Analysis of Dulce et Decorum Est Essay

All a poet can do today is warn. That is why the true poets must be truthful.

The quote above is taken from one of Wilfred Owens many letters home to his mother from the frontline. Dulce et Decorum Est, written from the Craiglockhart psychiatric hospital, is one of the most famous pieces within the genre of war poetry. Owen has become one of the most prolific poets of his generation, he depicted war as the atrocity it really was. His work was a contradiction to the patriotic works of writers such as Jessie Pope, drafts of the poem were dedicated to her in response to Whos for the game? which, originally published in the Daily Mail, was a call to arms, encouraging young men to enlist. Owen himself was seduced by such propaganda and saw frontline action with the Second Manchester regiment, ironically he was killed in action on 4th November 1918. Whilst the poem was dedicated to Jessie Pope it is also aimed at older adults, parents, grandparents and politicians.

The poem has a two-fold purpose, in the first instance it is an anti-propaganda piece and it implores the older generation to tell youngsters the truth about the horrors of war. The title is taken from Carminum liber tertius by Quintus Horatius Flaccus, better known as Horace, written in 23BC, and translates as It is sweet and proper to die for ones country. The poem was also a catharsis, by putting these images down on paper Owen was attempting to release the pent up horrors which he had been exposed to on the battlefield. The semantic fields of war and death are evident throughout the piece and very dark and negative connotations give the poem a very sombre tone. The register of the piece is very informal which allows the poet to strike up a personal relationship with the reader, making his plea at the end of the piece much more poignant and effective.

The poem is written in iambic pentameter, this regular rhythm calls up images of the disciplined marching soldiers, but this directly contrasts with the visual imagery Owen uses. The simile Bent double, like old beggars under sacks creates an image of men so worn down by the constant struggle that they can hardly stand let alone march. It is also the first example of Owens use of cohesive elements throughout the poem, it is an example of cataphoric referencing, the subject of the phrase is left until the end, this has the effect of heightening the suspense and drawing the reader into the poem from the beginning. Owen uses language with powerful negative connotations, words such as helpless, writhing, drowning, haunting, and obscene heighten the sense of horror the reader begins to feel as the poem describes the scene. The language used is very emotive and sensual, creating a mental picture which is so strong that the reader feels part of the scene. There are many inverted sentences, for example in the first two lines Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, /Knocked-Kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, this gives emphasis to the descriptions at the beginning of the phrase which further intensifies the images invoked by the piece. In the second stanza the tone of the poem changes, Owen uses the rhetorical feature of repetition in the first line along with exclamatory marks Gas! Gas! Quick Boys! to demonstrate the panic that begins to set in as the men are subjected to a gas attack. There are many verbs used in this part of the text, fumbling, yelling, stumbling and floundering all give the reader a sense of the urgent action taking place to ensure that gas masks are fitted quickly. Again Owen uses a simile to intensify his imagery yelling out and stumbling, /And floundering like a man in fire or lime by comparing the mans action to someone being burnt alive Owen gives a vivid picture of the panic and fear the man exhibits. By using the word ecstasy Owen creates a paradox which identifies the confusion of the situation, the men are so panic stricken that they cannot think properly. Owen also uses an element of allusion when discussing the gas attack Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, /As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. this refers to the phosgene gas that was commonly used in warfare at that time the effect of this is to give the reader a personal relationship with those involved in the attack. From the beginning of this stanza the poems iambic pentameter becomes less rigid with some lines containing more than ten syllables, this change in meter again emphasises the panic which has set in along with the loss of the recognised structure that the image of a group of soldiers would normally evoke.

At the end of the second stanza two lines are set apart, this denotes another change in the tone of the poem and we move from the panic filled and action packed second stanza towards the third stanza which is full of melancholy and malady. In the two lines Owen draws another paradox In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, the images Owen sees in his sleep are not dreams, they are nightmares and this paradox indicates the mental turmoil that Owen felt as a result of what he had seen. The use of listing here identifies the horror of what Owen saw, the triad guttering, choking, drowning is also onomatopoeic, meaning that the reader can almost hear the man dying. In the final stanza the narrative voice changes from the first person into the second person and it becomes an appeal to the reader rather than a description of what the writer sees. The language used in this final passage is highly descriptive giving a graphic and sensory image of the dying man in order to reach this goal Owen employs further simile with the line like a devils sick of sin;. The line the blood /come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, contains a number of pre-modified nouns which serve to increase the graphic nature of the description of the dying man along side the naivet of those sent off to war with little idea of the horrors they were about to face. Within this final stanza Owen employs the modal verbs Could and Would to demonstrate the change in attitude the reader might have if they were to experience these horrors for themselves.

Though out the poem Owen depicts the true horrors of war which creates a juxtaposition with the title and the final line. He also uses many concrete nouns in the piece which has the effect of making the scene he sets more real to the reader, almost as though they are experiencing the images with him. The purpose of the piece is to demonstrate that there is no glory in following blind patriotism into war and ultimately to a painful and pointless death and it meets that purpose very effectively.