Dulce et decourm est and The charge of the Light Brigade

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Comparison

This essay is about two contrasting peoms about war and what it represents.The first peom is ‘Dulce et decorum est’ written by Wilfred Owen who has a negative view of war on the other side of the argument we have ‘The charge of the Light Brigade’ written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson who’s views about war are that it is a noble event to be a part of. I will explain what the poems mean and them compare them to each other.

Dulce Et Decorum Est

By Wilfred Owen

The first poem I will explain is ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ it shows the realistic side of living on the front line. The title is in Latin ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ which gives the impression of an old Roman or Roman related poem. ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ is Latin for “It is sweet and honourable” the other part to that sentence is “Pro patrioa mori”. It means “to die for my country”. This means the sentence “Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro patrioa mori” means “It is sweet and honourable to die for my country”. This proposes the theory of early propaganda to lure young men into the army to fight in wars and to hide the awful conditions in which they fought in the trenches packed with soldiers and infections which lead to disease. It was a very deceiving title.

This poem is set in World War I, and when Wilfred Owen was a British soldier. So he probably did actually see the scene he describes in the poem and his experience convinced him that the saying, “Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori” or “It is sweet and honourable to die for my country” was no true. The speaker does not believe that dying for one’s country is as glorious as they where led blindly to believe.

Wilfred Owens’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” contains four stanzas and with twenty-eight lines. The first stanza consists of eight lines with the rhyme scheme ABABCDCD. The second stanza consists of six lines with the rhyme scheme ABABCD. The third stanza smallest of all the stanzas with two lines but because it’s content is a lot stronger and dramatic it requires that it stand out from the others alone; although it continues the rhyme scheme from the preceding stanza CD. The fourth stanza consists of twelve lines which would make it the longest stanza and making it six times bigger than the smallest stanza, with the rhyme scheme ABABCDCDEFEF.

In the first Stanza the sentences:

 “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks”

In the first stanza, the speaker describes the march of soldiers who have fought hard, but now they are out of supplies and in desperate need of medical attention. The speaker is one the soldiers describing his fellow soldiers, his brothers of arms. Comparing them to beggars is a comment as they are regarded as disease-ridden, unhealthy, no strength and the lowest of the low in society. We usually see soldiers as heroes of the day and as healthy, happy, strong and courageous. He says they are “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, / Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge.”

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But as they are retreating back from the front line they aren’t moving fast enough as they can still hear the “gas-shells dropping softly behind.” Many have no boots and their feet are bleeding, but they are heading to their “distant rest” though it is a difficult march. They are so tired they are “Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots”. This extraordinary line shows that even with death whizzing through the air behind them they are so tired that they can’t do anything but walk too safety not even noticing anything around him (the speaker).

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