Owen's Argument Of Dulce Et Decorum Est

Owen’s Argument of Dulce et Decorum Est In Dulce et Decorum Est, Owen writes the poem to reveal to people what really happens to soldiers during the war. The poem exposes the gruesome experience during the first World War. Owen wrote the poem during World War One, which is the war that kills him. He uses the poem as an anti-war manifesto. His argument in the poem is that people view going to fight in the war and dying for ones country as heroic, but it’s an old lie: that men shouldn’t have die for their country for glory in the terrible war condition the men were in. During the war, it was many men or poets, wrote about their experiences of being on the front line during the war. They used poetry as a medium of opposing war. This idea of …show more content…
It painted a picture of horror and griminess’. He starts of the poem saying “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knocked-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge” (lines 1 and 2). At this point he reveals that the soldiers were in a trench. From the start of the story, it already paints an unpleasant picture. Readers can see that war is unpleasant, which is what Owen was showing. He reveals that the men are sick, stuck in a trench, and were miserable because of it. During the War, it had another name called Trench Warfare. As soon as the men try to advance on the enemy, a machine gun would mow them down, causing a lot of men to be stuck in the trenches if the wanted to get back home to their families. A lot more men died in the trenches from unsanitary conditions (World War I Trench Warfare: Geotechnical Considerations). Another big problem about the trenches is it made the men sitting ducks and easily exposed to being shell …show more content…
“In all my dreams,” Owen begins, indicating his profound inability to extricate himself from the unconscious repetitions of the scene that have infiltrated his psyche like an incubus, renewing their assault on him on a nightly basis. (Owen’s DULCE ET DECORUM EST). The war has taken a toll on his mental mindset. Stating “Behind the wagon that we flung him in, and watch the white eyes writhing in his face, like a devil’s sick of sin” he tell the readers that he fed up with the situation; Painting a picture of pain and agony. Just when you think it can’t get worse, he states “if you could hear, at every jolt the blood come gargling from the forth-corrupted lungs” (Lines 18 through 22). In line 24, he states “incurable sore in innocent tongues”. Telling the reader that the men didn’t really know what they were getting their self into when they entered the war. Also the men doesn’t have a good chance of living physically and mentally due to being traumatized. Which connects to his next few line about parents letting their kids go to war for