Dulce Et Decorum Est

The poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" is about a soldier in war and some of the things he experienced. Wilfred Owen was a British soldier and he wrote the poem to let people back in Britain know that war is not as glorious as everyone thinks it is. He does this very effectively using descriptive imagery. The way he writes using tone and word choice effectively makes the reader understand that war is not glorious. In reality it is barbaric. This poem uses elements of literature to help the reader imagine just how gruesome war really is.

The main theme of the poem is the ignorance most people have toward war. Owen probably wrote the poem thinking, " if you only knew." At the end of the poem he wrote: 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. (25-28)

"Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori" is Latin for "it is sweet and fitting to die for ones country" (699). He was saying if they could only seen what he had seen, they would not think it so courageous and fitting to die in war. Since so many people were ignorant to the reality of war, Owen wrote it with such imagery that people would understand it's true horror.

Williams 2

This poem uses a lot of descriptive imagery. Owen wanted people to see just how horrible war really is. He described marching with such gloomy detail that you can picture soldiers beaten down, barely able to walk. Owen uses certain phrases with abstract words that spark an image in the mind. Examples of these are "coughing like hags," "drunk with fatigue," and "limped on, blood shod." Then Owen describes witnessing someone dying from gas. His description is so vivid that it would make any man fear war. Owen uses the word floundering to describe the man on the ground who has inhaled the gas, as if the man was a fish out of water. Then he says:

If you could hear, at every jolt the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues. (21-24)

This description of death is very effective in the use of imagery. He uses auditory imagery and taste imagery. When he mentions hearing blood gurgling the reader can easily imagine the sound of someone gargling, like they are choking on fluid. Then he says "bitter as the cud of sores" and you can imagine that it is just like tasting a rotten orange peel. He uses these types of imagery to help us understand and experience what it was like.

The tone of the poem is very pronounced. The author has a very distinctive attitude while he's writing to Britain. The attitude can be determined by how the author says something.