Commentary. The topic of DULCE ET DECORUM EST is the pain and hurt soldiers of World War I go through

The literary devices included in this poem to underline the theme include: Imagery, Repetition and Similes. An example of Imagery is when the speaker says “limped on, blood shod” and “all went lame, all blind”. These quotes show what happened to these soldiers. An example of repetition is “Gas! Gas!” and “drowning, chocking drowning” to show how this soldier sees his compatriots die as he is the soul soldier wearing a gas mask to protect him form the poison. Finally an example of simile, which can be deduced as being a hyperbole, is “hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin”, this quote shows the speaker point of view on the whole incident as he watches the gas tear up the inside of his troop.

The tone of sorrow, fear, pain and regret is conveyed through the poem with various literary devices. Throughout the poem, the speaker never speaks positively as he always is bothered or suffers “fatigue, tired, blind, smothering dream, blood…”

This emphasizes how bad war is and what the soldiers of World War I went through. Towards the end of the poem, we see the perspective of the speaker, as he is the onlooker of his compatriots being devoured by chlorine gas, due to him being the only one to anticipate it and put on his mask. We see the tone change from the beginning to the end of the poem from hopeful, high energy and spirited soldiers in the past taking things one step at a time “ we cursed through the sludge” to one soldier helplessly looking at his friends die in front of him “to children ardent for some desperate glory, the old lie, dulce et decorum est pro natria mori”.

Theme of pain and suffering of the soldiers was shown in this poem through various literary devices. This poem is very sad and that feeling is underlined when the speaker says “It is sweet and becoming to die for one’s country” as he on looks his friends dying although he was able to put his mask on to protect himself from the chlorine gas. This thought is also shown when the subject of the poem moves from past and plural (a big army) to singular present (one person). Although the soldiers suffered and were in bad conditions, they still fought and ended up dying for their country (patriotism), which is very sad.