The sonnet has two parts and each part begins with a question, which is then answered by the lines that follow it. Overall this question and answer format is critical. The first question is:
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
The answer is shocking. Both lines two and three start with ‘Only the’ and lines five and six start with ‘No’, in both cases the repetitions highlight the negative answers. The description of ‘monstrous anger of the guns’, ‘stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle’ and ‘shrill demented choirs of wailing shells’ draws attention to the impact of very loud and frightening conditions of war. In particular the alliteration of ‘rapid rifles’ rattle’ following the onomatopoeia of ‘stuttering’ helps to recreate the sound of the gun-fire which is angry. In this way Owen conveys the experience of war as if we’re there. The vision of war is surprisingly switched to ‘sad shires’ where more traditional ‘bugles’ call for them. This shows the contrast between the Western front and home with this sonnet bridging the gap and exposing the horrid truths about war.
The second question asks:
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Like the ‘orisons’ and ‘choirs’, the ‘candles’ all are traditional parts of funerals which are turned upside down. Owen includes a very moving description whereby the ‘holy glimmers’ of dead boys eyes replace the candles. The picture created is of dead youth lying with eyes open and just left on the battlefield. It’s striking that at the end of the sonnet we again seem to switch back home where ‘blinds’ are being drawn down. This contrasts to the eyes of the dead youth which are described as open, again reminding us that traditional treatment of the dead, such as closing their eyes, is not being observed. In all it perhaps suggests that youth are mourned hardly more than the death of ‘cattle’ they were originally compared to. Owen’s bitterness is embodied in his exposing that despite dying for their country their ‘funeral’ is like a mockery. His anger is perhaps twofold; firstly from such young ‘boys’ dying and secondly from their deaths not properly being acknowledged.
Looking at the second poem Owen sets out to prove that
Dulce et decorum est
Pro Patria mori.
is an ‘old Lie’. He does this by showing in the first stanza that men are in a very poor condition, not like smart, proud and strong soldiers going off to war. They are ‘bent double’ ‘knock kneed’ and ‘coughing like hags’. When someone coughs they often bend over, and in this way Owen strongly suggests a picture of soldiers transformed and even deformed by war. This picture becomes worse by learning that men had ‘lost their boots’ but limped on ‘blood-shod’. Overall then the men may look like beggars, but their suffering makes it clear they are also heroes. The alliteration and rhythm of ‘Men marched asleep’ is striking because it echoes a stumbling way of walking or limping and helps the reader visualize their awful experiences.
On the other hand, the second stanza makes it clear that they are helpless heroes. They are so ‘drunk with fatigue’ that they are ‘clumsy’ when it comes to put their helmets on. Like the previous poem, Owen makes us realise the awful experience of war. The sudden switch to dialogue of ‘Gas! Gas!’ recreates a sense of panic which is horrifically realized when one man is ‘flound’ring like a man in fire or lime’. From being too weak or being unable to fit his gas mask this man drowns as ‘under a green sea’. Both similes of fire and drowning are truly horrifying. But this wasn’t all, as the narrator has dreams about the whole ordeal:
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
The build up of ‘ing’ words highlights the soldier’s physical torture. This was such a horrific sight to witness that he suffers continual nightmares and thinks about it.
In the final stanza, which is one long sentence, he goes on to ask a very significant question, namely: if you, the reader, could also have the same dream you would not think that it is a truly glorious thing to die for one’s country. Owen has already shown the poor conditions of the ‘boys’ but now goes into awful details explaining every scary thing in his nightmares. Some bits are incredibly gruesome:
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
This really brings up a very strong image and the reader will read this and just simply imagine what it must have been like to see somebody struggling for his life. The first time I read this I got such a strong vision that it made my stomach turn and look away from the poem, as this was just too much to handle. I think that this is exactly the kind of effect that Owen wants to create in the reader. Also it seems that instead of dying from the gas, it seems as though he’s suffering from other things:
His hanging face,
Obscene as cancer,
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
The boy’s expression on his face is the same as a ‘hanging’ man’s face. He’s in as much pain as with someone with ‘cancer’ and he has ‘incurable sores’ on his tongue. This death is not like being shot like a traditional hero and just falling to the ground. This man is ‘burning’ and ‘drowning’ in front of this man’s eyes and he is helpless. The poem finishes by saying that if you witnessed this trauma you would not believe:
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
I agree because if I witnessed a man ‘drowning’ in front of me I would never be the same again. I also reckon that this poem, which is very shocking and moving, will show a lot of people that war is not just killing each other or winning, but also losing friends and soldiers and watching them die and all you can do is thank God that it isn’t you hitting the ground. Owen’s bitterness at the suffering and death of his ‘boys’ is clear and extends to anger by his exposing that the ‘old Lie’ is told with ‘such high zest’. On the other hand there is an element of appeal since the reader is addressed as ‘My friend’. It squashes the anger and adds a note of sincerity to his bitterness about how war is seen publicly and how it is in reality.
I think that Owen would be very happy the way his two poems have touched the hearts of so many people. Owen wrote these poems to show just what people had to go through without any complaint and I think many have benefited from this. On a personal note, I would like to see evil men read these poems and perhaps benefit from them as there is still a lot of evil in this world, wars continue and young soldiers continue to die in them.
Ian Harkness
10AMM
