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Dulce Et Decorum Est Commentary

 

They are exasperated by the endless violence of war, which has quickly stolen away their innocence and youthful souls. Ironic diction further accentuates the crude effect of war on the soldiers. They "[march] asleep- across the trenches, fatigued down to every last bone in thier bodies. The gas-shells cascading down on the land are perceived by the soldiers as "dropping softly- around them. This portrays the fact that the soldiers have become so accustomed to hearing bombs exploding and guns firing that they are now desensitized to the sound of the gas-shells. The only thing left on their minds is the hope of making it to their destiny alive. Imagery of violence further reveals the horrid environment in which soldiers are forced to suffer. They desperately flee from the "haunting flares- that ignite the land behind them. Although the soldiers seem to be on their last bit of strength, they solemnly continue along, "blood-shot- and exhausted. The melancholic setting parallels the morose discontent of the soldiers, who have surrendered themselves to the destructive and vindictive hands of war. .
             In the second stanza, the witness of an actual death of a soldier draws the reader further into the soldiers' struggles, to allow the reader a closer connection with the experience of war. Initially, frantic diction is employed to capture the reader's attention and lead him/her into an actual wartime incident. One soldier exclaims "Gas! GAS!-, while the others fall into a nervous frenzy. The repetition and capitalization of "gas- builds onto the tension of the soldiers to quickly escape from the deadly poison. The soldiers are caught in an "ecstasy of fumbling-, while desperately attempting to save themselves from breathing in the toxin. The anxiety created by this event evokes suspense from within the reader. The shift in tone from sullen and fatigued in the previous stanza to ecstatic in the beginning of the second, portrays the soldiers' acquired immediate responses to danger, while they have learned to ignore such things as the sound of falling gas-shells, which pose no direct threat to them.


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