Similarities Between Est And Dulce Et Decorum Est

Both ‘The Soldier’ and ‘Dulce et decorum est’ express the authors perception of war. Owen describes the bitter reality of war, whereas Rupert Brooke expresses the glorification of war and fighting for your country. Alliteration is used in both poems to establish rhythm and reinforce the tone. For the two poems, the titles are misleading. They contradict what the poem is actually about. For example, ‘The Soldier’ evokes the idea of wasted life when the poem itself revels that fighting in war for the purpose of making your country proud and protecting it memorable. ‘Dulce et decorum est’ makes us think that it is sweet and seemly to die for your country but the content of the poem disagrees. The poem contradicts itself. With resentment, the poem

There are many war poems that were written at the beginning of the first world war, one of these being ‘The Soldier’. They were written to persuade and manipulate young men that saw enrolment as exciting. Brooke welcomes patriotic death and expresses how he feel privileged to have been brought up in a country such as England. He saw it as a blessing. While ‘Dulce et decorum est’ conveys the reader of the ruthless reality of war and mocks patriotic death, Brooke uses ‘The Soldier’ to stress the fact that its honourable to die for your country. Wilfred Owen uses harsher, more repulsive onomatopoeic words which provide a cutting edge; ‘knock-kneed, sludge, trudge, guttering, choking, gargling’. Rupert Brooke uses softer words that are pleasing to hear (euphony). The changes in rhythm throughout ‘Dulce et decorum est’ creates a more bitter and cynical tone. Both poets use the idea of death to their own advantage. Brooke takes a different approach to Owen and uses the idea of death to express the fact that not only is it every man’s duty to fight and die for his country, but once they die the ashes physically enrich the already rich soil – ‘in that richer earth, a richer dust is