Dulce Et Decorum Est Poetry Essay
Describe at least ONE memorable use of language in the text(s)
Explain how this use of language helped you understand one or more key ideas in the text(s).
In the poem ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ and ‘The Send-Off’ by Wilfred Owen, he uses a variety of language techniques including metaphor, personification and emotive expressive language to create a huge impact on readers evoking feelings such as horror and pity of the soldiers and of war. Owen’s intention of using these effective language techniques was to convey the horrific reality of war and to shatter the myth of war as a glorious mission.
World War 1 (also known as the ‘Great War’) was a major war centered around Europe that involved countries from all over the globe between 1914 and 1918. Wilfred Owen wrote ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ during 1917, serving as a soldier in the appalling trenches. Unfortunately, Owen was killed tragically in action just one week before the war ended.
Owen’s use of effective imagery becomes memorable as it helps us understand the key idea that the glory of war is a myth. In the opening stanza, young soldiers are seen as “knock-kneed”, like old beggars under sacks” and “coughing like hags”. This simile lets us picture men who are exhausted beyond their limits. The young soldiers “march asleep”, they “trudge and “limped on”. They are “deaf”, “lame” and “blind”. All rather pitiful language. These metaphors and pitiful language completely destroys the clichéd image of marching bright soldiers and replaces it with a pitiful image of young men that look more like disheveled unkempt old men and hags than the young upright soldiers they are meant to be. Barely awake from lack of sleep, their smart uniforms resembling “sacks”, they cannot walk straight as their “blood-shod” feet caked in blood and wounds try to negotiate in the “sludge” and wastes of war. The words “blood-shod” creates a dehumanizing image as horses are shod, not men. Owen describes an abominable setting and creates a
Explain how this use of language helped you understand one or more key ideas in the text(s).
In the poem ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ and ‘The Send-Off’ by Wilfred Owen, he uses a variety of language techniques including metaphor, personification and emotive expressive language to create a huge impact on readers evoking feelings such as horror and pity of the soldiers and of war. Owen’s intention of using these effective language techniques was to convey the horrific reality of war and to shatter the myth of war as a glorious mission.
World War 1 (also known as the ‘Great War’) was a major war centered around Europe that involved countries from all over the globe between 1914 and 1918. Wilfred Owen wrote ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ during 1917, serving as a soldier in the appalling trenches. Unfortunately, Owen was killed tragically in action just one week before the war ended.
Owen’s use of effective imagery becomes memorable as it helps us understand the key idea that the glory of war is a myth. In the opening stanza, young soldiers are seen as “knock-kneed”, like old beggars under sacks” and “coughing like hags”. This simile lets us picture men who are exhausted beyond their limits. The young soldiers “march asleep”, they “trudge and “limped on”. They are “deaf”, “lame” and “blind”. All rather pitiful language. These metaphors and pitiful language completely destroys the clichéd image of marching bright soldiers and replaces it with a pitiful image of young men that look more like disheveled unkempt old men and hags than the young upright soldiers they are meant to be. Barely awake from lack of sleep, their smart uniforms resembling “sacks”, they cannot walk straight as their “blood-shod” feet caked in blood and wounds try to negotiate in the “sludge” and wastes of war. The words “blood-shod” creates a dehumanizing image as horses are shod, not men. Owen describes an abominable setting and creates a