Comparison of Dulce et Decorum Est and Charge of the Light Brigade

The Portrayal of War in Charge of the Light Brigade and Dulce et Decorum Est

“Dulce et Decorum Est” is a poem written by English soldier and a poet, Wilfred Owen. He has not only written this poem, but many more. Such as “Insensibility”, “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, “Futility”, “Exposure”, and “Strange Meeting” are all his war poems. (Poets.org) His poetry shows the horror of the war and uncovers the hidden truths of the past century. Among with his other poems “Dulce et Decorum Est” is one of the best known and popular WWI poem. This poem is very shocking as well as thought provoking showing the true experience of a soldiers in trenches during war. He proves the theme suffering by sharing soldiers’ physical pain and psychological trauma in the battlefield. To him that was more than just fighting for owns country. In this poem, Owen uses logos, ethos, and pathos to proves that war was nothing more than hell.

One is to think of war as one of the most honorable and noble services that a man can attend to for his country, it is seen as one of the most heroic ways to die for the best cause. The idea of this is stripped down and made a complete mockery of throughout both of Wilfred Owen’s poems “Dulce Et Decorum Est” and “Anthem for Doomed Youth”. Through his use of quickly shifting tones, horrific descriptive and emotive language and paradoxical metaphors, Owen contradicts the use of war and amount of glamour given towards the idea of it.

The First World War was a time of great loss of life and bloodshed. Wilfred Owen, a soldier fighting with the British Army, wrote the poem Dulce et Decorum est to describe, possibly to the public, the horrific consequences of taking part and fighting in the war. During the poem, he describes the aftermath of a poison gas attack, and the injuries sustained by a soldier whom had inhaled the deadly substance. Owen uses gruesome imagery to vividly show in verse the horrible death the soldier faces, in the trenches of France. The poem Dulce et Decorum est is widely regarded as one of the greatest war poems ever written, and is a fine example of an anti-war protest in the form of poetry.

War is kind tirelessly repeats the speaker throughout the 26 verses of this poem. However, the speaker also remembers the battlefield, but not in a happy or heroic way. When the speaker remembers the battlefield, he indicates that it is a place “where a thousand corpses lie” (XXX). This description of the battlefield creates a visual image of terror and rejection; an image that reminds readers that in war it is not all happiness and honor, but death lurks around every corner. This image of the battlefield reinforces the ironic tone of the poem that on the one hand says that the war is good and kind, but, on the other side, it emphasizes the atrocities that the soldiers suffer. This image of the battlefield full of dead people is an exemplification of the cruelty and fatality that the war provokes on soldier’s lives. Moreover, in the poem, the speaker reinforces this image by indicating, “point for them the virtue of slaughter / make plain to them the excellence of killing” (20-21). In these verses, the speaker reinforces that image of atrocity in the battlefields and points out how in the army, in many cases, these massacres are not only justified but also applauded. The excellence of killing reinforces the image of the battlefield full of

War is a scandalous topic where peoples’ views differ as to what war is. Some people see it as pure evil and wicked while others think that it is brave and noble of what soldiers do. Looking at poems which had been written by people affected by war help show the messages which are portrayed. The two sets of poems which show different views of war as well as some similarities are “the Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred Lord Tennyson, “To Lucasta, on Going to the Wars” by Richard Lovelace and “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, “The Song of the Mud” by Mary Borden. Both these poets use linguistic devices to convince the reader of their view of what the war is. Tennyson and Lovelace show how war is worthy

Wilfred Owen's war poems central features include the wastage involved with war, horrors of war and the physical effects of war. These features are seen in the poems "Dulce Et Decorum Est" and "Anthem for Doomed Youth" here Owen engages with the reader appealing to the readers empathy that is felt towards the soldier. These poems interact to explore the experiences of the soldiers on the battlefields including the realities of using gas as a weapon in war and help to highlight the incorrect glorification of war. This continuous interaction invites the reader to connect with the poems to develop a more thorough

In conclusion, “Dulce et Decorum” by Wilfred Owen is a poem written with the clear purpose of destroying the heroic tradition by telling the truth about war. It doesn’t sugar coats the ugly reality of war, but describes in vivid disturbing details. Even if the poet died during the battles of the Great War, we can be very grateful that some of his works survived to tell the tale as it is. Not noble, regal nor godly, but

War is like depression, one either win or die trying. Owen’s poem describes the reality of men dying in a battle zone. “If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood come gargling from the froth corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-” (lines 21-24). These demonstrates how this unimaginable such horrors are for the soldiers. No one can understand how painful it is to die of gas excruciating. In fact, during war the bodies of the soldiers are twisted and contorted, making their experience seem totally different from the arrange of marching that one usually see in military parades “Bent double, like beggars under sacks, knock -kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,” (lines 1-2). On the other hand, Brooke’s poem describes the unrealistic scene of a soldier in a battlefield. “If I should die, think only of me, That there’s some corner of foreign field That is

‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is another of Wilfred Owen’s poems that conveys inner human conflict, in terms of past doings in World War I. The poem was written in 1917 at Craiglockhart (Owen’s first battle after his rehabilitation due to ‘shellshock’). It portrays an inner change in his approach to war and it’s gruesome environment:

The poems “The Charge of the Light Brigade” and “Dulce ET Decorum EST” are war poems. They reflect on two different but equally harrowing events, however the poets portray these events using their own style and the and result is two entirely different views of war.

In this essay you will notice the differences and similarities between ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ and ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’. ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ was written in nineteenth century by Alfred Lord Tennyson. In contrast, ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ was written in the twentieth century by Wilfred Owen. The main similarity we have observed is that they both capture war time experiences. However, the poets’ present these events using their own style, and the effect is two completely different observations of war.

We have been studying the war poems Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen and Charge Of The Light Brigade by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Dulce Et Decorum Est was written during the First World War from 1914 to 1918 whilst Charge Of The Light Brigade was composed in the 19th century, and describes a battle that took place during the Crimean War.

Then, "An ecstasy of fumbling / Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time / But someone still was yelling out and stumbling [. . .]. " Everyone has managed to put on his mask, except one unfortunate soldier. As the mustard gas seeps into his lungs, he begins to scream and jerk around, but it is too late for his companions to save him. "[W]atch the white eyes writing in his face / His hanging face / [. . .] at every jolt, the blood / Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs [. . .] / Of vile, incurable sores on the innocent tongue [. . .]. " Nowhere in the entire poem is there any mention of how wonderful and brave the soldiers feel at being given the chance to die for their country.

With many of Owen’s poems being semi-autobiographical recounts of his experience of war, Owen’s viewpoint on war is tremendously clear. Many countries viewed World War I as an easy war to win, and one that would be over relatively quickly. It was also heralded as a huge patriotic honour to your country to become involved. Many young boys got swept up in the promise of honour and joined, Owen, only 22 at the time, was one of them. He, like every other young soldier wanted to uphold the honour of his country, but after only a few short weeks, Owen’s perspective shifted dramatically. A love of poetry from a young age prompted him to continue writing while hospitalised for Shellshock with the encouragement of Siegfried Sassoon, and soon the poetry he wrote showed the general public what it was like on the front line and the graphic reality of human suffering on the battlefield. In particular was his distaste for the main point of war – the extreme loss of human life, as Owen described it – ‘dying as cattle’. All of Owen’s poems had