling them hags meaning old woman or witch. * Alliteration when he describes the men as ‘knock-kneed’. In the next example “drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots”, he describes the soldiers more indebted look into the soldiers changing characteristics and personalities due to the war. By changing characteristics and personalities, the soldiers are oblivious to what is going on around them, which was very dangerous for the soldier’s physical conditions. * In the second stanza Owen describes a very intense scene where the soldiers are reacting to the chaotic danger, he writes, “Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling”, here Owen uses caesura again to create a pause making it a very dramatic moment in the poem. By this pausing the author allows the reader to visualize what is going on for the soldiers. He then describes the boys dealing with an overwhelming of doubt and confusion about what is happening. “Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; / But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, And floundering like a man in fire or lime…” Here Owen gives the reader a clear visualization of what is happening to these men, although the author uses fewer words he gives a clear and precise image. In this quote we see how every soldier was accounted for in the foggy gas. One soldier failed to put his gas mask on causing this soldier to be theoretically in fire or in a substance that can burn live tissue due to severe pain. “Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, / As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.” Here the writer gives us one of the first symbolic metaphors, where he describes what slowly happened to the soldier who failed to put on his gas mask. He described the soldier as drowning, he compared ‘drowning’ in the toxic gas to drowning in water, he compares breathing in the toxic air to drowning meaning he was choking and couldn’t breathe. * In the third shortest stanza the reader is given a very vivid representation of what happens to this soldier. “Guttering, choking, drowning. Describe this devastating event. Again Owen uses the description of water to help to create a picture in which the soldier is guttering, choking and once more emphasizes on how breathing in this virulent air was as if been held under water against your will. When the author uses the word guttering, you can picture a gutter hawking out gunk and filth you can imagine that that is what is happening to the soldier. * In the last and lengthiest stanza the reader is given a lot to think about. Owen describes the dying mans face as, “His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;” the author uses a simile to relate the pain and unpleasantness of this poor mans face to the face of a devils which is tired of wrongdoing. “Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud” the reader understands that he is so ill that he is filthy as cancer and what is now filling him on the insides is dirty and crude, as tasteless and disgusting as cows already processed food. * Owen also uses alliteration when he describes, ‘incurable sores on innocent’, repeating the consonant sound of ‘in’ in both incurable and innocent tongues forgotten by those who where there, this also is a metaphor. In the last sentence we are given this ironic statement of, “My friend, you would not tell with such high zest/ To children ardent for some desperate glory, / The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est/ Pro patria mori.” This statement is ironic because of how he addresses the reader as friends but really he truly believes that the reader and the speaker are enemies not to fraternize with. This statement means that many people believe that it is glorious to die for their country but really it is not sweet and fitting. * In conclusion, the poem ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’, presents powerful messages using irony with the translated title meaning sweet and fitting to describe the horrors of war. He bestowed us with a story that had great meaning and important irony to make this poem understandable and recognizable through metaphors and similes. This poem was very interesting to read because it gave me some insight on what it was like to fight in the war during such a different period of time.