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Comparative essay the soldier and dulce at decorum est
A note on war poetry
Comparative essay the soldier and dulce at decorum est
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Owen’s diction and figurative language stress that “dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” is not true. When translated, the phrase means ‘it is sweet and proper to die for your country’. From the eyes of a soldier in the middle of World War I, war is horrific and because of the introduction of chemical weaponry, death is not sweet nor proper in any sense. Diction within the poem highlights the complexity of what the narrator experiences among the group of soldiers and within his own mind. The poem begins in the past tense as they “cursed through sludge,” adding to the slowness of the poem itself (Owen 2). All of the verbs within the first stanza are action verbs that express a numbness in the group of soldiers. “Trudge,” “limped,” and “drunk” …show more content…
The soldiers at the beginning of the poem are “like old beggars under sacks,” showing how war strips them of normalcy (line 1). “Many had lost their boots” in the time since the war began, which again reinforces that these men, who had normal lives and families, are now suffering in poverty-like conditions (line 5). They “limped on, blood-shod,” hurt from the battlefield and walking away with shoes filled with the blood of allies and enemies alike (line 6). When the soldiers thought they were safe, a five-nine dropped behind them and “under a green sea, [the narrator] saw [his friend] drowning” (line 14). Under the mask used to prevent the same fate as the other man, he watches as the man dies right before his eyes. The drowning imagery on dry land shows just how unnatural and grotesque his death was. The dead man did not die fighting someone, he died because of a bomb. Right after the soldiers load him into a wagon and they have to continue on their journey or else they might suffer the same fate. In the wagon, the narrator “watches the white eyes writhing in [the dead man’s] face”(line 19). This graphic description adds to the fact that the man’s death was anything but natural. The white in his eyes represents that he was innocent showing that he was not in the middle of combat when his death occurred. The description heightens as the narrator watches the man in the wagon. “The blood/
“Dulce et Decorum Est” shows how one soldiers need to survive indirectly causes another soldiers death. From the very beginning of the poem the reader sees how the war affects the soldiers. Fighting in the war has aged the soldiers, the once young men now “bent double, like old beggars under sacks, knock-kneed, coughing like hags” trudge through the warzone (Owen 1-2). The men, completely drained f...
Another tool in developing the effectiveness of the poem is the excellent use of diction. The word "blood-shod" explains how the troops have been on their feet for days without rest. Also, words like "guttering", "choking", and "drowning" shows us that the troops are suffering in extreme pain and misery. If you haven't noticed, most of these words are examples of cacophony, which are words with harsh and discordant sounds. As this poem is about how harsh and terrible war is, Owen's use of cacophony is very effective in generating the tone of the poem.
Verse one tells us a lot about the condition, both physically and mentally, of the men and it gives us an idea of the appalling conditions!. He uses similes such as, "Bent double, like hags"; this illustrates how many of the men fall ill. The poet's choice of vocabulary in verse one is very effective in portraying the state of the soldiers. He uses words such as sludge, trudge, and haunting to describe the harsh conditions of the battlefield. The rhythm in verse two suddenly increases, this displays the soldiers panic during the gas attack!
Owen then moves on to tell us how even in their weak human state, the soldiers march on, until the enemy fires gas shells at them. This sudden situation causes the soldiers to hurriedly put their gas masks on, but one soldier did not put it on in time. Owen tells us the condition the soldier is in, and how, even in the time to come, he could not forget the images that it left him with. In the last stanza he tells the readers that if we had seen what he had seen then we would never encourage the next generation to fight in a war. Owen uses imagery constantly to convey the conditions and feelings experienced during this war.
Owen as a young soldier held the same romantic view on war as majority of the other naive soldiers who thought that war would be an exciting adventure. The documentary extract illustrates how markedly Owen’s perspective of the war changed, as noted in a letter to his mother while he was still in the front lines: “But extra for me, there is the universal perversion of ugliness, the distortion of the dead ... that is what saps the soldierly spirit.” In ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’, Owen’s change of heart is evident through the irony of the poem title and the ending line “The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est, Pro patria mori.”, an allusion to the Roman axiom made famous by Horace, which translates to “The old Lie; It is sweet and right to die for your country.”. The line depicts Owen’s realisation that the horrific nature of war through human conflict is not sweet and right at all, rather, it is appalling and “bitter as the cud” as death is always present on the battlefield. Additionally, Owen indirectly responds to Jessie Pope’s poetry, a pro-war poetess, through the reference “My friend, you would not tell with such high zest… The old lie…”, further highlighting his changed perspective towards the war which has been influenced
The poem is divided into three sections with each part dealing with a different stage of the experience. In the first stanza, Owen describes the state the soldiers are in. The first line states that the platoon is “Bent double, like old beggars” (1). This gives the reader a vision that they are exhausted and compares them to the look of beggars on the street, who often times, look very ragged and shabby. The line “coughing like o...
