The first and second verses are all to do with the visual and oral images of the soldiers and the ironic sense that the men are on their way back from the front line so they should be in less threat, yet this is where one man is killed.
The next verse begins with a shout of danger: “Gas! Gas! Quick boys.” “Ecstasy” is used paradoxically; it shows the speed and panic of the men as they know how important it is to get their helmets on and yet their fingers fail them. The poet tricks the reader by saying “Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time” which gives us the feeling that everyone has got their helmets on; this isn’t true. The next few lines talk about the terror and pain the man goes through as the gas enters his body. The simile “…floundering like a man in fire” was used to demonstrate the panic created by the man as he knew he was going to die and this is made more poignant by the fact that no-one can do anything to help.
The first 4 lines in verse 2 show the actions of the man, while the last two lines tell us how the narrator feels.
Although stanza 3 is short, it is very important. Owen makes this verse short so it stands out from the rest as being different. The verse shows that Owen still has nightmares about the event, he cannot escape the torture and suffering the man went through, so he too is a victim of the gas attack. He uses the word “my” to illustrate this. In Wilfred’s dreams the man pleads with Owen to help him yet he cannot do anything. The last three words end in “ing”, “guttering, choking, drowning.” This is used to close down the man’s life.
In the last verse Owen uses “You” frequently as he is now talking to us. This makes the last verse unique as throughout the poem Wilfred had written in 3rd person. “Behind the wagon that we flung him in,” makes us wonder if the man is actually dead. “Cancer” is used to tell us that the pain the man is going through is hidden, the man is dying from the inside out, the gas cannot be seen like a wound. The message lies at the end of the poem, “The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori” which translates as “it is a great and glorious thing to die for your country”. Owen unmistakably doesn’t agree with this and thinks that there is little magnificence and dignity in the lives of soldiers who weren’t told the truth about war.
Dulce Et Decorum Est is an anti-War poem, packed with distasteful thoughts and terms putting horrific images into the heads of the readers and, possibly, as Wilfred Owen hoped, changing their views on war.
By contrast, Wilfred Owen had been at the event in his poem and had seen the pain and suffering that took place whereas Hardy only read about the event described in his poem and wasn’t involved in it. Thomas Hardy used his imagination to convey the feelings and experiences of people more strongly involved in the war. In his poem “Drummer Hodge” Hardy read about the death of a drummer boy and thought it was sad that a young boy, who was too young to understand the war, should be buried so far from home.
The title “Drummer Hodge” was given to the poem to put across the cruelty of war to an individual. Drummer Hodge could represent any of the young soldiers who died during duty but uninformed as to what the war was about. The poem has a very regular rhyme and rhythm to it. Every alternate line in each verse rhymes.
It starts with the word “they” which is unwelcoming and is joined with the next two words, “throw in”, giving us the image of a quick ‘disposal of the body’ and the feeling that nobody cares about him. The word “him” is used repeatedly throughout the poem as the boy could symbolize any young soldier and not just one particular boy. Lines three and four use words like “kopje-crest” and “veldt” which mean a small hill and open grassland. Hardy uses these words to illustrate that the boy has been buried distant from home. In verse 3 it tells us that Drummer Hodge is from the “northern” hemisphere but he is buried in the “southern” hemisphere. This is why Hardy uses the words “Foreign constellations” in line 5; it shows that a strange gathering is taking place in the sky because the night sky is different in the two hemispheres.
In verse two and three Hardy writes more personally. He talks about stars, which emphasize heaven/eternity. Hodge’s body is laid to rest, but his spirit is eternal: his body will nourish a “southern tree” and become part of the “foreign” soil. This gives a sense of meaning in his death and contentment with where he is. Humans are provisional but stars are linked with eternity.
At the beginning of stanza three, an ellipsis is found. “Yet portion of that unknown plain”, this line has a word missing, it should be yet a portion… An ellipsis is used in the first line in verse 3 to emphasis the “portion”. A portion implies’ a small piece but portion on its own suggests a ‘part’, that Drummer Hodge is part of that plain.
The first two verses express the moving loss of Drummer Hodge and reveals him as being small and worthless while verse 3 is more deep thinking and philosophical, it talks about life after death and makes Hodge into part of something vast, the universe with stars and constellations. Hardy doesn’t want to end the poem in a negative way, he wants an optimistic ending so he talks about Hodge’s stars being “eternally”.
The difference between Peter Porter’s poem “Your Attention Please” and “Dulce et Decorum est” is that “Your Attention Please” is written from a distant perspective, it capture the poet’s feelings in a more announced way, unlike the other two poems which are both done in a more personal way. It doesn’t have any verses unlike Dulce et Decorum est.
“Your Attention Please” is an announcement, which is spoken over the radio and was written in the late 20th century. It is an omniscient voice which warns us about the danger of nuclear war. The poem has a clinical atmosphere and is clean and straightforward: the people are told to go to their shelters and wait.
The tone created in the poem is very callous. For example, “Do not/take well-loved pets/into your shelter” and “Leave the old and bed-ridden”. Another way in which the poem is insensitive is that the adults are told to put the children “to bed” so that they’ll be calm therefore using less oxygen.
Ironically a cuckoo is used to make sure all the radiation is clear. “Watch for the cuckoo in your/Perspex panel”. A cuckoo is used for two reasons, firstly because of the old warning of canaries being taken down a mine to see if there is poisonous gases, to make sure its safe for a human to go down. The second reason was it was used as a source to tell that the time is right like a cuckoo clock.
The announcement doesn’t give much comfort to the listeners as it basically tells them that thousands of other people are going to die, “Our President/Has already given orders for/Massive retaliation-it will be/Decisive. Some of us may die.” It also says “Death is the least we have to fear.” This is indicating that it is easier to die than to live, it’s cynical, as the reader is invited to think you’d be better off dead.
The last few lines blame God, “We are all in the hands of God/Whatever happens happens by His will.” Typically, humans have made the nuclear strike but they still blame God. Throughout the whole announcement time is brought up constantly as it’s running out. Words like “quickly”, “now”, “at the same time” and “ending” are used to indicate this.
‘Your Attention Please’ is a hypothetical poem which is completely different from ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ and ‘Drummer Hodge’. The only connection between this poem with the other two is that all three of them have the same opinion on war, they are all against it.
Owen has kept a steady rhyming scheme like Hardy whereas Porter has not included any indicated of rhythm as it doesn’t fit in with the poem. Out of all three poems Owen is the only one who uses similes such as “like a man in fire or lime” where the man is in pain and is struggling to stay alive. Alliteration is used in both Owen and Hardy’s poems. Most of Dulce et Decorum est is written in the 1st person perspective but many times it changes to 3rd person. When it’s in 1st person it gives us the feeling of reality and truth behind the poem.
In conclusion, war brings a great deal of pain and suffering so it shouldn’t be under-estimated. Wilfred Owen, Thomas Hardy and Peter Porter all bring across the reality behind war and the torture it brings with it. Personally my favourite out of the three is “Dulce et Decorum est” as I know it’s a true account of what happened in the war because Wilfred Owen was a soldier and died in action. I thought this poem contained a lot of discomfort and misery making it more out of the ordinary and authentic.