Prepared by Monideep

Chowdhury

Discuss Wilfred Owen’s "Dulce et Decorum Est” as an anti-war poem.

According to Jon Stallworthy, Wilfred Owen's anti-war poem of 28 lines was written in early-October
1917 when he was convalescing (to recover health) from neurasthenia at Craiglockhart (Scotland) War
Hospital, Edinburgh. It was published posthumously in 1920. In between, the soldier poet revised the
poem in January-March 1918 at Ripon. According to Sanders, Dulce et Decorum Est reverses Roman
assumptions about patriotic sacrifice rather than comfortable Christian ones by contrasting the
ghastliness of death by mustard gas with the defunct Horatian dignity which is damned as an old lie"
(504-05).

Dulce et decorum Est is a famous anti-war poem written by Wilfred Owen in 1917, during the World War
I. It portrays war as a brutal and dehumanizing experience by utilizing a number of horrific, gruesome
imageries effectively. This poem is based on a quotation from a Latin poem, "Dulce et decorum est-pro
patria mori", which means "It is sweet and proper to die for one's country". However, there is absolutely
nothing in the actual poem that is sweet, nor is there any description that associates directly with its title.

Owen takes the title of the poem from one of the inclusions in the 1st century-B.C. Roman poet Roman
poet Horace's Odes (Book III, Number 2, line 13): Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori:/mors et fugacem
persequiturvirum/ nec parcit inbellis iuventa/ poplitibus timidove tergo’, translates in English as 'How
sweet and right it is to die for one's Country:/Death pursues the man who flees,/spares not the hamstrings
or cowardly backs/Of battle-shy youths. Though military propagandists often quote from Horace's lines to
instill courage in prospective combatants, Owen uses the same lines derisively. He thus introduces the
poem to his mother Susan in his 16 October 1917 letter: "The famous Latin tag [...] means, of course, it is
sweet and meet to die for one's country. Sweet! and decorous!" He actually directed his anti-militaristic
verse to the Leicester-born patriotic English poet Jessie Pope (1868- 1941), who was known for her
fervently-patriotic pro-war poems. Among her 'jingoistic war poems, exhorting young men to enlist and
save England, or be labelled cowards were "The Call" (1915), "War Girls" (1916), and "Who's for the
Game?" (1916).
Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen stands as a powerful portrayal of the horrors of war effectively
conveying its anti-war message. The poem masterfully dismantles (break down) the romanticized notion
of war's glory and honor, exposing the grim realities experienced by soldiers on the frontlines. Owen's
vivid imagery and evocative language paint a stark contrast between the idealized perception of war and
its harsh truth. The soldiers are depicted as broken, exhausted figures, their physical and mental state
deteriorated by the brutal conditions of the battlefield.

The poem opens with a vivid description of soldiers who are "Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,"
emphasizing their exhausted and dehumanized state. The simile "coughing like hags" and the phrase
"cursed through sludge" immediately create a grim and dismal atmosphere, evoking a sense of suffering
and hopelessness. This imagery sets the tone for the rest of the poem, highlighting the harsh conditions
endured by the soldiers. The soldiers are portrayed as weakened and broken, struggling to walk due to
fatigue, injuries, and the lack of proper equipment.

The first stanza describes how the soldiers are mentally and physically distressed from the brutal and
horrifying experiences of war. It mainly focuses on the discomforts and grieves of the soldiers who are in
desperate need of medical supplies and attention. Wilfred Owen draws a sharp contrast between these old
war-stricken soldiers described as "Old beggars under sacks" and the glorious and virile (manly) images
people tend to have against soldiers. This stanza clearly highlights the fact that they are NOT marching
towards the battlefield mane with patriotic spirit, but instead trudging (march) exhaustingly like "Hags"
who are completely worn out and mutated. The second stanza prompts the readers to an abrupt alarm of
danger. "Gas! Gas! Quick, boys:" Just as the boys were heading for a peace of mind by retreating from
the front line, gas shells drop beside them. As soon as they hear the warning, the soldiers begin to hastily
wear their "Clumsy helmets" to save their own lives in "ecstasy of Fumbling". Terrible and shocking
images of the gas attack are highlighted by focusing on the unfortunate one who does not get to wear the
mask in time and is slowly but surely poisoned to death.

