"Dulce Et Decorum Est"

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“Dulce Et Decorum Est”

In the poem, 'Dulce Et Decorum Est' by Wilfred Owen, the happenings of the World War One era are reflected through the poet's use of vivid imagery and poetic techniques. The poem addresses the falsehood that war is glorious, that it is noble. Instead, it describes the true horror and waste that is war, with the aim of changing the way in which society thinks about conflict.

        The poem epitomises the futility and pointlessness of war. Not only is war a shocking waste of life, but it is ultimately barbarous and pointless act as World War I so horrendously demonstrated to the world. The graphic horror of war is presented through a series of images which are designed to demolish the notion of war being a patriotic and meaningful adventure.

The first stanza sets the scene for us as it describes the conditions the men fought in, and their feelings. The emotionally drained, exhausted men are making their way to the trenches, looking for some form of rest. The poet compares these worn out soldiers to ‘beggars’ and ‘hags’. I think that ‘bent double, like old beggars under sacks’, is a really effective simile that explains that the men are so tired that they can’t even stand upright and they resemble beggars, in that they haven’t slept in a bed for days.

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The simile ‘coughing like hags’, is used, because the men who went into battle were relatively young, yet after they fought a battle they looked old and ugly, hence hag. These men were forced to age before their time, due to their weariness and their terrible living conditions. ‘Like old beggars under sacks’ also tells me that their once clean and smart uniforms were now muddy, tattered and  torn, so much so, that the poet thinks of them as nothing more than ‘sacks’.

The poet uses words like ‘knock-kneed’, ‘coughing’ and ‘limped’ to give you a visual ...

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