In my opinion, the most powerful stanza in his poem is the fourth:
“They grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them”
Although the poem is idealistic as such, this is a very real point; the rest is almost fairy-tale like. Binyon uses words and phrases such as: “immortal spheres” and “heavenly plain” both are oxymorons, and juxtaposition the idea of heaven. In the last verse: “To the end, to the end, they remain” assonance is used to give it larger impact
Dulce et Decorum Est, by Wilfred Owen, provides a very different opinion of the war. It is much more realistic and provides a first hand soldiers point of view. Unlike Laurence Binyon’s poem, which was idealistic. It was written en early October 1917 whilst Owen was receiving treatment at Craiglockhart War Hospital.
The poem begins at a slow pace. It’s tiring, depressing and low on energy. In the second stanza every thing speeds up due to a gas attack, like when you’re lying in a relaxing bath with candles and the shower curtain sets on fire. Panic occurs rapidly, everyone has snapped awake: “Gas! GAS! Quick boys!” the exclamation marks amplify the panic. The central part of the poem describes the death of an anonymous soldier due to poison gas. -Most likely phosgene- It vividly describes the suffering of the man, ending with a bitter attack on those who see glory in the death of others (i.e. Binyons poem). In this poem the stanza I find most powerful would be the finishing one:
“If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devils sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth - corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et Decorum est, Pro patria mori.”
It disagrees to a great extent from Binyon’s poem, where he described it to be precisely that – Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori. Which is Latin, and translated it means It is sweet and decorous to die for one’s country. *Ironically 'pro patria mori' is also one of the mottos on the Menin Gate at Ypres.
So, as one can quite blatantly see, Owen’s poem, and Binyon’s poem are very different. One of the main reasons being that Wilfred Owen was on the frontline and Laurence Binyon served in the Red Cross. Therefore their experiences of war were totally different Binyon, makes it seem “heavenly” by using personification: “England mourns for her dead” Euphemism: “Fallen” Assonance and imagery, whereas Wilfred describes it hell, not something to glorify and encourage. His poem is full of horror, describing it like a disease, a cancer, infectious waste that is not needed in the world.
However, He himself does not find war poetic: "My subject is war, and the pity of war. The poetry is in the pity.”
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*Noted from Belgium history trip last year
