Dulcet et Decorum Est
“Dulce et Decorum est” is a poem written by Wilfred Owen the famous poet and solider, who fought and died in World War 1, who is considered one of the greatest war poets of his time. The Great War resulted in more than 40 million casualties; soldiers were originally volunteers but were increasingly conscripted into service. War poets such as Owen describe the intense horror of being a solider in the trenches. People who stayed home were blissfully unaware of the sufferings of the soldiers at the front line. They stayed in their safe homes swallowing the propaganda fed to them by the government, telling the younger generations stories of the honour and bravery of the battlefield. The poem “Dulce et Decorum” addresses the issue of propaganda and the horror suffered. The poem effectively delivers the messages “Don’t lie to the public through propaganda” and “The War was the pointless killing of the innocent.”
The first stanza of the poem is very significant in that it uses alliteration and meter that plunges the reader into the poem. This and the fact the first stanza is in first person causes the reader to feel as if he or she is experiencing war firsthand. Owen incorporates specific imagery to into the poem in order to introduce the reader to the chaotic world of war. Owen opens by saying that the soldiers are “bent double.” This statement manages to effectively convey the exhaustion of the soldiers, who have become so disillusioned that they find themselves in a state of purgatorial numbness. Moreover, Owen describes the soldiers as being like “old-beggars.” This a peculiar term to use since most the soldiers were young men when they enlisted; Owen’s reason for using this simile is to demonstrate the way war ages soldiers both physically and emotionally. He also compares the soldiers to “hags” a word that brings to mind disfigurement, and thus could act as a possible reference to the mutilation of bodies so often encountered in war. Additionally, Owen describes the soldiers as being “drunk with fatigue” which seems especially significant because of the suggestion of idea of inebriation as a form of escape from reality, the only method of escape available to them.