Owen's use of sensory details, such as "haunting flares" and "gas-shells dropping softly behind," creates a
palpable sense of danger and impending doom. The urgency of the moment is captured in the exclamation
"Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!" which conveys the chaos and panic as soldiers scramble to put on their gas
masks. The juxtaposition of "ecstasy of fumbling" with the horrifying image of a man "flound'ring like a
man in fire or lime" creates a stark contrast that underscores the disorienting and nightmarish nature of
war
The poem's vivid imagery intensifies as it describes a gas attack. The phrase, "Gas! GAS!" is a stark
reminder of the immediate danger and chaos that soldiers face. Owen's use of language creates a sense of
urgency and panic as the soldiers scramble to put on their gas masks. The poem's tone becomes even
more disturbing as it describes a fellow soldier who fails to put on his mask in time and suffers a horrific
death due to the poison gas.

The poem takes a deeply personal turn as Owen describes witnessing a comrade's agonizing death due to
a gas attack. The description of the man's struggle for breath, with "white eyes writhing in his face." is
gut-wrenching and serves as a direct rebuke to the idealized notions of heroism and sacrifice. Through
this horrifying scene, Owen shatters the idealized notion of war as a glorious and honorable endeavor. He
emphasizes the stark reality of war's brutality and the immense suffering endured by those on the
frontlines.

Dulce et Decorum Est stands as a scathing critique of war propaganda and a passionate condemnation of
the suffering endured by soldiers. Owen's use of vivid imagery, emotional intensity, and a direct address
to the reader all contribute to the poem's effectiveness in conveying the grim reality of war. Through this
poem, Owen compels us to confront the harsh truths of conflict and challenges us to reject the notion that
war is anything but a devastating and dehumanizing experience.

In the last twelve lines of his poem, Owen speaks to his readers directly, using the second-person 'you',
and exhorting them to abandon every glorification of militarism and bellicose-mood. To convince
posterity about the horrors of battlefield-deaths, he paints a pathetic picture of the gas-afflicted soldier
who is deemed useless and 'flung' in a military vehicle by his comrades much like inanimate objects os
animals marked for slaughter. The harsh verb 'flung' instantly evokes sympathy and horror in readers. The
suffering fighter's face is sound made by the dying combatant as he gasps for breath and recurrent
hemorrhages occur inside his lungs to 'obscenity', to 'cancer', and to 'incurable sores on innocent tongues.'

In the first six lines and half of the seventh of the poem, Owen curtly dismisses the clean, erect,
disciplined, and haughty appearances of soldiers usually conceived by those who either do not have any
experience of participating in belligerence or nurse-much like Catherine Petkoff and her daughter Raina
of George Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man (1894)-romantic illusions regarding soldiering and warring.
The ‘friend’ in the twenty-fifth line of the poem is both ironic and reprimanding: it is aimed at people
who have exalted though superfluous reprimanding combat and glorify the profusion of soldiering to their
ideas ref generation. The poet consistently uses personal pronouns like younger, 'my', 'he', 'me', 'you' and
'we’ to strike a rapport with his readers before he can advise them. Disillusioned with the aim, scopes,
results of belligerence (aggression) , Owen in fact forbids, reading of all such supposedly-patriotic
writings as Horace's militaristic odes. Interestingly, for the title of his bitter anti-war drama Arms and the
Man, Shaw (1856- 1950) satirises the opening words of the first-century-B.c. Roman litterateur Virgil's c.
29 B.C. epical work The Aeneid: 'Arma virumque cano' (that is, 'Arms and the man I sing'). In the soldier-
poet's ironic perspective, even children are not spared for their supposedly-romantic attraction to
belligerence; they are derisively criticised for being 'ardent for some desperate glory'. By the 28th line of
his poem, the poet hat evoked all the five senses auditory 'dropping of gas shells'; visual saw him
drowning'; olfactory 'froth-corrupted lungs'; tactile 'incurable sores on innocent tongues', and gustatory
'bitter as the cud' to complete his realistic depiction of gas-caused death.