Dulce Et Decorum Est

emphasizes the state of the soldiers the commas create pauses which suggests slow and faltering walking. The men are weak and tired "knock kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge" The phrase "knock kneed" suggests broken and destroyed soldiers also the alliterated "c" and "k" make quite a harsh sound like coughing. The word "hag" is a negative image of an old woman witch which is the opposite of the hero soldier image that people are led to believe the soldiers to be. "Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots" The men are totally exhausted and are losing their senses. "Many had lost their boot" this emphasizes the terrible conditions the men were under and more importantly the men seem to not care as all they can think about is marching home. At the end of stanza one shell's are dropped behind the soldiers "Of tired outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind". Owen lures the reader into a false sense of security. There seems to be no danger the shells fall way behind. The soldiers ignore them they don't feel threatened and pushed so far they don't really notice. The calmness and the slow speed of stanza one contrast with stanza two, this part of the poem is all about the death of one man and how slow and painful it is. "Gas! Gas! Quick boys!", the repetition of "gas" spreads panic immediately, as does the use of exclamation marks. Then Owen uses an oxymoron, "an ecstasy of fumbling", two opposites being used to create a mixed atmosphere. Someone is not fast enough when putting on his helmet and is "floundering like a man in fire of lime" as his lungs are destroyed by the deadly gas." Dim through the misty panes", Owen seems to be watching from a distance. It is as if the man is under water, "as under a green sea, I saw him drowning". The scene of the horrific death is brought to Owens thoughts as every time he shuts his eyes the man "plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning". This gives the impression that the man is underwater. It also portrays how the man dies, firstly "guttering", a hard word to pronounce, then "choking" and finally "drowning" which is a flowing word showing that the man is near his death. In the final part of the poem, Owen carries on with his dreams but he also brings his reader into the poem, and tries to make us feel responsible for sending all the young men to war by telling them it is a "great and glorious thing". The dying man that they "flung" onto a wagon, like old rubbish, has a "hanging face like a devil's sick of sin". This is my favourite part of the poem as it is an unusual simile and also shows that this man had suffered so much that even the devil would turn away in disgust. Wilfred Owen brings the reader even more into the poem as he describes the sounds of the man, "gargling blood" at every jolt of the wagon. The way this man has been killed is as "obscene as cancer" as it eats away at its victims from the inside and is incurable. It is a sick and unfair death, like "sores on innocent tongues". As Owen builds his poem to its ironic climax, he addresses the reader as "my friend". He tries to make the reader empathize with all the poor souls who have been told "with such high zest" that war is glorious and honourable, when really it is filled with death and destruction. The children who were "ardent for some desperate glory" were told the old lie, Dulce et decorum est.