Literary Analysis Of Dulce Et Decorum Est

Owen uses shocking diction to convey the horror of war. He uses diction such as “trudge”,”writing”,”guttering”,”choking”, and “drowning” to express the horrific struggle of fighting death when the soldiers are choking on mustard gas. He uses these words to express that there is nothing beautiful about dying for your country.

In this day and age war is a terrible act and is quite gruesome and not favored by anyone. War is not something that people are begging to get into, not is it something parents are begging their children to do. During the time of the First World War, many people that were living in the United Sates were led to believe that if you sent your children to die in the war, you were considered to be a great person that deserved much praise and dignity. The citizens that were never in the war had no idea what it was really like and did not understand that war was terrible and is not loving whatsoever. War was a terrible act of violence, which it still is today, and was not at all something someone should think of as romantic. In the poem, “Dulce et Decorum Est”, the author, Wilfred Owen tell about the truths of war and what it is really like. Owen uses high levels of diction, imagery and figurative language in order to convey the tone of the story.

When Owen 's poem and Vonnegut 's insights it shows that war brings anguish to those who fight it. In Billy 's event on the train, the other passengers only allowed him to sleep standing up because he would, "yell... kick... and whimper," from his anguish of war. Combined with Owen 's poem that is full of pain and struggle, there is no doubt about the clear theme, war is misery.

In “Dulce et decorum Est”, Owen demonstrates the effect of battle as confusion and exhaustion through the use of simile: “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks”. He characterizes the soldiers are extremely fatigued and anemic like “old beggars”. The word “double” exaggerates the soldiers’ movement to help indicate the physical effects of a clash. The phrase “bent double” has connotation of tiredness because the soldiers are exhausted while they “trudge” with their legs “bent

The poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen and the novel The Wars by Timothy Findley share several similarities when it comes to the theme being portrayed. Both literary texts illustrate that although one may suggest war is an honourable act of patriotism for one’s country, the detrimental effects of reality result in one’s loss of innocence.

As a society we look at our soldiers as brave and strong people, who go and fight while living in awful situations, however that wasn’t always the perception of a soldier. During the First World War people thought that going off to war and dying at war were very romantic things. Mothers and girlfriends loves if their young boy signed up to go to war, some even wished that their son or boyfriend would go fight. During this time the war was such a great thing to everyone at home that many poets would write sonnets and poems encouraging the young men to go off to war. These poets however had no idea what the reality of the war was. In the poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, by using figurative language, vivid imagery, and a certain diction, he describes the horrific despair that went along with war.

In “The Song of the Mud,” Borden describes the major role mud plays in war and reveals the huge impact it has as it covers the soldier, corpses, clogs the machinery, and restricts the soldiers from their value.“of vile, incurable sores and innocent tongues,” "a devil's sick of sin,” the blood coming from “bitter as the cud,” and “obscene as cancer” are all examples of imagery that help readers perceive the agony of war and fully express the repugnancy to war. Moreover, Mary specifically uses evocative words such as “invincible,” “inexhaustible,” “intrusive” and “impertinent” to illustrate the dreadful state of the fighters due to the mud and to generate a powerful tone. Similarly, Owen used words such as “guttering” and “froth-corrupted” to create that same tone as he described the gas attack he experienced and the resentment he has of war in this last stanza. On top of that, both poems contain irony to signify the opposite of what is said, set an ironic tone and to bring forth the authors’ aversion to war indirectly. For example,“The Song of the Mud” contains the line “covers the hills like satin” which is pleasing and makes you feel at ease which contradicts the fact that war is destructive and horrifying. Also, the word “song” in the title gives readers a feeling of enjoyment when in fact, the poem emits gloom. Owen’s main purpose of writing his poem was to expose “the old lie” which is “Dulce Et Decorum est.” This lie says that it is sweet and honorable to die for one’s country; the truth is that it is a waste of human life. Owen had first-hand experience of the tragedies of World War I and wanted to destroy the misinterpretation of it by portraying the reality of war. Yet this reality was long kept from the knowledge of the civilians at home, who continued to write about the noble pursuit of

