The next stanza of this poem describes how one man gave his life for others. The first two words, ‘Gas! Gas!’ is like a statement making it effective and the message clear to the reader of what is going on.
From here, the unseen and unimaginable part of the war is revealed where one man was ‘still yelling out and stumbling’ who sacrificed his own life in order to save other people by warning them about the poisonous gas.
“As under a green, I saw him drowning”
This thought is probably one of the most effective part in the whole poem and makes the reader feel several emotions such as sadness, helpless and stunned at what one can do for others. It also makes the reader feel extremely angry, full of rage and hatred towards the war. Again, resentment and disgust is felt when the soldiers were nearly killed just because ‘clumsy helmets’ were provided.
The third stanza of this poem is just like a small statement consisting of only two lines but still powerful and effective. This is when the soldier actually dies, ‘guttering, choking, drowning’, and ‘plunges’ to his death. This repetition makes it seem incredibly realistic and shows the prolonged anguish of the poor soldier. Caesura has been used here to emphasise his distress and to make the reader feel furious.
The fourth and final stanza of ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is like a conclusion to the first three stanzas. Owen uses even more metaphors to describe and emphasise more of the horrendous conditions of the soldiers’ poor health.
“the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud.”
The rest of this stanza allows the reader to form his own opinion on the poem, deciding on what they think is right and wrong. Owen does this by including the reader in his thoughts.
“If in some smothering dreams you too could pace”
Here Owen is trying to put you in his shoes to think about the war. He also relates to the reader again for the very same reason.
“My friend, you would not tell with such high zest”
This poem is then ended with an effective style and is unforgettable, concluding the whole poem in two lines.
“The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori”
(It is proper and sweet to die for one’s country)
The final phrase in French shows the stereotypical view of what war is about and how it is natural and acceptable for the soldiers to die. Owen has used this ironically by adding the words ‘the old lie’ in front to try and persuade the reader that people dying and suffering unnecessarily is not sweet and not needed. He is trying to give the genuine view of war. The use of irony makes it effective as it makes the reader reconsider their views on war and persuades them to think that it is bad, just what Owen was trying to do by writing this poem. French has also been used here to show how everyone thinks soldiers dying in war is acceptable but they do not really understand it. By using French as a synecdoche to represent the nation of Britain, Owen is trying to illustrate how people believe things without knowing the reality.
The fact that ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ is written in a narrative form and is a real life encounter, makes the poem more convincing and persuasive.
‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ also has the same effect as ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ in the way both poems start. They both start off by describing the soldiers’ conditions. ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ does this by using simile and personification, comparing the dead soldiers to ‘cattle’.
"What passing bells for those who die as cattle?”
This gives the reader a disturbing thought because they are not getting proper burials but all of them being thrown in one large grave like ‘cattle’, causing them to feel sympathy for the soldiers and anger towards the war. Also the use of a rhetorical question at the beginning of the poem, asked by Owen to the reader, makes them think more about the poem. He goes on to answer them in meticulous detail in the rest of the poem, just to exemplify how dreadful the war actually was. This more subtly used technique does exactly the same job as in ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’, offering the reader to step into his, or any other soldier's shoes, just for a moment, in order to encounter the tragedy that he encountered.
The next three lines of this poem continues to set the scene, using numerous adjectives such as ‘monstrous’, ‘anger’, ‘stuttering’ and ‘rapid’. This description gives the reader a vivid picture and a genuine atmosphere of what it was like to fight in the war and describes the constant sound of rifles the soldiers had to tolerate.
The next two lines of the poem are trying to make the reader express their sympathy by using words such as ‘prayers’, ‘mourning’ and ‘save’ and these words also set the scene of a funeral. This again makes the reader feel infuriated as there were so many unnecessary deaths.
‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ starts to show what the world would be like with peace in the last few lines of the poem. Owen does this by writing about innocent children who would live peacefully and enjoy their lives.
“…in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers…
…The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall,
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds”
This message at the end of the poem is like a wish, which Owen hopefully thought would cause the war to end. Like ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ this is another effective ending which will make the reader realise that war is wrong. Furthermore, the use of the word ‘holy’ suggests that there is some relationship to religion. There have also been more religious ideas brought up the poem using words such as ‘prayers’ and ‘choirs’. This has been used emphasise the fact that their has been no real funeral for the dead soldiers and despite that, they should still be remembered, like God does. He has also used religious aspects to give the soldiers who did not get a proper funeral their only real burial.
The style in which the title ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ is similar to that of ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ as they are both ironic. Anthems, which are usually associated with love and passion like some people would have for a country, is very deliberately used ironically. The fact that the ‘cattle’ Owen talks of, are not actually getting proper burials just outrageous mass burials shows how ludicrous he really thought the war really was.
The way rhyming is used in both poems adds to the brilliance of it causing the poems to be even more effective. ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ uses sonnet form in the first two stanzas, with caesurae.
“Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through
sludge,”
This makes the beginning sound slow and extremely painstaking for the soldiers and coincides with the text, as soldiers are suffering and distress. The same method is used in the second stanza, but in this case, to describe the death of one innocent soldier.
The final stanza of ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ flows much quicker by using enjambment on a couple of lines and a lot less punctuation (commas, full-stops etc). This use of poetry makes the final statement even more effective due to the sudden change in pace of the poem.
‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ is a sonnet and unlike ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ starts off with a quicker pace. Like all sonnets, this one has fourteen lines, divided up into two movements. It then draws to a slow sombre close, an effective way to accentuate Owen's point to the poem in the final few lines. This is shown in the poem by the use of enjambment in the opening lines. It then slows down by including punctuation on the end of each line and gradually adding caesuras, which in effect slows the poem down even more. This use of slowing down, again by using caesurae, makes the message behind the poem become clear, making it easier for the reader to understand. This makes it all the more effective because anyone can understand what the poem is about. The fact that this poem is a sonnet is ironic as sonnets are usually written when expressing feelings of love. ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ is not about love or anything similar. It is about war, the complete opposite.
In conclusion, ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ and ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ both portray the horrors of the war, but by using different styles making one more effective than the other. I believe that ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is more effective and dramatic because it shows the death of an innocent soldier, who was suffering to save others, making the poem more touching and understanding to the reader. The personal feel that Owen creates with 'Dulce et Decorum Est' by writing it in the narrative form and using a real-life encounter makes the reader empathise with the soldiers involved making it effective and also easily persuades the reader to believe that war is horrific. ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ on the other hand concentrates more on the consequences of war and how the soldiers are neglected when they are dead. Even though the poem is not set in a scene from the war and not much description of killings and violence is present, it is effective due to the use of real, physical objects such as ‘rifles’ and the heavily descriptive words used to describe the action in the poem. These create a real atmosphere in the poems whilst giving a dramatic account.
Another reason why I feel ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is more effective than ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ is because the text mixed with the structure and rhyming scheme, makes the atmosphere seem authentic causing the reader to feel more emotions such as sympathy and empathy, making the poem more persuasive. This also gives the reader a vivid view of what being in the war was like and how soldiers were pointlessly dying. ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ does this well with the heavily used adjectives giving a vivid view and helping to set a scene, but no way as clearly as ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ does. Also the fact that ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is in the narrative form allows the reader to visualise exactly what the conditions of the soldiers were like. In 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' Owen has deliberately distanced himself from the poem, giving a descriptive account, not a narrative, but more of an idealistic viewpoint.
Both poems try to give the reader an insight to war, trying to convince at every chance given to prove war is hideous but ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ doing this in a more effective way.
