One poem which stands out among Owen’s collection is Dulce et Decorum est, which is a poem about a gas warfare in the British frontline trenches. Within the poem lies a finely composed string of horrifying imageries complemented with exceptional musicality to support Owen’s expression. Across the entire piece, Owen blasts readers with horrifying vivid imageries of war usually unimaginable by readers in order to expose them to the reality of war. “Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod” is a quote extracted from an opening stanza in the poem. Owen states that a significant number of soldiers has lost their boots, but despite their losses, they ‘limped on’. His choice of diction for the word ‘limp’ suggests that the soldiers are walking with difficulty due to severe injuries. Aside from that, the word ‘limp’ as an adjective could suggest a lack of internal strength of structure, which could subsequently relate to the soldiers’ loss of mental ardor and eagerness to participate in war, hence this gives the readers a sense of burdened discouragement and regret which upsets the soldiers. Furthermore, the imagery of them limping on despite the huge impediments brings in an element of fragile reluctance in the face of powerful forcefulness, hence this shows that the soldiers are forced to move on and do not have the freedom to make a choice. Owen’s insinuation implies that a war throws soldiers into a situation where only pain and suffering exist, and it is impossible to turn back, thus regret overwhelms. The ideas of ‘regret’ and ‘forcefulness’ serve to persuade civilians to condemn the war and daunt them from becoming mislead soldiers.
In order to maximize the emotional impact on readers Owen continues to exaggerate the terrorizing imageries by quoting ‘blood-shod’ instead of blatantly stating the equivalent: ‘bloody feet’. This vivid imagery of the ‘shoe of blood’ hyperbolizes the pain experienced by soldiers and from my point of view, Owen’s usage of the word blood has more connotations attached to it than the obvious definitive noun itself. The concept of blood prevails in other war poems by Owen such as The Sentry and Mental Cases. In Mental Cases, Owen states that soldiers ‘wade’ in blood, and the poem’s allusion to Shakespeare’s Macbeth suggests that blood represents guilt in war just as blood represents guilt in Macbeth. The representation of blood as guilt exists in ActX SceneX where Macbeth is shocked by his deeds when he observes the blood of Duncan on his hands/dagger, likewise this idea is conjured up in ActXSceneX where Lady Macbeth is mentally unstable and tries to wash away the imaginary blood from her hands. Identically, these scenes depict blood on the hands on those who have sinned, thus insinuating on the guilt born from their ill deeds. Therefore Owen gains ground from Shakespeare’s poems to convey the idea of guilt from blood where soldiers ‘wade’ in a sea of guilt.
Remarkably, this concept relates to the ‘blood-shod’ in Dulce et Decorum Est; not only does Owen suggest that these soldiers walk in the shoes(blood) of physical pain day by day, but in guilt as well. Another noteworthy example which relates to blood lies in The Sentry, where Owen depicts the soldiers as bleeding and drowning in blood. The act of bleeding indicates that the soldiers are the cause of this guilt and suffering as they are the ones who produce the blood and the act of drowning indicates that they are subdued in guilt and physical pain by their own deeds. However, in relation to the conjecture made earlier in this essay, Owen proposes that the soldiers are forced to commit murder and march on in war, thus the blood is produced from the ill deeds these soldiers are forced to commit. Hence the government forces them to create suffering; the ones at fault are not the soldiers, but the British government officials. Inherently, this serves as a judgement made by Owen, who points out that the government is to be blamed for all the devastations. In addition to that, this simple yet profound imagery of ‘blood’ is capable of expressing more than what it connotes as a physical fluid. Blood clots, dries, and leaves stains behind, thus this notion derived from its characteristic could imply on permanence in the misery suffered by soldiers at war; the pain does not go away, but scars them for life.
The interconnectedness of ‘blood’ as a single entity to convey various interlinked conjectures in various poems effectively expresses Owen idea of physical pain, mental suffering/regret and rightful blameworthy. This relatively simple imagery which Owen extensively defined captures the essence of war as a tragedy which civilians must be aware of. He articulates straightforward themes in a diverging manners which exposes readers to other facets of war which are hidden by the British government. I presume that the way ‘blood’ is interpreted as an imagery in Owen’s poem is subject to individual filters and paradigms. Different mindsets would derive different deductions from the imagery; for example, I view ‘blood’ as a portrayal of humanity and its thus bloodsheds imply on the loss of humanity as a consequence of the war. Therefore the perception of ‘blood’ in Owen’s poems is subjective and may have diverse interpretations.
Contradictory to what Owen’s poems usually express, the imagery of blood is arguably not used to gain sympathy from readers like the other poems, however, it serves to warn or in other words, to frighten readers with the bloody realities of war. Perhaps, aside from expressing ‘the pity of war’, exposing the shocking realities of war to warn readers is another subset of his aim in composing war poetries.
