“Gas! GAS! Quick boys!”
In this quotation, the writer uses shorter syllables to emphasise the emphatic and abrupt command. The shorter syllable sequence of words also creates suspense and therefore attracts the reader’s attention even more closely to this incident.
Lamentably, one soldier is late on putting on his helmet and consequently dies.
In the final stanza, Owen makes the reader aware that if the politicians and generals saw the destruction and death caused by war then they would “not tell with such high zest” about the glories which are a part of fighting for one’s country. Dulce et Decorum Est, the title of this poem, is ironic because the poem deliberately contradicts this title.
Owen often uses strong and unambiguous imagery to illustrate how gruesome the war is especially, trench warfare. Owen gives details on how the soldiers felt whilst marching towards the German enemy. “drunk with fatigue” conveys the physical suffering of the British army. This phrase creates a perceptible nevertheless interesting image for the reader to picture. Alliteration is used throughout the poem to draw the reader’s attention to important words, such as, “knock-kneed.” This phrase suggests the weakness and suffering the soldiers are experiencing. The poet uses a range of similes to make the poem more shocking yet evocative. One example of this is when the men are “bent double, like old beggars under sacks…” This, again, indicates to the reader that these army men are tired, dishevelled and washed out from this brutal and demanding war.
The “green sea” describes the “flood” of gas reaching the soldiers. The poet compares the “flood” of gas heading towards the men to a tidal wave of water in the “sea”. This makes the gas seem never-ending like the sea in an ocean flowing insidiously towards them, which creates tension.
If an individual were to read only the title of the poem then he/she would be able to instantly presume that this poem was relating to the glories of the First World War. However, the poem does not illustrate the reasons and highlights of fighting for your country; in fact, it gives examples of why men should not sign up and join the army. The message from this poem is clear:Owen wants the public to be aware that it is not sweet nor is it appropriate to fight for their country. This is the complete contradiction to the title of the poem. Throughout the poem, Owen is extremely frank and gives an uncomplicated account of what he experienced as a soldier. For example, Owen is eager to destroy the false perceptions that the public have about the war:
“My friend, you would not talk with such high zest…”
In this line, which is from the last stanza, Owen declares that if the British public saw the obliteration and excessive amount of loss of life then they would not speak so greatly about going to war. Owen is being bitterly sarcastic in these lines because he knows that if the citizens of Britain witnessed life as a soldier then they would no longer be enthusiastic and supportive of the war.
I found that this poem had an ability to move the reader through the intense description of destruction and death. The poem is an example of writing graphically yet being completely truthful. Owen does not withhold any information from the reader and conveys what it was like to fight in the Western Front.
The poem is made up of three similarly shaped stanzas. However, after the second stanza the poet takes a separate two lines to portray, to the exact detail, what happened to the soldier who did not manage to put his gas mask on in time. The separation of these two lines indicates to the reader that this event had a significant impact because he remembers clearly the suffering the man endured because of the gas attack:
“ In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.”
“..helpless sight…” emphasises how traumatised Owen felt whilst watching this disturbing incident. Moreover, this phrase evokes Owen’s feeling of guilt, as he was unable to rescue one of the soldiers in his platoon. The poet was forced to watch this terrible match between life and death and unfortunately death won. The use of present participles in the short and extremely tense stanza creates the sense of immediacy making the “drowning” of the man under the gas seem even more frightening and intense.
The imagery established due to Owen’s effective account of the scenery around him whilst fighting allows the reader to conjure up many pictures of exhaustion and griminess:
“Men marched asleep
Drunk with fatigue.”
Owen explains why he feels this way through three impressively moving stanzas.
There is a regular pattern of beats per line starting from the first line in each stanza. Apart from the last two lines of the final stanza where the poet says that if politicians, who were enthusiastically promoting war at the time, were to experience life in the Western Front then they would not repeat “the old lie”:
“ Dulce et decorum est.
Pro potria mori.”
The concluding verse of the poem contrasts with the mood and atmosphere of the previous stanzas because it builds up to an exciting climax when Owen exposes his real intention for writing the poem. The build up of emotion, tension and suspense is heightened by the use of run-on lines (enjambment).
In “Dulce et decorum est.” there is a regular rhythm scheme which highlights the organised and unyielding lifestyle the men had. On the other hand, the separation of lines fifteen and sixteen illustrates that unfortunate and spontaneous enemy attacks can dismantle the prepared commands and tactics:
“…Outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind…”
Moreover, the rhyme changes with the separation of the two lines to evoke that this incident is a turning point in the poem. In the first stanza the rhyme is rather weary and slow to resemble how the young men felt whilst walking towards the enemy. Stanza two, contrasts the first stanza, because the pace quickens abruptly and the final stanza the rhyme suggests bitterness and anger towards the army generals and British government.
The rhythm only changed when the poet was stressing the impact the sudden and unexpected gas attack had on the advancing soldiers.
“ An ecstasy of fumbling….and stumbling.”
The poem takes the form of a dramatic monologue with a variety of figures of speech weaved into the poem. For instance, “ obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud.” Both similes efficiently portray how terribly horrifying the dead soldier’s body looked.
In conclusion, I enjoyed reading and studying “Dulce et Decorum Est” because it was unlike the majority of poems I have read about the First World War. I found Wilfred Owen to be a shockingly realistic and expressive writer. Nevertheless, he wrote an honest poem, which makes it even more appalling since they incidents did occur. Secondly, I feel that the name of the poem was suitable because many readers at that time would have expected the poem to be about the successes the British army had made. However, the poem painted a clear and evocative image of life as a soldier.
The pain of this piece of writing is that it actually happened. Furthermore, the reader learns from “Dulce” that war is an ugly, brutal and frightening business, which has caused so much pain and misery of last century. I feel that when this poem was first published that it was aimed at intelligent and sensitive individuals.
