The poem Dulche et Decorum Est is about Wilfred Owen (a war poet) who describes in his own experiences, what the war was like.

El Duche De Corum Est

Verse one describes how the soldiers are returning to base camp. Owen uses a slow halting rhythm to suggest how much pain and misery the soldiers are encountering and to imitate how slow are walking. He does this by using punctuation. Verse one tells us a lot about the condition, both physically and mentally, of the men and it gives us an idea of the appalling conditions!. He uses similes such as, "Bent double, like hags"; this illustrates how many of the men fall ill. The poet's choice of vocabulary in verse one is very effective in portraying the state of the soldiers. He uses words such as sludge, trudge, and haunting to describe the harsh conditions of the battlefield.

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The rhythm in verse two suddenly increases, this displays the soldiers panic during the gas attack! Punctuation is used to create this faster rhythm, exclamation marks and short sentences suddenly speed up the pace. This gives the reader an image of the weary soldiers suddenly changing into panic-stricken men. It means that the reader feels that they are involved in what is happening! "Gas! Gas! Quick boys!" direct speech is used to create panic. Owen also uses words such as stumbling, floundering, and fumbling to describe the desperate actions of the dying man. The verbs such as yelling and drowning give the reader a feeling of chaos. "As under a green sea, I saw him drowning", this describes how the gas causes a thick green misty haze around the men. This is a useful phrase as it enables us to imagine what is happening and use our imagination. It also gives us a sense of how real it all is in his vivid descriptions. Owens guilt is suggested in the line, "In all my dreams before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning". The fact that he dreams about this all the time, and that the man is plunging at him in particular means that he feels guilty for this mans death.

The purpose of the final verse is to describe the tragedy of war and how it is not a sweet and fitting thing to die for your country, it is a desperate and agonising way to die! He is trying to discourage people from the war by informing the readers what it is really like. Owen uses adjectives such as flung, hanging, vile and incurable to give his readers a detailed description of what these horrors are like! "Behind the wagon that we flung him in," the word flung is used as it gives us the impression that the other soldiers had absolutely no respect for their companion and they treated the roughly! The poet uses onomatopoeia in this verse to communicate the actions of the dying man, "Come gargling from his froth corrupted lungs". Descriptions such as, "his hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin", this portrays how the man was desperate and giving up his fight for life! "Obscene as cancer", this simile is used to describe the sores on the men's tongues, most people appreciate how serious cancer is therefore they would imagine that if something is compared to it then they would believe that they are awful.

Owen is trying to put people off the war in this verse which is clearly shown when he says at then end,

‘The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori’

This means, Its fit and noble to die for your country. This is pure sarcasm and so he is obviously saying don’t join the war.