How does Wilfred Owen use language in "Dulce et Decorum Est"?
Introduction “Dulce et Decorum Est”, describes the soldiers’ horrific trauma in World War1 with a bitter tone. The background of this poem is during World War 1 when the British soldiers were attacked by chlorine gas. In this poetry, one soldier was unable to get his mask on time and after suffering from the torturing gas, he unfortunately died. His excruciating death was portrayed with gruesome effects of the gas on him. This was part of his intention to indicate the grim reality with horror and futility of the war as he was convinced that the war seemed to be carrying on beyond the point of reason and kill too many innocent people. Which was why he wrote this poetry emphasizing on the irony of this situation. In the poem, he uses different rhythms and literary devices including dramatic descriptions and various images to show how the soldiers are not only physically, but also mentally devastated by exertions of battle. He strongly convinces the horror of the war to the readers who glamorize war. In the first stanza, he introduces the reader to the horror of the war by depicting the poor condition of the soldiers. “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks”. Here, Wilfred Owen reveals how unclean and unhealthy the soldiers are by using simile with the word ‘old beggars’. Irony is used in this place, as many people think that the soldiers are fit and healthy
Wilfred Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est is a very powerful and moving war poem. It is a protest against all innocent lives lost in the war
Wilfred Owen, Dulce et decorum Est. In no more than 500 words, write an account of this poem in continuous prose, showing how the technique used creates the effect that led your interpretation of the meaning of the poem. Wilfred Owen’s poem ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is a very powerful and moving war poem. It is a protest against all innocent lives lost in the war and also a protest against all the lies that are told about how glorious it is to die for your country. Sarcasm and anger dominate the mood of the poem with descriptions of dreadful and undignified struggle of soldiers during WW1 and strong criticism of civilians who promote war effort. This effect is achieved throughout the poem with wide use of alliteration, imagery and emotive language. The poem can be viewed as a sonnet with 28 lines which follows the ABABCDCD rhyme scheme. ‘Dolce et Decorum Est’ contains 4 stanzas where the meter is mainly iambic pentameter, however there are some disruptions. For example in line 9, there are 11 syllables; the line starts with four consecutive stressed syllables ‘Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!’ Powerful words and exclamation marks draw our attention to the terrifying gas attack and panic the soldiers were facing. The first stanza of the poem gives us a clear and detailed picture about the state of soldiers walking from the battlefield. Owen uses imagery ‘like old
Dulce et Decorum Est
How does Owen try in 'Dulce et Decorum est' to convince the reader that war is evil? As soon as I read 'Dulce et Decorum est' by Wilfred Owen I immediately understood it was a vividly described poem which stirs disgust for war through the use of striking similes, graphic imagery and compelling metaphors. The poem is directed at Jessie Pope, a civilian propagandist, who promoted war. Owen wanted to counteract her and others, enthusiasm for war. Pope's poem 'Who's for the game' gave young men false impressions of war whereas Owens' 'Dulce et Decorum est' showed the readers the true and grim realities of war. In the first fourteen lines of the poem's twenty eight, Owen distinctly describes a single and horrific moment in time. The last fourteen lines deal with the reader directly, explaining the significance of the incident. The speaker is amongst a group of worn out soldiers, who after a spell at the front, are striding precariously towards safety when they are unexpectedly attacked by chlorine gas. After hurriedly pulling on their gas masks, the speaker 'through the misty panes' sees one soldier somehow with no mask on, vulnerably stumbling towards him. He watches the man surrender to the gas as he hits the ground. The third stanza moves to the speakers dreams. In only one couplet, the speaker states that in all his dreams he sees the soldier plunging towards him. In the
Dulce Et Decorum Est.
