A Glimpse Of“Dulce Et Decorum Est“

To have a better understanding of the poem, it is important to understand some of Wilfred Owen’s history. Owen enlisted in the Artists’ Rifles on October 21st 1915. He was eventually drafted to France in 1917. The birth of Owen’s imagery style used in his more famous poems was during his stay at Craiglockhart War Hospital, where he met Siegfried Sassoon (another great war poet). Owen’s new style (the one that was used in “Dulce et Decorum Est”) embellished many poems between August 1917 and September 1918. On November 4, 1918, W

In stanza one, Owen describes the soldiers as they set off towards the army base from the front line. The simile in line one, “Bent double, like old beggars” not only says that they are tired, but that they are so tired they have been brought down to the level of beggars who have not slept in a bed for weeks on end. Also, the simile “coughing like hags” ,in line two, helps to depict the soldiers’ poor health and depressed state of mind. Owen makes us picture the soldiers as ill, disturbed and utterly exhausted. He shows that this is not the government-projected stereotype of a soldier, in gleaming boots and crisp new uniform, but is the true illustration of the poor mental and physical state of the soldiers. By telling us that many of the platoon are barefoot, Owen gives us an idea of how awful the soldiers’ journey already is; it then gets even worse. Owen tells us that the soldiers, although they must have been trained, still do not notice the deadly mustard gas shells being fired at them from behind; such is the extent of their exhaustion.

Stanza 3 goes on to describe how the ghastly picture of the poor soldier who is flung in to a wagon and trundled back to base haunts him. Owen and his comrades know that there is no hope for their friend’s survival, but despite the fact that they would be fleeing the hazard of the gas, their sense of humanity and mutual concern will not allow them to abandon their comrade. They load his body into a lorry and walk along, unable to stop his suffering, showing us that the individual soldiers are caring, but have been manipulated.

ilfred Owed was killed by enemy machine gun fire as he tried to get his company across the Sambre Canal (Stallworthy).

The poem's use of excellent diction helps to more clearly define what the author is saying. Words like guttering, choking, and drowning not only show how the man is suffering, but that he is in terrible pain that no human being should endure. Other words like writhing and froth-corrupted say prec

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