Explication of Dulce Et Decorum Est

The poem does indeed have a rhyme scheme, yet doesn?t conform to conventional forms of rhyme such as A, B, A, B, etc. Rather, each stanza seems to follow the order of A, B, C, A, C, B, which may not be apparent to the reader at first, but doesn?t

<br>There are several image groups used in this poem, two of which I will be reviewing. The first image group is "Sleep or Dreams". Owen often refers to many subconscious states like the afore mentioned one, the reason why he uses these references so frequently is that war is made apparent to the

Another tool in developing the effectiveness of the poem is the use of compelling figurative language in the poem helps to reveal the reality of war. In the first line, the metaphor, ?Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,?(1) shows us that the troops are so tired that they can be compared to old beggars. Also, the simile "coughing like hags"(2) helps to depict the soldiers? poor health and depressed state of mind. Owen makes us picture the soldiers as ill, disturbed and utterly exhausted Another great use of simile, ?His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,?(20) suggests that his face is probably covered with blood which is the color symbolizing the devil. A very powerful metaphor is the comparison of painful experiences of the troops to ??vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues.?(24) This metaphor emphasizes that the troops will never forget these horrific experiences. As you can see, Owen has used figurative language so effectively that the reader gets drawn into the poem.

Owen’s poem has the clear intention of showing the true nature of war to the reader, which is mainly achieved by contrasting reality against the ways in which war is so

Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” is a poem made of four stanzas in an a, b, a, b rhyme scheme. There is hardly any rhythm to the entire poem, although Owen makes it sound like it is in iambic pentameter in some lines. Every stanza has a different amount of lines, ranging from two to twelve. To convey the poem’s purpose, Owen uses an unconventional poem style and horrid, graphic images of the frontlines to convey the unbearable circumstances that many young soldiers went through in World War I. Not only did these men have to partake in such painful duties, but these duties contrasted with the view of the war made by the populace of the mainland country. Many of these people are pro-war and would never see the battlefield themselves. Owen’s use of word choice, imagery, metaphors, exaggeration, and the contrast between the young, war-deteriorated soldiers and populace’s favorable view of war creates Owen’s own unfavorable view of the war to readers.

As the soldiers trudge across the battlefield, the narrator creates a sense of urgency by interjecting, “GAS! Gas!”. This exclamation makes an abrupt transition from the more solemn tone in the previous stanza. The shock that this gives the reader parallels that of soldiers when they are in the face of danger. Without time to enjoy the last moments of their lives, they can be subject to a painful death. The soldier depicted in the poem eventually becomes incapable of doing anything to save himself and is left with a “hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin” (Owen 20). Owen’s use of assonance and alliteration forces the reader to hiss the words, allowing him to emphasize his disgust of war. The soldier has succumbed to the brutality of the poisonous gas and no longer cares for his life. His last memories are of him being tired of all of the destruction that war has caused.

Owen’s poem makes war seem like an event where innocent men suffer. Owen uses the features of simile and onomatopoeia to make war seem much more horrific and dreadful.

By incorporating phrases such as "haunting" and "drunk with fatigue," Owen is able to capture the essence of war and the create the distraught tone of the poem (Owen 3;7). In lines 9 and 10, the tone of the poem shifts to hysteria when poison gas fills the trenches. To describe this frenzy, Owen apocalyptically uses the term, "an ecstasy of fumbling" (9). The ironic use of this phrase perfectly describes the absolute chaos of Owen's near-death experience. In the next line, Owen shifts the tone to one of dismay when singling out one of his comrades who was dying in the midst of the frenzy using words like "stumbling," and "guttering, choking, drowning" (11;16).

