The term “...under sacks” also gives the reader an inkling of the fact that they are filled with trepidation of what lies ahead. Though discomforted by the suffering war inevitably involves, and their bodies withered by the harsh brutality of battle, thinking war was behind them, they still keep guard; “Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs… Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on” (lines 3-6).
Yet again the reader is drawn in the graphic war scene, made more vivid by his own involvement; “we cursed through the sludge” (line 2). Fatigue is emphatically reinforced by language such as “trudge” and “lame”, likewise “Drunk with fatigue” is a vivid image, illuminating the scene as they struggle through and endeavour to put war behind them.
Onomatopoeic words such as “sludge and “trudge” help to capture the anguish which is experienced by the soldiers. Furthermore, these help to reinforce the rhyme scheme, which is as regular as a drum beat. The alliteration in “Knock-kneed” reinforces this drum beat rhythm emphasising the battle weariness of the soldiers, and intensifying the memory of war. Aside from this alliteration, the way Owen creates rhythm most effectively is through the pauses which litter the stanza. We can see this in; “All went lame; All went blind/ Drunk with fatigue; death even to the hoots/ Of gas-shells…”. (6-8) These pauses create a staccato effect in the stanza, although unrelenting. As the soldiers become “deaf” to the eternal clamour of “Five-Nines”, this is ominous as Owen prepares the reader for a pre-cursor to a shift in rhythm, which forms the basis for a shift in tone.
With the introduction of direct speech in the second stanza, Owen has recreated the start of a gas attack “Gas! GAS! Quick boys!”. The mood dramatically shifts to a completely chaotic one, with the use of exclamation marks and short words that augment the tempo. With the repetition of the words “Gas”, he shows that the man has to shout the word louder a second time, not only because his fellow soldiers are too tired to hear, but because his main purpose was to tell us that maybe the first cry was the instant, almost lethargic reaction to something he had seen a dozen times. Moreover, that second calling is a bellow, a true warning. He did not mean for the two words to be read in the same way.
The frantic scene is established via words such as ‘ecstasy’, ‘stumbling’ and ‘fumbling’, all of which embody movement in a state of panic and confusion, which perfectly encapsulates the fluctuating nature of war, caught between the first and second stanzas. The word ‘ecstasy’ could really be referring to the soldiers’ inconceivable emotions, the terror, the most heightened of sensations. The ‘fumbling’ signifies the soldiers state of panic, while conjuring up an image of the desperation amid the soldiers in reaching for their masks.
Owen then writes about the bitter scene of a man who hesitates in putting his gas mask on in time. Owen cannot assist the maskless man in what he is “yelling out” for, help. The soldier is then consumed by gas, and said to be “flound’ring like a man in fire or lime…” Use of the word fire makes one imagine hell. This man’s life may well be slipping away from him, and experiencing ‘hell’ so to speak.
Owen then softens the tone with a dream like passage; the mild consonants and softer sounds of the words create a subdued effect; “Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light” (line13). This shift from the callous reality of battle to a state of comfort and back is very effective. This little passage is suggestive of reprieve, soldiers are now seeing the horror from the outside, safeguarded from the infectious green gas. When one is consumed with gas, they are in effect ‘drowned’ as the gas fills their lungs and burns the insides, and so a reference to ‘sea’ (water) is more effective than gas, hence the term ‘drowning’ has more prominence, and indicates the might of the ocean, as the ‘storm’ renders the fellow soldiers powerless to perform their task of rescuing the ‘drowning’ man;
“As under a green sea, I saw him drowning’. (line 14)
The third stanza is abrupt, to round off Owen’s abiding memory;
“In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning”. (lines 15-16)
Adjectives ending in ‘…ing’ inadvertently require the reader to feel part of Owen’s trauma, as the sound of the ‘g’ is guttural, mimicking the suffering of the soldier caught in the green gas. The structure within the first three stanza’s are important, they are relating to the experience of war through his eyes. Consequently, they are written in first person to give a greater effect. In the first stanza; “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks… we cursed through the sludge,” (lines 1-2) the situation is immediately given, moreover, an instantaneous impact is created so that the effect of their messages is greater. The second stanza shows the susceptibility to death in the trenches, the representation of a soldier caught in gas is Owen’s own personal view; again, this personalised view makes the death of the soldier have a far greater impact. If the death were described in third person, the reader would be isolated from the action.