Dulce Et Decorum Est. Wilfred Owen, who was a soldier in the First World War, wrote this poem. He therefore gives a quite emotional account of what it was like to be there, as he has had first- hand experience. The title of the poem means 'it is sweet and fitting to die for your country.' Just before this is stated at the end of the poem, Wilfred Owen chooses to write' The Old Lie.' This tells us he does not believe this statement to be true. Calling the poem by this name is very ironic, as the poem is filled with Wilfred Owens accounts of what he experienced and what is the truth about the war, and so Wilfred Owen is saying how can all of this suffering be sweet and proper? In the first line, the soldiers are compared in a simile to 'old beggars'. This implies that they look scruffy; this is not how the press would have been portraying them at the time so Owen is already beginning to break down the public misconception. The second line continues this them as it compares the soldiers to hags, which are very like beggars. It tells you that the soldiers are knock kneed and coughing, which implies a very low morale and leads to poor health due to bad conditions. The 'distant rest' in line four could mean the soldiers are going to sleep for the night, but they will not be able to sleep because of the conditions. Another explanation would be the end of the war when the soldiers
Dulce Et Decorum Est.
DULCE ET DECORUM EST In the poem "Dulce et Decorum est" by Wilfred Owen the poet sets out to make clear to the reader his point of view. Wilfred Owen served as an officer during the First World War and so had suffered many ghastly experiences and seen sights that were to haunt him until his death at the end of the war. Consequently, he wrote poems about his war experiences in the hopes they would make people stop and consider the soldiers' sufferings as well as the right and wrongs of war. One such poem is "Dulce et Decorum est" in which Wilfred Owen describes how all the soldiers were trudging back to their trenches after fighting. A gas shell dropped behind them as they hurried to fit their gas masks: "An ecstasy of fumbling, fitting the clumsy helmets just in time." Because they were so exhausted they did not hear the noise of the gas shells dropping. One man did not fit his gas mask in time and inhaled the gas which began burning his lungs. Wilfred Owen said the sight haunted him in his dreams: "In all my dreams before my helpless sight, he plunges at me." The men threw the dying man into a wagon to get away from the gas as quickly as possible. The point of view that Wilfred Owen was trying to put forward was that he thinks everyone should know the truth about war - it is not all good and glory. It is terrible with miserable conditions so young boys should not
Anthem For Doomed Youth.
Anthem For Doomed Youth Throughout this poem there is a theme of mourning and funeral. In the first stanza it is almost sarcastic with instruments of war conducting a service on the battlefield for their victims. The guns become 'passing-bells' and shells become 'demented choirs'. The second stanza takes us back home where the true mourners are. The poet speaks of how 'the holy glimmers of goodbyes' will shine in the eyes of boys instead of their hands and how 'the pallor of girls' brows' being the 'pall' of the dead. The last two lines, for me carry the greatest effect and meaning: 'Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds' The first is about the disappointment of people who have worried and waited for a long time and whose pain can only be expressed in small gestures or things such as flowers. The second could be interpreted in many different ways. It could be referring to the custom of drawing down of blinds but it could also be about the end of a life and hope leaving as reality settles. These two lines also delineate the pointlessness of hoping as the dead were 'doomed' and predestined for slaughter in the way that 'cattle' are in the first place. 'Anthem For Doomed Youth' is structured like a sonnet and has a very strong rhyme which never appears to be forced and does not interrupt the meaning of the poetry.
