The pace of the poem increases with the outburst of warning “Gas! Gas! Quick boys!” which shows the urgency of the situation and the fact that the soldiers only have a few seconds perhaps to put their masks on. Owen uses the word boys which reminds us of their youth, but having already described them as aged and disabled we come to the fact that their youth was stolen, and we are also confronted with the concept that they are innocent victims within the war. “But someone still was yelling out and stumbling” this is the line where Owen begins his vivid description of a gas attack death. It is introducing us to the situation this soldier is in from a third person view. The next line; “And flound’ring like a man in fire of lime” describes the helplessness of this poor soldier who is about to die. The image of the man "guttering, choking, drowning" permeates Owen’s thoughts and dreams, forcing him to live this grotesque nightmare over and over again.
The word ‘Dim’ in the next line has a lot of significance and meaning. Firstly it describes the scene, the light, giving it an eerie and gloomy feel, one with little hope. Secondly, it describes the chances this soldier has, having shown us that war can be left up to chance, Owen is describing the chances this boy now has for survival.
‘I saw him drowning’, shows that Owen directly refers to himself. This is to personify the entire poem, to make it much more real to the reader. It is showing us that all the horrors Owen has described are all from his experience.
In the final stanza, Owen writes that if readers could see the body, the "eyes writhing", the "face hanging", and the "vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues" they would cease to send young men to war while instilling visions of glory in their heads. No longer would they tell their children the "Old lie," "Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori," It is sweet and proper to die for one's country, in other words it is a wonderful and great honour to die for your country.
Brooke’s poem shows his attitude to death and afterlife. It shows sympathy for the soldiers of WW1 and what they deserve. In '’The Soldier’' Brooke invokes the ideas of spiritual cleansing and inviolable memories of the dead. Brooke observes the sonnet consisting of 14 lines of iambic pentameter, divided into an octave and sestet, the octave is rhymed ababcdcd rhyming scheme, while the sestet follows the efgefg scheme. The octave and sestet both enjoin the reader to imagine the blissful state of the fallen soldier. “And think, this heart, all evil shed away, a pulse in the eternal mind.” The Soldier touched a nerve and inspired imitations. This poem emphasises to the full the naivety of those prior to WW1.
The poem 'The Soldier' doesn't describe soldiering but celebrates the love of England. The poem begins with “IF” showing his naivety into believing that he might actually survive the war. It contemplates death, but says nothing that advocates dying for one's country (‘pro patria mori’) as something that is sweet and proper ('dulce et decorum est').
Brooke's sonnet sums up the way that many people felt when the war broke out. He isn’t glorifying war, but he knows the motivations that would encourage young men to 'throw their lives away', and is not afraid of pronouncing them valid.
Brooke uses an English soldier narrator in his poem who is looking at the possibility that he might die in battle. He sees his death as symbolically leaving a part of England in the soil of the land where his body lies. “On that rich earth a richer dust concealed”. He sees his remains as representing all the good that England is said to represent. Brooke’s poem concentrates on the positive, abstract things he sees England representing. Therefore “England’s” strong young soldiers represent “dreams, laughter, gentleness, In hearts at peace under an English heaven.” He is enthusiastic and sentimental about his homeland and all that the unnamed soldier is fighting to preserve
The soldier in Brooke’s poem wants the world to remember him as one who died in pursuit of an ideal: “think only this of me That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is forever England.” The manner of his death is never considered.
Dulce et decorum est paints a dark picture of war, of bitterness at being betrayed by the 'old lie'. "Dulce et Decorum est". Owen’s poem shows a soldier exactly how he’s going to die, compared to Brooke’s poem where death is seen as a gentle and quiet moment of peace. Brooke’s poem is a pre-war poem, when people were filled with ideals about war. There is no mention about war, the imagery we see when we read Brooke’s poem is of quiet calm. Owen on the other hand, paints a more immediate and real image of war, suffering, exhaustion and violent deaths.
These two poets take the same subject, war and patriotism, but treats it in two completely different ways, maybe because Owen experienced the reality of war and Brooke didn’t.