The fourth stanza bears an important change in tone, and is relating the memory of the ‘man’ in ever more detail back to the reader and Jessie Pope. The last verse is significantly more graphic, almost certainly to shock the reader into a sense of truth. It is rather like a derogatory commentary. By means of vivid imagery and metaphors; “His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin…/ Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud” (lines 20-23) Owen expresses his anger at this waste of life shown in his description of the man’s suffering, it all seems unfair, ‘obscene’ as it were. The poem explicitly portrays the slaughter of soldiers on the front and a dramatic example is given of the grotesque death caused by the gas, the victim of which is then unheroically ‘flung’ onto a wagon.
Alliteration is used to emphasise the unsightly state of an individual and the overall dilemma of certain pro war society “Of vile incurable sores on innocent tongues,-”. Ironically Owen calls the pro-war poet ‘My friend”, implying his fellow poet, Jessie Pope, rather than a genuine friend;
“My friend, would you not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,” (lines 25-26)
Owen aims this comment towards pro-war poets alike, to show that it is their responsibility to speak the truth, but also suggests that pro-war poets are most influential over the youth, and it is they who may be adversely affected; Owen detested their hypocrisy. “Children” suggests the young blooded soldiers enrolling to fight who crave for success, and their duty to the writings of poets, but previous passages show in explicit detail the truth about “glory” and the bitterness faced by the youth. These two lines alone show that suffering could have been avoided if the ignorance of pro-war poets was less deceptive, but more concentrated on bitter emotions directed towards the war.
As the stanza reaches a crescendo, he condemns; if you knew the true nature and bitter reality of war, you would not mollify “The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori”. This means that “it is sweet and seemly to die for one’s country”. Owen chose to say this phrase in Latin, a dead language used in public school in his day, to convey how out of touch, how ‘dead’ the old system was, predominantly when it spread the “old Lie”, and now that we live in a new age, this political fervour must be disposed of if there is to be any hope for the future.
There are various differences between ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ and ‘The Soldier’. While ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ conveys the ruthless reality of war and mocks the very act of patriotic death, in ‘The Soldier’ Brooke stresses it is undeniably an honour to die for ones country, in this case ‘England’, and that it is ever more sweet if during war. To build on tone, Owen uses harsher, more abhorrent fricatives and hissing ‘s’ sounds (sibilance), which provide an acerbic edge; “knock-kneed… sludge… trudge… guttering… choking… gargling”, whereas Brooke uses softer words, such that emanate ‘f’ sounds, adding to the sense of euphony; “foreign-field”.
‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ has a bitter and cynical tone, facilitated by frequent changes in rhythm which make Owen’s doubly atmospheric. Both poets’ use the idea of ‘death’ to their advantage, but this example serves different purposes in the two poems. Owen uses a graphic example where he remorsefully describes the death caused by a gas attack, exposing to his readers and pro-war poets that war is an ugly, brutal and detestable business. Yet Brooke uses a different approach, and expresses that not only is it every man’s duty to fight and die for his country to preserve perfection, but once dead, the ashes shall physically enrich the ‘rich’ soil; “In that rich earth, a richer dust concealed” (line 4). And all ‘English’ values that the motherland nurtured will live on in one form or another. This way, Brooke tries to convince the reader that there is a deeper meaning to what lies on the surface of war.
Religious undertones also lie beneath each poem. In ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ Owen portrays war as the epitome of hell, juxtaposing the devil against the gassed man. In stark contrast, Brooke uses ‘The Soldier’ to convey ‘England’ as being akin to ‘heaven’, and that it is virtuous to defend such land in war, as he assumes that God is on the side of the British.
“The Soldier” is one of many poems written at the beginning of war (before ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’), which served to engender patriotic zeal and attract young men who saw enrolment as an exciting venture, enabling them to travel the world. Many were enlisted, as poems such as ‘The Soldier’ captured their optimistic, naïve and chauvinistic attitude. Brooke welcomes patriotic death in this sonnet, and shows he feels privileged to have been bought up in and ‘by’ England, believing it was a blessing. One could envisage that the Latin maxim “Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori” is not for Brooke “the old lie” it is for Owen.
He invokes religious imagery through ideas such as sacred memories of the dead, spiritual cleansing, and a hero’s immortal legacy. Though this poem is a sonnet, it is not addressed to a loved one, but to his country. Brooke’s poem is poetically powerful, but unpalatable in its glorification of the English cause, even though his sentiments are expressed in a more personal and emotive way using the first person rather than the heroic ‘we’ used in his other similar poem ‘Peace’.
