‘Men marched asleep’ and drunk with fatigue’
The metaphors above really emphasise the sheer exhaustion the men faced and the word ‘drunk’ suggests that the soldiers are so tired that they are losing their balance and falling all over the place. The slow rhythm of this stanza adds to the idea of the soldier’s exhaustion. This would be very dangerous at the war front because they would not be one hundred percent focused. Owen’s use of imagery creates a vivid picture of the suffering the men endured, making the reader sympathise with the men. It also helps to highlight the realities of the war as cruel and combats and brave image many would have had of soldiers at that time.
In stanza two, Owen opens with a description of a gas attack. Owen helps to convey the sense of panic as the poem continues to quicken in rhythm and in pace. The very first line of stanza two gives the reader a sense of how terrified one man is as he shouts:
‘’GAS! GAS! Quick boys – An ectasy of fumbling.’’
Owens use of capital letters and exclamation marks gives a strong impression of how rushed and scared the men are and the urgency of the situation. The reader will sympathise with the men as they all rush to get their masks on, knowing they could be gassed alive in the process. Owens very clever word choice adds to and awakens the reader even more to this sense of panic. The men begin ‘’yelling’’ and ‘’stumbling’’ as they fit their helmets helping the reader sympathise by creating a picture of the panic. The readers are given an indication that the mustard gas is surrounding the men and they are starting to stumble and lose confidence as one of the soldiers does not make it to his mask on time. This creates a vivid image in the readers mind of how traumatising this must have been as the men could die if they do not get their masks on in time. He beings to suffer a most traumatic death.
Owen remembers the man as he plunges at Owen ‘guttering’, ‘chocking’ and ‘drowning’ because of the mustard gas. The words Owen uses to describe the dying man such as ‘’chocking’’ tells the reader that the dying man’s lungs has been filled up with mustard gas so much that he cannot take anymore and is chocking to his death. It makes the readers feel sick to think of a soldier dying and suffering in such a manner as a result of sacrificing their lives to fight for their own country. The horrors that the dying man goes through are horrific as it is a harsh death. The horrors of the war make the readers think that the men dying at the war front is a painful death because it is a slow death. Owen makes this vivid as he helps create an image in the reader and my head of how horrific dying by mustard gas is as it fills up their lungs which would be very painful. Also, Owen’s word choice of ‘’drowning’’ emphasises vividly that the dying man cannot even barley breath because of this gas that he is drowning inside of mustard gas. The word choice that the poet uses such as ‘’guttering’’ helps the readers to create a vivid image of how scared and terrified the man must have felt as the mustard gas burned his inside alive. This helps the reader sympathise as they will feel sorry and piti the men. The effective use of ‘’guttering’’ helps create a picture in the readers mind of the man being in panic because he cannot breathe. The techniques that the author uses creates an image of sadness and horror amongst the readers that the soldiers suffered such horrific deaths. Wilfred Owen is clearly affected by the gas attack. The first line of stanza three tells the reader that Owen is so consumed by thoughts of this man’s death:
‘’In all my dreams before my helpless sight’’
Owens use of word choice helps create an image of how the nightmares Owen must have had because as much as he wants to escape from all of the war he cannot and he needs to live with horrific nightmares that has taken over his mind. Owen cannot escape these nightmares. Owen imagines and remembers the solider ‘plunging’ and ‘guttering’ towards him and the awful feeling of helplessness that he could not hide. It makes the reader feel sorry for Owen as he is scarred for life with memories he does not want. The poet is making the incident vivid as he is telling the readers of his nightmares and unwanted sights which are of a dying chocking man. Owen is trying to send a message to the reader of how cruel the war was and a waste of lives and how soldiers are affected by this. In stanza four, Owen effectively describes the dying man’s last moments. The poet describes the man’s faces as a vulgar simile:
‘’His hanging face, like a devils sick of sin.’’
The poet has helped the reader create an image of connections of ugly and disturbing. The poet use of a simile tells the readers that he is comparing the dying man’s face to a ‘’devils sick of sin’’. The dying man’s face had a horrific look on it as he knew it was going to be a painful death. Owen describes the ‘blood gargling’ because the man is chocking, whilst the blood is draining from his body. The reader can create a vivid picture of the man chocking to death on the gas. It helps the reader picture sounds of the man chocking on his own blood as he desperately seeks air. The words such as ‘corrupted lungs’ suggests the damaged at the gas he breathed in did to his lungs. The poet has mentioned this to create a strong vivid image of how painful and harrowing his death was. Owen is talking to the readers in the final stanza by saying ‘my friend’ but through such graphic imagery and personally addressing his readers as ‘you’. He does this to really involve the reader, making their event strong and vivid for them as to for Owen. The poet thoroughly describes the dying man through his word choice:
‘’Of vile, incurable sores’’
Owen wants his reader to imagine the horrific significance of the word ‘vile’ as it relates to death. This would give the reader a vivid image of death because of the poet’s word choice. Owens careful word choice tells the readers that these sores are horrific and terrifying. The readers knows this by the vulgar word choice such as ‘vile’. This gives the readers a hint of death. Incurable sores also gives the reader of how much pain and torture the dying man was in as he knows he is going to die. In the final stanza, the poet is talking about how much pain the dying man is in. Owen is trying to tell the reader that the truth and memories of the war is too much to tell as the war is a dangerous and petrifying place to be.
The poem ‘Ducle Et Decorum Est’ vividly describes the gas attack and subsequent death of a soldier through effective use of word choice, striking imagery and similes. The reader can visualise the event and shocked at the condition of the soldiers as they are described at the start of the poem. My overall opinion of this poem is that the stanzas help us create images in our heads as the words are very effective. The stanzas also use techniques such as onomatopoeia and alliteration which makes the reader more sophisticated with the point that Owen is trying to get through. Overall the poem ‘Ducle Et Decorum Est’ deals thoroughly with the dying man and the gas attack on the soldiers.