Compare The Send-off and Dulce et Decorum Est

The poem starts off with cheerful soldiers, singing their way to board “the train with faces so grimly gay”.  This oxymoron gives us an indication of how the soldiers were excited yet unhappy that there wasn’t anybody to see them off.

In the second verse the poet immediately brings home to us the reality of war by comparing the soldiers’ chest “all white with wreath and spray” to the chest of “men’s are, dead”, thus insisting that the soldiers are walking into a death-trap.

In the next verse, Wilfred Owen tells us about the lack of respect the soldiers were given by informing us that only “Dull porters” and “a casual tramp” were at the station to see off the soldiers. To emphasise this, Wilfred Owen brings in personification as “signals nodded and a lamp winked to the guard”.  

Owen continues to tell us of the disrespect given to soldiers in the next verse when he tells us about the secrecy in which the soldiers had to leave as if they were wrongdoers, “So secretly, like wrongs hushed up, they went”.

In the final verse the poet asks the question whether the soldiers will be welcomed back “to beatings of great bells in wild train loads?”. The poet then answers the question himself by telling us that only “A few, a few, too few” soldiers “may creep back, silent to village wells up half known roads”.

In this last verse the poet expresses his sadness at the neglect of the soldiers, who have shed blood for their country, by their own people.

“Dulce et Decorum Est” is a poem in which Wilfred Owen tells to us of the frightening realities of war. He uses his own experience to give us the point of view of a soldier on the battlefield. On the one hand this poem describes a horrific battlefield incident and on the other it is an argument attacking the belief in patriotism and martyrdom. In this poem Owen uses several similes to intensify the horror of the attack in trying to convince the reader of his pacifistic views. Another reason that this poem works so powerfully is because Owen seems to be speaking very directly to you.

The poem rhymes in a simple A, C and B, D pattern and contains 4 verses each with a different number of stanzas.

The Latin title itself is very ironic as it means ‘It is sweet and honourable’ even though the whole poem deals with the pain and suffering of soldiers.

The poem starts off in a battlefield where soldiers are retreating. The soldiers are “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags”. This makes us think of illness, weakness, old age, tramps etc not like soldiers at all. Wilfred Owen uses these similes to show how weak and unprepared the soldiers are.

In the next few stanzas Owen tells us how “Men marched asleep” and “Drunk with fatigue”. The poet then increases the pace of the poem as all of a sudden there were “gas shells dropping behind”.  

In the next verse Owen makes us hear and see what is happening, “Gas! Gas! Quick, boys    An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time”. The poet then gives a vivid description of a soldier “floundering like a man in fire or lime”. He then gives us his own view of “misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.” Here the poet compares the gas to a toxic sea to exaggerate the horror.

In the next verse Owen describes the incident as a nightmare in which he is powerless to help the soldier as he “plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.” Here Owen uses synonyms to create a powerful image of a soldier dying.

Then in the next verse the poet brings the reader into the scene by saying if “you too could pace behind the wagon that we flung him in”, indicating on the lack of honour and dignity that the dead soldier was given. I think the poet uses this stanza to strike out against those who believe that martyrdom on a battlefield was sweet and honourable, as the title suggest.

The poet then tells us if we could “watch the white eyes writhing in his face, his face hanging, like a devil’s sick of sin.” indicating that instead of having a sweet and peaceful death, the soldier died a sad and painful end.

Wilfred Owen then continues to tell us of the disgraceful death the soldier has suffered by letting us hear “at every jolt, the blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, bitter as the cud”. This creates a revolting image and an image that isn’t associated with a normal persons death let alone the death of a brave soldier. Owen then continues with his description “Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,” emphasises on his point that the soldier’s death was undignified and honourless.

Owen finishes off the poem by telling us, especially those of us who believe in patriotism and martyrdom, that if we were witnessing these incidents then we would not “tell with such high zest … the old lie: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” which means ‘It is sweet and honourable to die for ones country’.

The themes of both the poems are war and both are anti-war. They both argue that war isn’t about honour and respect but of pain and humiliation.

Owen uses the poem “Dulce at Decorum Est” to show us the horrific graphical images of war and to convey to us the reality of war. I think Owen uses “The Send-off” to attack those who have disregard for the brave soldiers, who risk their own lives for their nation.

In “Dulce et Decorum Est” the pace is really fast and the reader gets a clear image of what is going on due to the way Wilfred Owen expresses the horrific images through metaphors and similes. “The Send-off” on the other hand has a much slower pace and nothing really seems to happen.

“Dulce et Decorum Est” is set on a battlefield where soldiers are retreating whereas “The Send-off” is set in a train station where young soldiers are heading for the front lines.

In “Dulce et Decorum Est” the poet uses far more powerful words and gives a much more stronger message than “The Send-off”, in which there is a much more calmer atmosphere.

Out of the two, my favourite is “Dulce et Decorum Est” because it contains the use of powerful language and conveys a strong message.