Comparison Of the Two War Poems - "Dulce et Decorum Est" and "Charge of the Light Brigade"

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Comparison Of the Two War Poems –

“Dulce et Decorum Est” and “Charge of the Light Brigade”

You can tell from the off-set of “Dulce et Decorum Est” that Wilfred Owen doesn’t see the supposed honour of war in the same light as those who made the old saying that names his poem.

        In the first line of the poem the description of the men and the conditions in the trenches are described in what would seem to be disgust. Wilfred Owen tries to show how little honour he sees in the war these men are fighting for.  The use of similes  such as “like old beggars under sacks” and “coughing like hags”, along with the use of metaphors like “Drunk with fatigue” and “deaf even to the hoots”, brings the image to mind of a filthy wretch, bereft of their senses, forced by circumstance to trudge in the dirt towards some unknown destination. The poem seems to beg the question- Where is the honour in this?

Unlike the image usually conjured of a war-scene, where men are brave, energetic and ready to die for their country, Owen creates and image of men cursing their way through the sludge, near, blind, deaf and dumb, due to the goings on of war, and men more likely to want to crawl under a wagon and hide than bravely walk out into no-mans land for king and country. He creates an image of average everyday men, and places them in a horrific environment to try to show that in these situations there are no heroes, only men doomed to death by the common arts of war.

As you move on to the second verse Wilfred Owen brings writes of his first hand experience in war. Of a gas attack, where a fellow soldier, dies horrifically due to a gas attack. The first line – “Gas!GAS! Quick boys! –An ecstasy of fumbling” -  starts the second verse off with fear and panic. The exclamations marks and the words- “An ecstasy of fumbling” showing the panic among those who are under attack. Constant description is used here to try and bring forth a vivid image of the scene. Utter Chaos among the men as the gas moves towards them, each man ignoring everything but his own safety, “fumbling” to get the gas mask on. One man is unable to get his gas mask on in time and the description of his death is what Wilfred Owen uses to try to get across his point about the war. The two lines –

“But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime…”

        show how helpless the man was, the very air around him a fire unto his body, and should he breath it in , he would be burnt from the inside, but should he not he would suffocate, a cruel choice. When this poor man is described as “drowning” in the “green sea”, Wilfred Owen’s point is put across extremely well. This mans death was not heroic or honourable, the man could not fight back, and die with many enemy soldiers dead around him as the epic tales would have you believe would name him a hero, or place him under honourable light, all the man could do was stare in terror as a hellish death loomed over him.

        In the two line verse, Wilfred Owen, seems to try to convey how horrific the scene is by telling you how he cannot rid the scene from his mind and how, his dreams are haunted by it. The image of the man dieing, holding up his hand to Wilfred Owen, crying out for help, not as you would imagine an honourable soldier could but more like a lost child, calling out to its mother.

        The last verse puts you in Wilfred Owen’s shoes as he says-

“If in some smothering dreams you too could pace”

This allows you to connect with this man and this scene of horror and death more, as it allows your mind to think what it would be like to be in this situation, for that man to be one of your friends, and you seem to ask yourself, how much honour you would see in this war if you had been in Wilfred Owen’s place as he suggests.

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        The second line – “Behind the Wagon that we flung him in” really drives home how little honour these men were afforded. The man was “flung” onto the wagon, the word “flung” seeming to imply that the man was nothing more than another soldier, one more life given for the cause, merely cannon fodder- again you seem to ask yourself- Where is the honour in this?

        The description and use of language in the last verse of the poem is aimed at trying to convince those not yet convinced by the previous descriptions in the poem, of the horror of ...

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