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Dulce et Decorum Est

Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen. Dulce et Decorum Est is the Latin,

but it was taken from the Roman poet Horace and it also means sweet and

honorable and to die for ones country. This poem is about the experience of a

soldier that went to World War I. Owen expressed his feeling in the World War I ,

which includes the massacre poison gas bombing and mass death of his army

friends. He wrote this poem during the war on the battlefield where he died at age

25. Wilfred Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est contains the true horrors and

fearfulness that came from his own feeling straightforwardly experienced from the

World War One. The poem contains gruesome similes, metaphors, and imagery to

keep the poem focused and strong on his subject, which makes the reader feel

strong disgust.

There are a couple of similes that Wilfred Owen chooses to use it in Dulce et

Decorum Est, a very well-known poem from the first world war that describes about

the poets feeling. Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed,

coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, till on the haunting flares we turned

our backs and towards our distant rest began to trudge. (Line 1-4). It shows that the

men who came back from the World War One are described as old beggars with

sacks. Coughing like hags means they cough like a witch (an old woman with a

disease). Owen compares the soldiers that came back from the war as a witch that

everyone hates to see, and is cursed by the society. And floundring like a man in
fire or lime Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, as under a green

sea, I saw him drowning. (Line 12-14). This shows that a soldier who got attack by

gas bomb are now struggling like a person who has caught fire or is burnt by lime.

The soldier that got attacked by the gas was like a person under water drowning.

His hanging face, like a devils sick of sin; 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, (line 20-24). The soldier who is attacked

by the gas has his face hanging like a devil; describes the dead or dying man. The

soldiers lungs are like those having a cancer and distress like a cows cud. His lungs

that attacked by the gas are suffering like having cancer. According to these two

quotes, Owen says that the soldiers who got attacked by the poisonous gas feel

tortured as if they are dying.

The second literary device that Wilfred Owen chooses to use in Dulce et

Decorum Est is metaphor. He uses a little of metaphor in the poem. In the beginning

of a poem, Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like

hags, we cursed through sludge (Line 1-2). He says about the failure of the soldier

across the battlefield. It describes critically damaged soldiers during the war, and

how they are looked by others. Many had lost their boots, but limped on, blood-

shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots of gas-shells

dropping softly behind. (Line 5-8). It means that the soldier gets drunk with fatigue

like he is slipping the mud, and deaf by the sound of the gas bomb. Owen tries to tell

how frightful of the gas attack. In the third stanza, In all my dreams before my

helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. (Line 15-16). He

talks about his dream that his army friend who got gassed plunge toward him,

guttering, choking, and drowning in front of him. His friend that died in the gas
chamber is compared to a person who died from taking water in the lungs. Also, he

talks about himself being helpless, but it makes the reader understand why he cant

help his friend that dying because of the poison of the gas attack, and how cruel of

the gas bomb that used in the war.

The last literary device that Owen uses in Dulce et Decorum Est is imagery.

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, (Line 19). He uses imagery to

describe the soldier who dies from gas attack. And If you could hear, at every jolt,

the blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, (Line 21-22) he explains the

feeling of the soldiers, how they feel torture and horror. The next imagery that he

uses is, Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, as under a green sea, I

saw him drowning. (Line 13-14). He describes the dim light and the fog as a horror

to make the reader imagine how frightful of the atmosphere.

Therefore, the poem Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen uses many

literary devices to express how horrible and fearful is World War One, and to keep

the poem focused on the subject and keep it tight.