Throughout the poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est” the author constantly uses many forms of imagery to help prove his point. With his use of similes, descriptive imagery and powerful word choice, Wilfred Owen, the author, is able to get the reader to understand the real side of war; a fight that is a horrific and disturbing experience to those fighting, which is contrary to the popular belief that war brings glory to those who partake in it.
Owen utilizes creative similes to help the reader understand his point. The opening line, “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,” this simile describes all the fighting soldiers as “Old beggars, and as imagery, this line paints a picture in the mind of the reader of tired, hungry soldiers that are like beggars on the street. At one point, a soldier gets caught in a mass of poisonous gas without a mask on, “But someone was still yelling out and stumbling, And floundering like a man in fire or lime.” The simile used here may not be something we see every day, but a reader can still imagine what is happening to the troop because the simile uses a common object, which is fire and lime, a painful substance to be “floundering” in. …show more content…
One example, “But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots of disappointed shells that dropped behind.” The adjectives such as “blood-shod” and “Drunk with fatigue” describes the exhaustion of the soldiers as they had to march on to fight. “As under a green sea, I saw him drowning . . . He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.” This quote contains a creative word choice of adjectives that describe the soldier’s helplessness; when Owen uses “drowning” to describe the soldier in the gas, we think of a helpless human as they drown alone with no
Owen utilizes creative similes to help the reader understand his point. The opening line, “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,” this simile describes all the fighting soldiers as “Old beggars, and as imagery, this line paints a picture in the mind of the reader of tired, hungry soldiers that are like beggars on the street. At one point, a soldier gets caught in a mass of poisonous gas without a mask on, “But someone was still yelling out and stumbling, And floundering like a man in fire or lime.” The simile used here may not be something we see every day, but a reader can still imagine what is happening to the troop because the simile uses a common object, which is fire and lime, a painful substance to be “floundering” in. …show more content…
One example, “But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots of disappointed shells that dropped behind.” The adjectives such as “blood-shod” and “Drunk with fatigue” describes the exhaustion of the soldiers as they had to march on to fight. “As under a green sea, I saw him drowning . . . He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.” This quote contains a creative word choice of adjectives that describe the soldier’s helplessness; when Owen uses “drowning” to describe the soldier in the gas, we think of a helpless human as they drown alone with no