It is not until someone yells “Gas! GAS!” that they realise that they have been shelled again with mustard gas. WWI was the first time chemical weapons were used on such a large scale. The gas was heavier than air and often hung about for days on end.
The second stanza is action-packed compared to the first. Owen uses the oxymoron “An ecstasy of fumbling” to describe a sort of controlled panic as they only have seconds to find and put on their gas masks. One soldier takes too long and they see him through their gas masks in a “green sea” of mustard gas and he is “drowning”. Word such as “guttering “ and “choking” convey images of unimaginable pain.
The dead soldier is “flung” into a wagon and one gets an image of soldiers so caught up in what they are doing that they only have a brief moment to deal with their dead comrade.
In the closing stanza the mood changes again and Owen challenges the reader to try and share his horror of war by writing “If in some smothering dreams you too could pace / Behind the wagon”. He wants the reader to imagine seeing “the white eyes writhing in his face” and hearing the onomatopoeiac sounds of “ the blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs”.
From the title “It is Sweet and Fitting” one would have expected the poem to be patriotic but it is anti-war. Owen almost seems to beg us to warn children that there is no glory in war, using words that make us physically ill like “bitter” and “vile”. He concludes by writin that the phrase “It is sweet and fitting to die for ones country” is a “The old Lie” used to entice men to enlist.
Disabled
This poem describes a soldier who has lost both his legs “legless” and an arm “sewn short at elbow” in the war. The events that have taken place are not described in the order they happened, giving a sense of the confusion of the soldier and the confusion of war. He is in an institution, and the words “dark”, “grey” and “shivered” set the mood for the beginning of the poem.
The soldier was clearly under-age when he enlisted and is therefore still very young “smiling they wrote his lie: aged nineteen years”. “a god in kilts” indicates that the soldier was in a Scottish regiment and was handsome and joined up for reasons of vanity such as “daggers in plaid socks, “care of arms”, “pay arrears” and “Esprit de corps”. Owen uses alliteration in “smart salutes” for effect. Once athletic he is now disabled. The simile “he has lost his colour like losing his blood give an image of one grey and drained.
The further use of alliteration, g and s sounds helps to describe a happy time before the war “old times” , “swing so gay”, “glow-lamps” and “girls glanced”. Thoughts of girls are most painful when he notices “how the women’s eyes passed from him to the strong men that were whole”. The word “whole” indicates that he feels in pieces. He knows “he will never feel again how slim / Girls’ waists are” and “All of them touch him like some queer disease”.
He remembers how he didn’t even give the Germans a thought but went to war with “drums and cheers”. In the very next line Owen uses the image of people cheering again as the wounded soldier returns only this time it is “not as crowds cheer Goal”, this ties up with celebrations after his football matches where he felt and was treated as a hero. There is irony in the fact that before the war he was even proud to have a football injury in “ a blood-smear down his leg”.
The poem ends with the disabled soldier realising that he is going to be in an institution for years dependent on others for everything, even to be put to bed, “Why don’t they come” is written twice to emphasize his helplessness.
Conclusion
Wilfred Owen clearly draws on his terrible experiences at the front and in a hospital to write these poems. The images war in the trenches and a disabled soldier in an institution are powerful and graphic. In “Dulce et Decorum Est” Owen deals with a group of soldiers in contrast to the situation of on soldier in “Disabled”. Both poems empasize the fact that the vast majority soldiers had no idea what was in store for them and went innocently to war. They are anti-war poems and had people had poems like these before the war I think there might have been many more pacifists.
“Disabled” is the more moving poem in my opinion as it deals with one man’s struggle to come to terms with what has happened to him and the fact that he feels less than useless hardly a human being. He can offer nothing else to his country and even less to himself to stay alive, it’s as if his soul has died. Owen realises that telling the personal story of a victim helps people relate better to a situation.
I find “Dulce et Decorum Est” to be the most powerful of the two poems. The images of gas attacks he describes are so real and are very relevant to the world today as we know that chemical warfare is a great threat. Anthrax has already been used in the USA. The image of the dead soldier are haunting and I can feel the despair felt by the soldiers.
I was very moved by both poems and it has made me thing about war and wonder if any type of war and therefore the deaths of human beings can be justified.
He talks about the evenings. He says that at this time the towns atmosphere was fun and happy everyone is dancing having fun. He is very sad that he will never again experience this again. He says the girls look upon like he has some kind of disease. He talks of how he will never feel the waist of a woman, he also talks about how he threw away his knees in the war.
He was once a lovely face now he looks old. His back is now in a brace this was the back that not long ago was as strong as anything.
He has lost his colour just like loosing blood. He feels as tough he has poured his life away endless shell holes, he wonders what he has been given for this. Nothing.
“ And leap of purple spurted from his thigh “ He loves his youth. When his leg was blown away a massive part of him is now missing.
He wonders why he joined the army. He tries to impress people as they told him he would do well in the army. One reason he signed up was because his dear Meg would be pleased. At this time he was not afraid of being afraid. A soldier’s biggest worry is being afraid. Owen says “ And no fear of fear ha come yet “ He had thoughts of all the swords and other weapons that he would receive in the army. He had great thoughts of wearing smart uniform and making the salutes. Smiling away they signed him away. He
said that before he never thought of the Germans and he definitely had nothing against them.
He thought playing football was great, the buzz he got from the cheering. People thought of him as a hero. He thought he would get more of that joining the army.
He thinks of army spirit, the pride in his unit. He tells about how he was given cheers and the noise of the drums as he leaves. Only a few people cheered when he came back only one man inquired this man was the priest. This makes him feel betrayed in a way.
He will spend the next few years doing as the rules say. People will just take pity on him. He talks of how the women ignore him for the strong people. People with all of their body.
His final thought of the poem is one of total depression. He thinks his life is pointless. He is so helpless he can go to bed without someone there to help him. He feels as though he only has a few years left. He wants to be put to death as he feels like he has and can do nothing that he feels will make his life worth living and he feels tough nothing he does or feels will make him happy.
Conclusion
As you can see from both of these poems they are both extremely powerful. Each of the two poems makes a statement. One difference between the poems is that Dulce et decorum est is a view on the army that concerns a whole group of the army. With disabled it is just a description of one person. One thing that I feel about both poems is that they both talk how they were lied to and how they were sold a lie. This is more true of Dulce et decorum est.
If a person wanted the example of army life and what it was like the worst of it is written it Dulce et decorum est. It would show them the truth. However if I was asked about what a poem that describes a poem where a person can see how the war effected people I would recommend disabled.
Disabled is in my opinion the most moving of the stories as it represents a man’s struggle for his life. This man can offer nothing to his country now. He can’t even offer himself something that he feels he will make his staying alive worth it. While the people in Dulce et decorum est are still alive this mans soul has in effect died. He has lost his colour and can’t get used to the fact if being unpopular.
I find Dulce et decorum est to be the most powerful of the two poems. My reasons are as follows, although disabled is a very good, very powerful poem in its own right it only describes the views of one person in the army. I think that what makes Dulce et decorum est so powerful is that Owen speaks for everyone in the army when he talks of the horrific sights and attempts by the Germans to gas them.
Reading these poems can change a person. Many people say they live stressful lives and they are under extreme pressure. If you think of what these young men have been through it can put a lot of things in prospective