Analysis of Anthem For Doomed Youth
Analysis of Anthem For Doomed Youth Anthem For Doomed Youth is the brainchild of one Wilfred Owen. Typical of Owens poetry it is strongly preaching the message of anti-war, and also similar to Owens poems, it displays strong views and harsh imagery. Just going by the title of the poem, 'Anthem For Doomed youth', the thing that captured me was the sense of irony and perhaps sarcasm in the title. When you hear the word anthem, it makes you think of your country's national anthem, which gives thoughts of hope and glory and perhaps doing the right thing for your country. Owen however twists this notion and shows that instead of this, the youth of Britain who are going out to battle on the front lines, are being led to their death and like the title of his other poem, 'Dulce et Decorum Est', Owen is saying oh what a noble thing it is to die for your country. From my first read of the poem I can see that it rhymes in cuplets of A B in the first stanza, this differs form the second stanza which doesn't have a fixed rhyming scheme. Alliteration, imagery, personification and onomatopia are the other devices used by Owen throughout the poem. Owen starts the poem as he means to go on with the opening line reading, "What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?" Apart from opening with a rhetorical question, Owen is showing us some very clear imagery, comparing the young soldiers
Analysis of "Exposure" by Wilfred Owen
‘Exposure’ is a poem written by a World War I poet Wilfred Owen. The title is a summary of how soldiers are mentally stripped of human dignity because they are exposed to the elements of war. Owen uses a range of techniques and uses specific language to describe the horrific conditions these soldiers were fighting. Owen uses a chronological structure in this poem to reflect one whole day of life in the trenches. The poem starts in the night when the soldiers “keep awake because the night is silent” and then runs into dawn as “the poignant misery begins to grow” which then leads to day and then returns back to night, at the burial. This indicates how dawn has been used to represent death and a lack of home, which is in contrast to the real meaning of dawn being full of hope and new beginnings. Although this poem is about war, the first line itself reveals to the reader that the main theme is in fact winter. The soldier describes the mental pain of war as their “brains ache” as well as the physical pain, when the “merciless iced east winds… knife…” them. This illustrates the personification used as they describe the winds stabbing them implying the weather is murderous and the ellipsis suggests it forever and never ending. Moreover, repetition has been used several times to emphasis the mental torment of the weather, as well as adding more power to
Trace the history of 'the old lie with particular reference to the poetry of Wilfred Owen
Trace the history of 'the old lie with particular reference to the poetry of Wilfred Owen 'The old lie' is Wilfred Owen's re-labelling of Horace's epitaph "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori". This is a Latin phrase, which translates to "it is sweet and honourable to die for your country". Owen has dubbed this epitaph "the old lie" as he completely disagrees with it. He has witnessed first hand what the conditions during war were really like, the full horror and degradation which the soldiers experienced. During Roman times, war was very noble and honourable as in battle the most skilled fighters won. During the First World War however, even the most skilled soldier could be killed by an invisible, unknown opponent firing a shell. He felt war wasn't "sweet and honourable" anymore like Horace wrote - but bitter and undignified. Thus he renamed it 'The old lie'. When Tennyson wrote 'The Charge of the Light Brigade', during the Crimean war in 1854, most people's perceptions of war were still similar to that of Horace's - that it was noble and courageous. Many were very patriotic and so respected the soldiers fighting in the war, as they were defending the country and being honourable and gallant. Tennyson didn't take part in the war, and therefore was not exposed to its true horrors. He could only write from other people's accounts of the Crimean war, which were evidently
Wilfred Owen 'Dulce et Decorum est'.
Poetry-Wilfred Owen 'Dulce et Decorum est' The poem 'Dulce et Decorum est' is a poem which shows us the horrors of war. It shows us how innocent lives are being wasted on a war. The poem tells us about how the poet feels about war. The first stanza tells us about the condition of the soldiers. It shows us that the soldiers are sick, tired and are not aware of themselves. It also tells us that the soldiers were in bad condition. They did not care about the shells that dropped behind them. In the first line the soldiers are compared in a simile to old beggars. This implies that they look shabby, which is not the image of soldiers in bright shiny uniforms, which would be in keeping with the glorious image of war. The line has a slow pace with no sound described, which is also a contrast to the image of war, as people at home might expect the soldiers to be marching along at a brisk pace. The second line continues this them as it compares the soldiers to hags, which are very like beggars. It tells you that the soldiers are knock kneeded and coughing, which implies a very low morale. In the second stanza, the poet has written about a gas attack that he has witnessed. This stanza tells us about the confusion and panic, which arises when the soldiers' lives are in immediate danger. The pace of this verse is a lot quicker in order to demonstrate this, and also provides a
