Poetry Comparison between "Dulce est decorum est" and the "dead"

Poetry Comparison between “Dulce est decorum est” and the “dead”

Wilfred Owen was born on the 18th of March 1893 in Oswestry (United Kingdom). He was the eldest of four children and brought up in the Anglican religion of the evangelical school. He enlisted in the Artists’ Rifles on 21st October 1915 and there followed 14 months of training in England. He was called up and sent to France in 1917, the worst winter of the war. His total war experience was rather short: four months, from which only five weeks were spent in the line. On this is based all his war poetry. After battle experience, thoroughly shocked by horrors of war, he went to Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh. These two poems share the same theme of war. However they approach war from completely different perspectives. Dulce Est Decorum est illustrates the futility of war where as the dead explores the glory of dying as a soldier. Dulce Est Decorum Est discusses “the old lie Dulce Est pro patria mori”. Where as in the dead Brooke explains how war is honourable and that “dying has made us even rarer gifts than gold”. The irony to these different approaches is that Brooke hasn’t even been to war as he died of a natural illness on the way to the battlefield, where as Owen served for the whole war.

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In Dulce in the first couple of lines Owen uses the similes “knock-kneed coughing like hags” and “like old beggars under sacks” which emphasizes the fact that these soldiers who were once average individual men have now been reduced to a bunch of beggars or hags which are seen as the lowest form of human life. “Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue;” Most of the men have lost their boots and limp on in bare feet so covered with blood it seems as if they are wearing shoes of blood. ‘Blood-shod’ gives us the ugliness of the war and cruelty as the men do not even have a basic necessity, boots, to protect their feet. The men are ‘drunk with fatigue’, walking asleep without thinking and the word ‘drunk’ suggests their loss of control and staggering. The hyperboles shock us into awareness of the depths of their exhaustion. The word ‘flares’ gives a picture of haunting bright flashes of light and the image of a nightmare. The horrors of these descriptions contradict the glorification of war:

However in the dead Brooke has very different ideas he suggests that these soldiers were honourable and noble “Honour has come back as a king to earth.” He uses words like king to make these men seem hugely respectable. Also in the first few lines Owen uses alliteration “knock-kneed coughing like old hags we cursed through the sludge.” The alliteratives coughing and cursing actually make the reader feel and hear the hacking sounds of these men coughing. Both authors use supernatural imagery but for very different reasons. In Dulce Est Decorum Est Owen uses supernatural imagery such as “coughing like hags”, “we cursed”, “haunting flares”, “man in fire or lime”, “thick green light”, and “devils sick of sin” to make the poem sound a lot more occult. Owen emphasizes the fact that these men no longer have any wilful influence over their actions they just do what they are told due to sleep deprivation and shell shock “Men marched asleep many had lost their boots but limped on bloodshod. All went lame ; all blind drunk with fatigue.” Here Owen uses words like “limped”, “marched asleep”, and “bloodshod” to emphasize the drowsiness and fatigue of these men . The two poems have totally different viewpoints about death. In Dulce Est Decorum Est Owen describes the vision of a dead body up close is not a site that is easily forgotten “And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.” Much of this section uses the imagery of green sea and compares the gas attack to the sea. ‘Flound’ring’ suggests a man struggling helplessly in the sea with nothing to hold on to. The simile ‘as under a green sea’ compares being attacked by the green gas to drowning in a green sea. The victim is both metaphorically and physically drowning in gas. ‘Drowning’ can be metaphorical in this case as the man is so helpless he seems to be drowning in the sea but in fact he is literally drowning in his own blood as the gas attacks and consumes his lungs. This vividly depicts the ugliness and horrors of the war. Brooke on the other hand highlights the fact that the dead are a brilliant sight “poured out the red sweet wine of youth”. This is one of the main contrasting points between these two poems because Owen has seen death and knows the horrors of it where as Brooke knows only what he has learned from propaganda.

“The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.”

Horace’s famous saying translates as ‘Sweet and fitting it is to die for one’s country.’ Wilfred Owen speaks out to the poets in a scolding tone, sympathetic to the innocent young men misled by the lies and sacrificed in war. Owen addresses the young lads eager for war as ‘children’ – easily deceived by the cleverly disguised old lie. The word ‘children’ suggests tenderness and sympathy for the young, naïve men who are misled. In the last stanza Owen speaks with tenderness and sympathy for the men as well as accusation to the people spreading tales of false glory.

It is made quite clear that Owen has been to war and Brooke hasn’t in the way they talk so differently about everything. Owen who has had a great deal of war experience puts across how futile and pointless war is. The last lines of his poem are “the old lie Dulce Est Decorum Est Pro Patria mori.” This means that it is sweet and fitting to die for ones Country. Owen calls this a lie and is obviously realized that all the propaganda about how noble it is to go to war is just lies and the reality is that war is depressing and can destroy your life mentally as well as physically. Brooke on the other hand who has written his poem on the way to war and still believes all this propaganda is reflected in his poem in the way he discusses losing your life a reward rather than a punishment.