“Dulce et Decorum est” describes a group of soldiers that have spent days crouched in the dirty
treacherous trenches “Bent double” and “we cursed through sludge” emphasises just how dramatic the
trenches must have been. The men were expected to live in so poor conditions some died without
enemy contact. Soldiers lay about the trenches or trampled through the muddy carpet on the trench
floor with tired and aching feet. Some men were so tired Owen described them as walking asleep “men
marched asleep.” There are bombs and guns being fired from every possible direction as the soldiers
trampled through the blood covered mud. Their feet were sore, but the soldiers were still expected to
carry on “many had lost their boots, but limped on, blood-shod”. This quotation is a metaphor and
proves what poor conditions the soldiers were expected to defeat the enemy in. Soldiers were sleepy
and inert as a gas shell is fired. Owen describes the moment as being exciting instead of the soldiers
panicking the men hurried around with titillation as they prepared for the gas. “An ecstasy of fumbling”
and “fitting the clumsy helmets just in time” this quotation seems as if Owen is describing the helmets
as clumsy, but the poet actually means that the soldiers are filled with so much excitement that they are
rapidly fixing their helmets on to their heads. This is a technique called transferred epithet.
The gas shell dropped as the soldiers flee for their lives a soldier is caught in the thick smog of gas. The
poet describes the scene as he watches the soldier die “someone still was yelling out stumbling”. The
dying soldier is choking from the gas fumes collected in his gas mask “under a green sea, I saw him
drowning.”
The poet conveys a feeling of sorrow and helplessness throughout the poem for instance “in all my
dreams, before my helpless sight.” He also uses the simile “bent double, like old beggars under sacks”
to intensify the concept of soldiers hiding constantly from the enemy behind the trench walls. Another
example of the unhealthy life lead by the soldiers is “coughing like hags.” These quotations emphasise
the fact that the war is making the men so ill that it has shortened their lives and that they are so
unhealthy and injured that they can be described as being old.
The poem reflects the poets' feelings towards the war. The poet clearly states that all the young children
who are desperate for glory and to become heroes, not to go to war because from what he has seen, it is
not such a sweet and honourable thing to die for country.
The poem “The Soldier” written by Rupert Brooke is about a soldier who unlike the soldiers in “Dulce et
Decorum est” has never experienced the horrorific sights and sounds of war. The soldier is pleased
about fighting for his country because he believes there is a fantastic and wonderful place to go after
daeth that will reward him for his bravery “Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home”. This is very
different to Owen’s decription towards war as he thinks it is a horrible place and it is not worth dying for
your country.
The poem is written in the first person, but talks about the future rather than the present