Dulce Et Decorum Est Annotation

Audience: Educators and the elite telling children to go to war

Theme:

De-glorification of war

Speaker:

• War veteran talking to the elitist warmongers
• Tone: Changes often but has a pattern

• Stanza 1: Hopeless, tires; someone who has lost all drive. Shows how the warring conditions lead to mental disassembly of the fighting soldiers
• Stanza 2: Restless and frantic. Panic all around, but in the last two line completely gobsmacked and horrified.
• Stanza 3: Terrified but completely submersed in a flashback dream world
• Stanza 4: Cynical and angry; almost aggressive

Symbols:

• Color: Not very strong

• Green: Represents poison and toxins in general and thus a sea of green shows the eminent death of soldiers surrounded by death from all four corners
• White: An archetypal symbol for innocence and purity. But in this case it is used to show the more ghastly nature of the now dead soldier. Irony that shows war as a vile murderer with little pride or glory generated from it.

• Allusion:

• Hags: Old woman like creatures with bad deformities used in stories to scare children. In this case Owen refers to the soldiers as hags to show their hunched back and injured deformed faces but also to de-glorify them because in folklore hags were usually chased away just as the flares had. Also since they are women Owen further belittles the glorified soldiers.
• Dulce et decorum est pro Patria Mori: It is sweet and right to die for your country. A line taken from Greek writer Horace in his own Odes. Owen uses this line to show the main gist of what is being taught to the younger generations. Owen criticizes this because it is told by the elites who would never send their own to war and is taught to young adults still in school. This line was very commonly used during war times and in public school systems most children knew about this line

Imagery:

• Simile:

• Like old beggars: Compares the trudging soldiers to old beggars. This takes away from their glory but also shows the pitiful condition they find themselves in.
• Like a man in fire or lime: Compares the panicking soldier to a man engulfed in flames or other painful material. This emphasizes the fear in every one of the soldiers but more importantly this image shows the chaotic and frantic reaction of the soldier. He symbolizes the untrained innocent men sent to war under the pretenses of pride and glory
• As under a green sea: Compares the oncoming gas to a thick green body liquid engulfing the soldiers from all sides. This is also a hyperbole because the chlorine gas discussed was not as saturated in the green color but was more or more difficult to distinguish. This shows again that the soldiers were untrained and inexperienced. It also shows the devastating nature of the poison leaking into their lungs