“Dulce Et Decorum Est” shows that no man can say that someone should die in a war for their country unless they have been through war and seen what it does to people. The poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” illustrates step one of the apocalypse archetypes, that the world is becoming corrupt. Wilfred Owen, the author of the poem, was trying to tell people that the humans new technologies were destroying each other. When the narrator shot the gas shell, “Gas! Gas! Quick boys! An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time But someone still was yelling out and stumbling and floundering like a man in fire or lime dim through the misty panes and thick green light. As under a green sea, I see him drowning (Owen. Stanza 2). The narrator tells the story of him seeing a new human-made weapon, killing a person in cold blood. The gas shells being dropped in “Dulce Et Decorum Est” shows that the evolution of human technology to kill people lead the humans becoming more corrupt and follows step two of the apocalypse

Firstly within the poems, both Owen and Harrison present the horrific images of war through use of visual imagery.“And leaped of purple spurted his thigh” is stated. Owen describes the immediate action of presenting the truth of war as horrific and terrifying . The phrase “purple spurted” represents the odd color of the blood which was shedded as the boulder from the bomb smashed his leg in a matter of seconds. The readers

The fact that war is a life destroying machine and not patriotic nor loyal thing. The war has left him with being crippled. The use of “ threw away his knee” contradicts the idea that war is honourable. Instead his loss was a waste and no praised was given to him. “ Now, he is old; his back will never brace; He’s lost his colour very far from here.” Now his face has become withered with experience and sorrow. He looks old and his back will never be upright like how it was before. This can be a comparison to his life that by losing his legs, his life will never be like before. Now, he can’t support himself both literally and figuratively. Half of his lifetime has already becomes a failure,“ And half of his lifetime lapsed in the hot race. ” Finishing on the third stanza, Owen has used colour once again. “ purple spurted from his thigh”, it illustrates the bruises he had gotten from war and the deep impact on him, a colour signifying life and languor.

The poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen gives insight into how a soldier is beaten to the state of exhaustion in war which defeats the perception of how society has seen war as lighthearted for generations. The poem “Epitaph on a Soldier” by Cyril Tourneur depicts a soldier at a time of death, defeating the common thought of how death is seen as a negative thing and portrays the soldier as he is ready to die, welcoming his death. The critical and bitter tone in “Dulce Et Decorum Est” conveys the brutality of war to emphasize the disillusioned way society perceives war; whereas, the admiring and comforting tone in “Epitaph on a Soldier” conveys the contentment of an honorable death.

    In the poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est”, the author, Wilfred Owen exposes his bitter life while   concurrently illustrating the arduous life of a soldier in general. Owen utilizes various unpalatable  tones such as fatigue, strain, and bitter to help elucidate his  message that does not support the public opinion: “Dulce Et Decorum Est”(27). Instead, he expresses his own dissatisfied and  monotonous life through applying these tones in his poem.

During this session our stimulus was the poem by Wilfred Owen “Dulce et Decorum Est,” this showed us a version of conflict which is externalised: war. Our group took on the middle two stanzas of the poem and explored them:

The poem features a soldier, presumably Owen, speaking to fellow soldiers and the public regarding those atrocities. Correspondingly, drawing on the themes of innocent death and the barbaric practices of warfare, Owen expresses his remorse towards his fallen comrades and an antagonistic attitude towards the war effort through a solemn tone and specific stylistic devices. The poem is structured as free verse, contributing towards the disorganized and chaotic impression Owen experienced while witnessing these deaths firsthand, enabling the audience to understand the emotional circumstances of demise in the trenches as well. Throughout the poem, Owen routinely personifies the destructive weapons of war, characterizing them as the true instruments of death rather than the soldiers who stand behind them. Owen describes how, “Bullets chirped…Machine-guns chuckled…Gas hissed…” (Owen 3,4,15). Personifying the weapons demonstrates how pure soldiers have their innocence stolen from them through forced and blind usage of such deadly instruments. Accordingly, it is the weapons who truly receive the last laugh in the war as they kill both physically and spiritually, while soldiers are forever wounded in ways that can and cannot be seen.

‘Dulce et Decorum est’ is a poem written by Wilfred Owen between the years 1917 and 1918. It describes the life on the battlefield and how it impacted the life of the soldiers. Owen most likely used his first hand experiences from when he was a soldier in World War 1. This poem describes the soldiers personal perspectives of war using the bare naked truth, not glorifying it in anyway.