Dulce Et Decorum Est: Misplaced Romanticism Of War?

At that point the reader begins to see different light, understanding how Owen felt as he witnessed death first hand. Once the title of the poem has been read in its entirety, the meaning of the poem is enhanced. Now “Dulce et Decorum Est” implies a false cover, implying that war is sweet and brings one glory to serve the country. When in reality the reader learns that war is not kind, and takes without mercy no matter what side a soldier is fighting for.. “Sweetness” begins to mean “Sadness”, and from the title one would assume that war shows kindness to those willing to fight, but instead Owen explains how the honor of fighting in battle doesn’t mean anything when one becomes a forgotten corpse, left to rot amongst

Both Dulce et Decorum Est and Mametz Wood present the incompetent results of war. Dulce et Decorum Est indicates the horrible facts and deaths in war. Moreover, Mametz Wood highlights how precious life is and how easily it can be lost as a result of battle.

This essay will compare and contrast the way the poets Jessie Pope and Wilfred Owen present war in their poems. Who’s for the game? Was written by Jessie Pope in 1916 during the heart of the First World War. The poem is pro war and is a piece of propaganda that was used to recruit men into the British army. In contrast Dulce et decorum est is an anti war poem and shows the true aspects of war. The dates of the two poem do not differ a lot, this emphasises the time period does not influence they way that the two poets wrote their poems.

At the beginning of the war, soldiers were excited and enthusiastic about fighting and they saw the other side as non-human. However, over time, the soldiers were exposed to so much death and suffering that their views shifted to see the war as an unnecessary evil which destroyed valuable lives. As shown in multiple poems written during World War One, and in Remarque’s, All Quiet on the Western Front, through witnessing excessive suffering and death at the hands of society, people recognize their individual values over the values of their society.

In the poem ‘Who’s for the Game?’, written by Jesse Pope during World War I, a number of effective techniques are used to convey the important messages. The techniques used in this poem include metaphors and personification. These techniques help readers understand an important message by conveying the main idea of joining the war. This was shown by especially telling young, naive men that it would be an enjoyable experience and that they would be considered cowardly if they did not go. These techniques also provide a false depiction of war as written by Jesse Pope, a pro-war enthusiast journalist with no experience of war who published her jingoistic and propagandistic works to the public.

“Every war is ironic because every war is worse than expected,” Paul Fussell wrote in “The Great War and Modern Memory,” his classic study of the English literature of the First World War. “But the Great War was more ironic than any before or since.” The ancient verities of honor and glory were still standing in 1914 when England’s soldier-poets marched off to fight in France. Those young men became modern through the experience of trench warfare, if not in the forms they used to describe it. It was Yeats, Pound, Eliot, Joyce, and Lawrence who invented literary modernism while sitting out the war. Robert Graves, Siegfried Sassoon, Edmund Blunden, Isaac Rosenberg, and Wilfred Owen—who all fought in the trenches and, in the last two cases, died

What sets one work apart from another? What makes a paper, book, or poem, amazing, rather than just okay? The answer to that question is rhetorical devices. To be more precise, it’s how the author uses rhetorical devices. Anyone can toss alliteration or rhyme scheme into their work, but using rhetorical devices to better communicate one’s message to their audience, using rhetorical devices to develop the theme, takes skill. Stephen Crane possesses this skill, and it is evident in his poem, ‘War Is Kind.’ In ‘War Is Kind,’ Stephen Crane effectively uses imagery, irony, and repetition to establish that war is barbaric, horrific, and cruel.

The Civil War was an incredibly crucial but violent piece of America’s history. Taking place in 1861, the war was fought between the Northern and Southern states—Union and Confederacy (Civil War 2017). The primary issue being waged over was the need for slavery since it grossly mistreated and abused African Americans. Finally, after four long years—full of catastrophic casualties on both sides—the war ceased, and slaves were freed. Interestingly enough, the war’s impact spread beyond just slavery but affected the tone of American literature. War is Kind, by Stephen Crane, is just one of many examples of literature that became less about imaginative ideas, but rather focused on life—and the horrors that come with it.

While serving in the war, it may make someone feel like it is impossible. People fail to realize war can affect soldiers and destroy their mind. War has a way of leaving traumatic imprint on one’s mind. Authors tend to protest war whom served in the war. Writers protest war by using irony, imagery, and structure.

In the crucial times of World War I there were two extremely diverse views on the war; one being that it was a beautiful and romantic sacrifice and the other that it was a horrible and inhumane duty. No one really understood the true and harsh reality of war unless they witnessed the brutality first hand. In Wilfred Owen 's poem, "Dulce et Decorum Est", he conveys the dark side of the war. Through the intense diction, imagery, and figurative language that Owen incorporates he portrays the evil truth behind the war and derives a hopeless and dreary tone.

In the poem Dulce et Decorum Est, Wilfred Owen, a World War 1 officer and famous poet, portrays the terrors of World War 1 with the horrific imagery and alarming use of words. He goes in depth of his experience of a deadly gas attack where he lost a member of his fleet and how it affected him. The title is in Latin meaning, “It is sweet and beautiful.” The utilization of diction, imagery, and figurative language gives the poem a strong meaning while giving the audience an insight into the effect war had on the soldiers.

The purpose of ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ is to not embellish the truth of war, but to show how tragic and useless it is. ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ hints that it is “sweet and honourable” to be at war, encouraging soldiers to go, however, as the reader begins to read they find out that Owen is truly against war. Owen shows that the soldiers are ruined, both mentally and physically.

“No one hates war like a soldier hates war” Tommy Franks, an american general had once said . Personal experiences can greatly effect us in various ways. One aspect is writing. During the times of conflict, different poets were influenced by war, which influenced their poems. Wilfred Owen was one of them. Wilfred Owens’ personal experiences greatly influenced his writing in the poem. Of fighting in World War 1, his anti-war sprit would have been provoked, and would have greatly influenced his voice and language in “Dulce Et Decorum Est”. In this essay, I will talk about how did Wilfred Owens’ personal experiences with conflict influence his writing in the poem.

World War One was nothing like the roaring twenties that followed close behind. This war may not have taken place on the great soil of the United States, but it did affect everyone all over the world. The war especially had an enormous effect on those who lived on the fighting soil, but mainly those who served in the war and lived to tell about it. Wilfred Owen and Edward Thomas are only two of the several World War One poets who expressed their experiences through their poetry. Although the reader of their poetry can distinguish several differences between the two poets, one will also notice that they both also shared similarities within their poetry. Wilfred Owen and Edward Thomas lived through one of the most historic and tragic events in history, and they produced poetry that portrayed hope and the real-life encounters of war, therefore; leaving their mark in history.

Thank you for that heartfelt pre-war speech Sergeant Erin McGrath. It is truly an honour to be invited to share my views and beliefs about poetry during the war. Poetry contains important emotions, images and memories hidden in a text. It is a puzzle of words put together waiting to be discovered with a desire to be heard. A majority of people already know and understand what war was like and what it meant to those who fought. However, some people are often blinded by the reality and truths of war because of poets and authors that paint a picture of war as an exciting adventure.