The poem written by Wilfrid Owen “Dulce et Decorum Est” describes the true horror and explains his ideas that war is a waste of time, money and lives. Also we can say the aim of his poem is to change the way in which society thinks about this topic, about conflict. It is based in the terror of the battles and the life story of a man who fought in the dangerous battles of World War One.
By the other hand “No Heroes”, poem written by David Morgan shows us a similar idea of thinking about the same topic war. How horrible and terrifying it is and that, really it is nobody which wins with war and it’s a waste of innocent human lives which say they would die for they country. Also he highlights the fact the there are NO HEROES in war. Morgan writes about the Falklands War.
We can say that both poems have a reasonable, understandable diction. This doesn’t mean the authors have used a colloquial diction but instead, both authors use a elevated formal diction. All the way Morgan’s poem we can say he uses a regular tone which doesn’t really change from stanza to stanza but in fact the first stanza show a more elevated tone than the others. We can also say that in the first line of each stanza the tone is a bit more elevated, the author also repeats the same words at the beginning of each stanza, just in the first line. He wants to show us the real purpose of this poem, which is to make people (readers) agree that there are no heroes in war, “There were no heroes here”.
Also this poem has some special imageries. One particularly noticed easily is the one at the end of the poem in the last stanza, were the author describes us (the readers) how the soldiers feel in the war, and that returning home is just a dream because they are predestinated to die in war. Also it shows that the soldiers remember their family’s memories, their children, only when war allowed the to. “No heroes they, but ones who loved sweet life and children’s laugh, and dreamt of home when war allowed. We can say this image sticks us into the readers head, and successfully the author transmitting his feelings. A feeling of pain, and melancholy as well as sadness transmitted. Also this image concerns at least two senses, it is a visual imagery as well as an aural imagery “…children’s laugh”.
Also we can find another image at the beginning of the first stanza in the 4th line. “Or crawled, cat-silent”. Here the author wants us to imagine the soldiers crawling in the trenches, as silent as a cat. Here he uses a metaphor “cat-silent”.
By the other part, the poem written by Wilfrid Owen, shows a much more elevated tone. As we can also say that tone varies along the poem. “Dulce et Decorum Est” tone is agonizing, moving and shocking. If we looked in detail to the poem we can say that the tone from the first stanza is shocking and high. We can perceive a tone and a feeling of anger from part of the author. Owen writes the poem in second person (we) showing the readers that he has been to the war an make them believe more his ideas about war and what he thinks and says about it. The stanza which has a much more elevated tone which is not normal is the second one, in which Owen describes how he lived a moment where gas was thrown at him and his partners. We can add to this, that he uses exclamation marks to make the poem more realistic. “Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling”.
“Dulce et Decorum Est” shows one particular dramatic and shocking image. When a soldier who doesn't fasten his mask fast enough and suffers from the full effects of deadly gas. Here the author transmits us a feeling of pain and desperation into ourselves. “In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning”. This immediately conjures up a picture of a soldier asphyxiating in his way to death. Specific words like "guttering", "choking", and "drowning" not only show us the soldier’s pain but it show us something no human or man should not tolerate.
There are also some other shocking imagery on this poem. At the beginning of the first stanza we can see a image. “Knock – kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge”. Immediately this image plots the idea into your mind of many soldiers dragging their boots in the mud. By using this imagery, Owen creates an hostile atmosphere. In Owen’s poem he also uses some literature figures to show his ideas and to express his feelings about war. In the phrase of above we can find a simile when he says that the soldiers coughing like old ladies.
Also on the fourth and fifth lines of the first stanza, we can find a metaphor. “Many had lost their boots but limped on, blood – shod”. We can say that Wilfrid Owen creates some terrifying images with the help of metaphors. The phrase "blood shod" is a metaphor, which gives us the idea of soldiers loosing their boots on war, but they still continued to walk until it was necessary and so at last they would obviously limp because their feet couldn’t resist anymore because of its wounds.
In Morgan’s poem we can find that he includes, metaphors and similes in order to express his different ideas. In the second line of the third stanza he uses a very beautiful metaphor as assuming that life is sweet “Sweet life…” here Morgan is trying to tell us something more about life, he is trying to tell us is that life is really beautiful and full of sweetness and war completely the opposite, it is a horrible.
“Dulce et Decorum Est” has a strong regular rhythm of unstressed and stressed syllables (iambic heptameter). Its rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ KLKL MNMN. The rhyme scheme is balanced. Also we can say that Owen uses punctuation to change the rhythm and rhyme along the poem. He uses about 11 times the run– on line or enjambment which makes the poem go quicker into a into a higher rhythm. These means there is no punctuation at the end of a line, the sense is carried out on without a break into the next line. This also makes the rhythm become more fluid when reading.
Also in this poem we can find some alliterations, which is used to emphasize some ideas. “But someone still was yelling out and stumbling”. This gives the line a stronger tone when reading it.
“No heroes” by the other hand has not got a regular rhythm or rhyme it shows a variation in all down the poem. The number of syllables varies from 4 to 8. He uses mostly the run-on line or enjambment which makes the poem fluid and with a high rhythm although it has some pauses by the use of commas at the end of the line as well as in the middle of it. This is called caesura. Also Morgan uses antithesis a pause, in some lines to contrast them. This pause is the point of balance. “No heroes they, but ones who loved”. This pause makes the rhythm of the poem lower down and be not so fluid. Also we can find some alliterations in the poem such as “When war allowed.” This gives the line more fluency.
In conclusion, both authors, Morgan and Owen, use different kinds of literature figures to show and transmit their thoughts and ideas. In between these we can mention, metaphors, images, similes. Also the tone and diction of the poems help to transmit the ideas in a much better way. Finally if we compare the end of each poem, we can say that in “Dulce et Decorum Est”, Owen finishes ironically after showing all the terrifying scenes and images before, all from the start of poem, by saying that it is sweet to die for one’s country, writing it in Latin so it can be highlighted and noticed when reading the end of the poem “The old lie: Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori”. By the other side “No heroes” has a more melancholic ending but showing you that although they are tough soldiers, they suffer.
“No heroes they, but ones who loved
Sweet life and children’s laugh,
And dreamt of home
When war allowed.
They were but men.”
Julio Fernandez-Davila
S3L1
Mr. Bacon