In both poems Owen shows us the physical effect of war, Wilfred starts the poems showcasing unendurable stress the men were going through. Appalling pictures are created and expressed through similes and metaphors. Owen’s lexical choices link to the semantic field of the archaic which conveys the atavistic effects of war. The men are compared to old beggars, hags, the once young men have been deprived of their youth and turned into old women, the loss of masculinity express the how exhausting and ruthless war was. The men were barely awake from lack of sleep, they “marched in sleep” their once smart uniforms resembling “sacks”. He also expresses how

It presents the actual “during war” and “after fighting” view of war. This poem describes a battle and a death in the battle because Owen actually died in action or as a result of it which is passionate and sorrowful. “Bent double, like old beggars under sack, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through shadge.” This presents a different view of war. Look at the strong words that are used to depict the action; haunting, blood-shod, drunk with fatique, this is what war is really like, the poem implies.

Para-rhymes, in Owen’s poetry, generate a sense of incompleteness while creating a pessimistic, gloomy effect to give an impression of sombreness. Strong rhyming schemes are often interrupted unexpectedly with a para-rhyme to incorporate doubt to every aspect of this Great War. Who are the real villains and why are hundreds of thousands of lives being wasted in a war with no meaning? In ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, the consistent sonnet rhyming scheme is disturbed by a half rhyme, “guns … orisons”, to show how the soldiers all died alone with only the weapons that killed them by their side, and a visual rhyme, “all … pall” to indicate that the reality of war is entirely the opposite to what it seems - no glory, no joy and no heroism, but only death and destruction. Owen occasionally works with this technique in a reverse approach to create similar thought. For instance, the assonance, consonance and half rhyme based poem, ‘The Last Laugh’, contains an unforeseen full rhyme, “moaned … groaned”, to emphasise that nothing is ever fixed in war except the ghastly fact that the weapons are the true winners. Different forms of Para rhymes often work together with common schemes to ably bring out the main ideas of Owen’s poetry.

The manipulation by Owen’s superiors expose tragedy, as soldiers are being used like cattle to fight a battle with no cause. Throughout his poems, Owen does not portray anger as the enemy, but he is angry at those who are sending men over to fight the war. These who are affectively his superior and his rulers of the country, he is angry at the people who are

The poet describes the soldier in such a disturbing and painful manner; Owen uses similes and metaphors to describe the condition. The poet opens stanza one with a powerful and strong metaphor: “Bent double” It shows

This image is definitely not the glamorous picture of glory that, say army recruitment presents; worse, the soldiers are doing worse than civilians. As soon as the next stanza “[m]en marched asleep. Many had lost their boots” (5). They have lost their usual awareness and move mechanically; that doesn’t sound appealing! It gets worse: “[b]ut limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind” (6). So now they’re limping, apparently wounded, covered in blood, and can’t even see? It worsens further, “[d]runk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots/ Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind” (7-8). The soldiers are so exhausted it incapacitates them, and they can no longer hear the bullets being fired. This poem sounds like a distorted nightmare, except the speaker is living it, and even reliving the torment of the soldier’s death while he is unconscious. Owen’s wording expresses that the soldiers are merely men, deteriorating and inconceivably overwhelmed the opposite of positive war poetry containing glory and honor.

This poem is called dulce et decorum est and is written by Wilfred Owen the poem is about the horrors of war. In stanza one Owen gets his message across about the war and the soldiers physical condition through his use of similes ,metaphors assonance and ambiguity. One example of ambiguity is his description of the “haunting flares” the first meaning is referring to the sound of the flare the other meaning is that the soldiers are haunted by what they have seen in the war.the second quote is “men marched asleep” which is getting the point across that the soldiers are absolutely shattered.it is clear to the reader that war is a draining experience for the soldiers. In stanza 2 Owen gets his message about the horrors of a gas attack across with a good use of ambiguity.my first quote is “and flound'ring like a man in fire or lime”this means that a solder did not get his gas mask on in time and he is now floundering around in pain.the second quote is “i saw him drowning”this is another example of ambiguity, the first meaning is that he looks like he is drowning and the second meaning is that he is actually drowning because the gas makes the lungs bleed so he drowns in blood.it is clear to the reader that gas attacks and all of war is a horrific experience]