In the first stanza, the poem opens with “If I should die”. The insinuation here is not that death is predestined, but merely a possibility, starkly dissimilar to Owen’s belief. Brooke gives the impression of England being a timeless, idyllic and tranquil country; “Wash’d by the rivers, blest by the suns of home” (line 8), where England is personified as being a mother to him and others; “A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware” (line 5), presenting motherly images of nourishment; “Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam” (line 6), indicating in one way or another that he owes England his life, his soul, and that by fighting for his country, he is simply paying ‘her’ back.
The poem uses alliteration to establish the lilting rhythm “foreign-field”. This light and flowing rhythm, deeply ingrained with a feeling of love is conveyed by the repetitive use of ‘England’ “That is forever England…A dust whom England bore… A body of England’s, breathing English air”, is representing himself as highly patriotic, though not a patriotism which is militaristic. Brooke also conveys his love for England by stressing the word ‘rich’ “That there’s some corner in a foreign field That is forever England. There shall be In that rich earth a richer dust concealed”. It seems that he has carved up his own England in the ‘foreign field’ where he may “die”, but his spirit of England will live on in the form of ‘richer dust’, which refers to his body.
Brooke’s message in this poem is that if he should die in that ‘foreign-field’, it shall gain these English blessings, passing them onto the ground on which his ashes lie, making the earth around him richer. Transience is conveyed through his mortal body. The feel of the poem is continually lilting (up and up).
It is palpable that Rupert Brooke had a great love for England, as emphasised in the language of the poem. He speaks of flowers, ‘English air’, ‘rivers’, ‘sights’, ‘sounds’ and ‘laughter’ “under an English heaven”. The long vowel sounds and leisurely pace of the poem also accentuates the romantic nature of the verse. Alternatively, Owen adopts the long vowel sounds in ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ to reflect the soldiers’ slow pace and convey their agony through prolonging the vivid verbs.
In the second stanza, Brooke brings a finality to his belief that even though he is now at ‘rest’ in the ‘foreign field’, his love for England has “shed away all evil”, and he is now “a pulse in the eternal mind” (as reflected through his death), a part of a universal life, but a life of the spirit rather than the physical.
In the last four lines of the first stanza, he has described that his thoughts of England shall live on ‘forever’ in his body, that in a “corner of a foreign field” these thoughts ‘gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given”. If he should die, his spirit should live on in the shape of England. It feels as though that no matter what, a conquest for England has been achieved.
The tone is rather imperialistic. Brooke has relatively sanctified war in the case of protecting his motherland, his ‘heaven’, and the soldiers patriotically sacrifice themselves for England in war. Towards the end, a nostalgic tone is created by the lilting rhythm and implication of eternal happiness. The last three lines serve as a comment, but reinforce this nostalgia and fervour for England. Permanence is signified through the perpetual love and reminiscences of England, his lifelong English values. The fact that Brooke does not mention war once may well be the reason for the poem’s gentle ands serene end. There are not even any scenes on the battlefield, and no details of specific deaths. In retrospect, Owen describes the death of his fellow soldier in horrific detail, and factor that greatly contributed to the violent nature of ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’. Brooke’s poem is poetically powerful, but unpalatable in its glorification of the English cause, even though his sentiments are expressed in a more personal and emotive way using the first person rather than the heroic ‘we’ used in his other similar poem ‘Peace’.
I believe ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ served its purpose more successfully than ‘The Soldier’. ‘The Soldier’ uses simple language to create a serene poem, so it can be read by the masses, resulting in a prevalent effect on people. But the complexity in ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ asks more from the reader, however the message is apparent. There are subliminal meanings in ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ that make the poem far superior to that of the oblivious pro-war poets, in turn greatly increasing the message’s effect. ‘The Soldier’ has undemanding content, as there is no need to catch the interest of fellow poets, hence, ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ appeals to a wider audience and the zeitgeist, though then ‘The Soldier’ was a commonly read poem in churches, and even written about in ‘The Times’ newspaper. On the other hand, knowing when ‘The Soldier’ was written and in what context, allows me to read it in a double way, both as it might have been read then and as a reader reads it now. I can put it into the context of everything else I have read about the war and feel that it helps me to understand it better and thoroughly enjoy reading it, even as I question its values.
