Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned out backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. 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.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!--An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring 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.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
Dulce et Decorum est – Analysis
The poem Dulce et Decorum est by Wilfred Owen is about the horror and the demise of the young soldiers in World War One. Owen uses many graphic images to portray to the reader how disgusting and horrific war can be, and what it is capable of. The general theme is pounded into the readers' head throughout the entire poem as an horrific waste of life. He then sums up this theme by calling the phrase "Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori", meaning "It is good and proper to die for one's homeland", a lie.
The tone of the poem is ominous, as it not only represents – quite graphically – the horrors of war, but cracks t
...