The similes and metaphors used by Owen illustrate very negative war scenes throughout the poem, depicting extreme suffering of young men fighting during World War I. The first simile used by Owen describes the soldiers as “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks”, giving them sickly, wounded, and exhausted attributes from battle and lack of rest (1). Next, the soldiers are described as “Knock-kneed, coughing like hags”, which once again portrays these young men as sick...
Wilfred Owen's poem "Dulce Et Decorum Est" was written during his World War I experience. Owen, an officer in the British Army, deeply opposed the intervention of one nation into another. His poem explains how the British press and public comforted themselves with the fact that all the young men dying in the war were dieing noble, heroic deaths. The reality was quite different: They were dieing obscene and terrible deaths. Owen wanted to throw the war in the face of the reader to illustrate how vile and inhumane it really was. He explains in his poem that people will encourage you to fight for your country, but, in reality, fighting for your country is simply sentencing yourself to an unnecessary death. The breaks throughout the poem indicate the clear opposition that Owen strikes up. The title of the poem means "It is good and proper to die for your country," and then Owen continues his poem by ending that the title is, in fact, a lie.
In the poem Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori, he shows his feelings of betrayal, pity and the sense of sacrifice of human life due to the war, as the consequences do not result in any good for anyone, especially the family and friends of the victims. The title, when translated to English from Latin, means ‘It is sweet and honourable to die for one’s country’, being very ironic, compared to what he is writing throughout the poem, by his sense of hatred and pity towards war. He starts off with a simile, “like old beggars under sacks”, which does not depict a masculine image, already, ironic to the title, as it is not honourable to die “like old beggars”. Throughout the poem, a very graphical and comfronting image can be pictured in the reader’s head, recounting all of the shocking details of the war, such as the gas, “Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!” which is also a reminder of their youth and innocence, being put into a war where they thought it might be fun. I...
The words Owen chooses to use in the poem describing the soldiers are peculiar choices. The speaker refers to them as “[b]ent double, like beggars in sacks” (line 1), very different from a typical idea of a soldier. From the beginni...
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,” (Line 1-5) Owen has uses imagery to draw the readers into the poem and help the realize what's going on. These graphic images that develop throughout the poem help develop the poem to convey the disgusting feelings that owen relates war
The meaning of "Dulce Et Decorum Est" is "it is sweet and right", yet there is nothing sweet and right about going through what these soldiers went through on a daily basis in WWI. The first few lines use sad and depressing language to express an image of roughy soldiers pushing through an ever threatening battlefield. "Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, knock- kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through the sludge" (lines 1- 2) is the way Owen describes the soldiers. This dismisses the belief that the soldiers were happy, proud, and patriotic. This shows them as physically and mentally exhausted, still pushing forward towards the one and only goal of surviving. Their disintegrating body reflects their inner turmoil and tiredness. The horrendous quality of war is shown by the description of the soldiers "men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood shod" (lines 5-6) this enhances the fact that war is not normal. It seems unreal, much like that of a nig...
Owen opens his poem with a strong simile that compares the soldiers to old people that may be hunch-backed. ‘Bent double, like old beggars like sacks.’ ‘like sacks’ suggests the image that the soldiers are like homeless people at the side of a street that is all dirty. This highlights that the clothes they were wearing were al...
The tone is bitter and intense in a realistic way. It is achieved by the vivid and gruesome images in the poem. Wilfred Owen 's use of imagery in this poem is by depicting emotional, nightmarish, and vivid words to capture the haunting encounters of WWI that soldiers went through. In the first stanza, Owen depicts his fellow soldiers struggling through the battlefield, but their terrible health conditions prevent them from their strong actions in the war. When Owen says, “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, knock-kneed, coughing like hags” (lines 1-2). This provides the readers with an unexpected view and appearance of soldiers, as they usually picture as strong, noble, and brawny-looking men. Soldiers sacrifice themselves to fight for their country and are exhausted from their unhealthy lifestyle. In lines 7-8, “Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots of gas-shells dropping softly behind,” they have lost the facade of humanity and their bodies are all wearied and weak on their march. This reveals a glimpse at the soldiers’ actions, as well as inferring to a psychological effect of the war. Then in line 5, “Men marched asleep,” the author is making abnormality to be one of the major purposes of the war, that it
World War I poems because of its distinct perspective on war, suffering, and patriotism. The title, a latin term Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori translates to “it is sweet and fitting to die for your country”, plays an important part in this play as Owens contradicts this idea several times in this play even calling it the “old lie” to convey his main purpose. This poem’s main purpose shows those at home that the battle front has deadly and horrific consequences. Owens uses several different tones in his poem, including anger and horror to show that patriotism and serving one’s country does not live up to the propaganda.