The poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" was written in 1917 (during the WWI) by British soldier, Wilfred Owen.

With the help of rhyme Wilfred Owen made each stanza with its own speed and tempo. In the first stanzas the author tries to show us how soldiers are tired and exhausted, so he creates images of them walking slowly with the help of the words like "trudge" and "limped on". Also he uses metaphors like "coughing under sacks" and "drunk with fatigue", which tell us more about the state of the soldiers - describe us how they are tired and sick. This also makes the stanza slower, like it is trudging itself. But different to the first stanza, the second one goes much faster. Owen did it like that because the second verse events happen very rapidly, sudden gas bombs, and soldiers are in panic and are rushing to fit their "clumsy helmets". The third stanza is quite slow, because the author tries to show us the long painful death of the soldier in the gas. The last verse Owen made fast because he wants to show us the panic and rushing of the soldiers who carried the choked army man in the wagon.

Author also uses similies like 'old beggars under sags' and 'coughing like hags' which create a picture of old ailing women. Owen compares the soldiers with the 'hags' to show their weariness. To describe the choking man in the gas more, the author uses a phrase 'as under a green sea'. It compares being in gas with being under water, because you cannot see properly and everything is in green color. The use of all these phrases makes the story more descriptive. For example when Owen uses the metaphor 'like a man of fire in lime' he gives a reader an image of a man in a green gas and compares it with him being in fire or lime, instead of just giving reader an image of the choking soldier in the gas.

The whole story in the poem is very dramatic, especially in the third verse it gets to the most emotional point, when Owen sees his friend choking in gas and understands that he is useless, that he cannot help him. This stanza he made very short, but its tempo is slow, I think the poet did it  this way because he tried to tell us that this was just a moment out of life, but it left in his memory forever. Then in the last stanza, Owen shows to the reader the horrible death of his friend. Also, as it is the last verse he puts the message of the poem in there.  The message of the poem he expressed in sentence, "Dulce et Decorum Est pro patria mori". Wilfred Owen says that people lie when they say that it's proper and heroic to die for your country. He calls them - people with "incurable sores on innocent tongues". By doing that he accuses these people for many lives lost in the war. He accuses them of persuading boys that war is fun and that anyone who will fight for their country will become a hero and gain honour. By calling them "incurable sores on innocent tongues" he is saying that so many people die because of their lies, but they still act innocently and try to look like they have not done anything bad. Owen says that they have "incurable sores", which means that they cannot be changed.

By writing "Dulce et Decorum Est", Wilfred Owen had a main aim to convince the reader that war is the most horrible thing. He wants boys not to believe in the 'old lie' that war is fun. By using different methods Wilfred Owen created a strong poem with a convincing message.