Many people experienced hardship and strife during the First World War. Some countries entered the war on account of the assassination of Duke Franz Ferdinand. Others, entered the war because of who they were allies with. Great Britain and France were among these allies. The author of the poem “Dulce et Decorum Est,” Wilfred Owen, was a British war poet. He was wounded in 1917. According to Poets.org, it was at this time Owen wrote many of his most important poems, including "Anthem for Doomed Youth" and "Dulce et Decorum Est". According to Bryan Rivers, Owen was a commissioned officer fighting at the front. According to The Wilfred Owen Association, Owen was killed on 4 November 1918 during the battle to cross the Sambre-Oise canal at Ors.
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Griffeth states, “So compelling is the grim imagery and dramatic incident of ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ that it is difficult in reading it to cut the poem off from the terrible world it paints” (Griffeth 37). Here Griffeth explains how it is sometimes hard to read “Dulce Et Decorum Est”, because Owen paints a very vivid picture of the reality of war. In the beginning of the poem the soldiers were portrayed as "drunk with fatigue." With this it easy to imagine large numbers of men dragging their boots through the mud, tripping over anything and everything. The imagery Owen uses is prevalent in these lines: "If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood/ Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs/ Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud," (Lines 21-23). These lines show that the men were brutally killed in this war. When the gas bomb was dropped, "Someone still yelling out and stumbling/ And flound 'ring like a man in fire or lime…./ He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning" (Lines 11-12,16). These lines suggest that many soldiers deaths were caused by the toxic gasses. The sounds of Owen’s poem are sounds of horror, the ‘coughing like hags,’ the ghostly ‘hoots’ of the shells, the deadly silent noise of the gas shells. What speaking there is equally terrible because ineffective of stifled or frantically depairing” (Griffith 38). Griffith explains here the sounds that Owen uses. These sounds also help paint …show more content…
Owen believes that there is no glory to come from war. He also believes that no one should have to go through things that he went through when he was in the war. He believes that nothing good can be found in war and that the government should be warned of such. Throughout his poem Owen shows his disgust and hatred he has for war. He is disgusted with the death, hardship, strife, and troubles it causes for the soldiers and their families. Owen bring it all together in the last few lines of the poem. "It is sweet and becoming to die for one 's country,” is the English translation for the Latin phrase "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori". Owen disproves this phrase by using excellent figurative language, diction, and graphic imagery to help the reader feel disgusted at what war is capable of. This poem is extremely effective as an anti-war poem, making war seem horrible and disgusting, just as Wilfred Owen wanted to do. John Hughes stated, “The deepest, complicating iniquity of war is that its events can dispossess one of one’s best self, dividing oneself from oneself and others and overwhelming one’s most humane of responses toward pity and
Griffeth states, “So compelling is the grim imagery and dramatic incident of ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ that it is difficult in reading it to cut the poem off from the terrible world it paints” (Griffeth 37). Here Griffeth explains how it is sometimes hard to read “Dulce Et Decorum Est”, because Owen paints a very vivid picture of the reality of war. In the beginning of the poem the soldiers were portrayed as "drunk with fatigue." With this it easy to imagine large numbers of men dragging their boots through the mud, tripping over anything and everything. The imagery Owen uses is prevalent in these lines: "If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood/ Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs/ Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud," (Lines 21-23). These lines show that the men were brutally killed in this war. When the gas bomb was dropped, "Someone still yelling out and stumbling/ And flound 'ring like a man in fire or lime…./ He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning" (Lines 11-12,16). These lines suggest that many soldiers deaths were caused by the toxic gasses. The sounds of Owen’s poem are sounds of horror, the ‘coughing like hags,’ the ghostly ‘hoots’ of the shells, the deadly silent noise of the gas shells. What speaking there is equally terrible because ineffective of stifled or frantically depairing” (Griffith 38). Griffith explains here the sounds that Owen uses. These sounds also help paint …show more content…
Owen believes that there is no glory to come from war. He also believes that no one should have to go through things that he went through when he was in the war. He believes that nothing good can be found in war and that the government should be warned of such. Throughout his poem Owen shows his disgust and hatred he has for war. He is disgusted with the death, hardship, strife, and troubles it causes for the soldiers and their families. Owen bring it all together in the last few lines of the poem. "It is sweet and becoming to die for one 's country,” is the English translation for the Latin phrase "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori". Owen disproves this phrase by using excellent figurative language, diction, and graphic imagery to help the reader feel disgusted at what war is capable of. This poem is extremely effective as an anti-war poem, making war seem horrible and disgusting, just as Wilfred Owen wanted to do. John Hughes stated, “The deepest, complicating iniquity of war is that its events can dispossess one of one’s best self, dividing oneself from oneself and others and overwhelming one’s most humane of responses toward pity and