Wilfred Owen
The World War I poem "Dulce Et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen is a reactionary poem. Owen reacts to a horrifying and terrible war and to the lie being told about it. He displaces the heroic, proud view of war we have always carried, with a haunting image of the harsh reality of a war. The poem speaks about the use of chlorine gas. Since the first gas attack in history by the Germans was in 1915, and the author died in 1918, the poem must have been written sometime in those 3 years.The poem appears to be written in iambic pentameter; however, if you take a closer look you will see that it doesn't hold to it throughout. As a matter of fact you will see that hardly any of the lines follows the iambic rhythm. Owen uses punctuation to break up the lines and change the way we will read them. He does not want the poem to be read with a strict rhythm because war is not like that. War is spontaneous, interruptible, and full of chaos. While the author may have had gentler thoughts about war before entering World War I, he uses the shaky, almost conversational, rhythm and strong cacophony to make us realize that we, just as he was, are mistaken in our views of war. Owen uses many poetic devices in this poem to help convey
They were dragging forwards as if sleep walking, not caring where they went as long as it was away from the battle and bloodshed. Is it sweet and becoming to die for one's country? Death in war is neither sweet nor becoming. He also says the soldiers were "coughing like hags". The last line in the poem is "The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori", which, translated from Latin, means: "It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. Glory, by definition, is "great honor, praise, or distinction accorded by common consent". Owen was upset that young boys were being told tales of valiancy and heroics and being shown pictures of a fierce but controlled war when war was nothing like that. Owen was a master of using imagery in his poems. It is chaotic, treacherous, and more than anything, ghastly. It is a horrible and indecent way to die, as Wilfred Owen clearly shows. It is this attention to form and imagery that makes the poem effective. " He capitalizes the word "lie" as if it were a noun, to show how common it was for this lie to be told and emphasize its establishment as perhaps the biggest lie ever. Perhaps of all the poetic devices Wilfred Owen uses in his poem "Dulce Et Decorum Est," the most apparent is Owen's wonderful use of vivid imagery. He gives us such a clear picture of the reality of war with lines like "till on the haunting flares we turned our backs" (3).
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