The word ‘blind’ is used on the sixth line this contemplates that they are losing their strength. It also shows how young and naive they are to take part in a war like this. They do not have the strength or courage to go on any further. This may cause sympathy within the reader. They may have been blind before when they were told they were going to war as they may have believed they were fighting for their country however this blindness has affected them terribly on the frontline. The young men as described to be ‘drunk with fatigue’, this portrays them to be overly exhausted. The noun ‘hoots’ is also used in the line which is the noise made by an owl. It is seen as though it is a warning maybe for something worse that is going to happen or maybe it is to the noise that they are trying to take no notice of. On the eighth line it says the gas shells drop softly, the adverb softly is used to describe how it dropped. It may have dropped as soft as a feather until it reached the ground to cause a large explosion.
In this first stanza, the poet describes the reality of the war unlike the other media for instance newspapers, other poems and other form of media. There was an element of propaganda during this time. Also in the first stanza there is an element of weariness which is created by the long lines which echo, there is a slow rhyme. The poet who wrote this was an anti war poet jut like another poet called Siegfried Sassoon. These poets told others what the war was actually like. However, many other poets still wrote about the war very naively and talked about the war being glorious. To create the realistic effect the poet used vivid imagery to reflect brutality. The poet also could relate to the poem very well as he had neurasthenia during the war and was taken out.
The second stanza consists of a slighter amount of lines rather than the first. Also, rhyming couplets are used within the stanza. This creates an effect of making the reader want to carry on reading the essay. There is an element of thrill for those who enjoy reading the likes of war poetry. There is more action that is described in this stanza as there has been a gas attack. This makes the stanza seem faster. Also, the short sentences and the use of orthographic punctuation for instance, exclamation marks and short sentences. The stanza begins with monosyllabic words ‘Gas! Gas! Quick! Quick!’
The misery of the stanza is when a soldier who fails to get a mask on. On the first line of the stanza the noun ecstasy is used which means adrenaline is rushing desperate to get it over and done with. This is the feeling of the soldier who is trying to put his mask on. A simile is also used in the middle of this stanza as the soldier is compared to a man floundering in fire. This describes the struggle the solider maybe going through at that point. The green sea which is used as a metaphor for gas in line 14 describes the atmosphere as the soldier may have suffocated in the gas. This creates tension between the poet and the reader as they are experiencing viewing the image of this attack in their heads, the soldier suffocating as though he was drowning.
The next very short stanza is one which only consists of two lines. There is a small gap between the two stanzas as it places emphasis on the soldier’s feelings in those. This causes the poem to seem more graphic and the middle two lines stand out which shows the importance of feelings within this poem.
On line sixteen in the third stanza, phonological sounds are used ‘guttering, choking, and drowning.’ These words create emphasis on the horrifying events that are happening and the effect that these have had on the young soldier. These hard words change the view the reader has of the soldier as we now see him in a different perspective, we see him to be more naïve and young and brave in a different way than we used to. In the next line the adjective ‘smothering’ has been used, this makes us feel the pain the soldier is feeling. As we realise he feels suffocated and cannot see a way out of the situation. He cannot get away from the enemy and he also cannot get away from this experience as the memory will belong for life.
On the twentieth line there is a simile, ‘like a devil’s sick of sin,’ there is almost an element of hyperbole used in this. For the devil to be sick of sin it epitomises that the soldier maybe sick of continuing his role as a soldier he may want to give up. Line twenty-four states the words ‘incurable sores’ this could be what the gas has done to soldier, literally created sores over his body. However, it could also be seen as incurable sores which are left upon all the soldiers as the sores maybe in their memory. The word ‘sores’ is language that creates the idea that war is propaganda. Also on the same line is ‘innocent tongues’, these tongues are the ones of the soldiers, the young men who went into war for their country without knowing what they were going to come across.
On the next line there is a possessive pronoun ‘My’, this is personal between the reader and the poet. The poet speaks directly to the reader, showing they are both the same and they are both to blame. ‘Children’ is used on the next line as it shows they are still young, innocent, vulnerable and need protecting. On line 27 the word ‘Lie’ is used, the uppercase letter reinforces that the lie is not just a lie it is a large one. The words that come next in Italics is the actual title of the poem ‘Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori’, these words are written in Italics to they stand out. They also conclude the irony of the poem, as irony has built up to this point during the poem by using horrific images and language. The last stanza is one which is contemplative and reflective.
The poem has a universal message as it can be related to situations all over the world. The situations could be in the past, present or the future however the moral will always stay the same.
