Ms.
Nyla Baran 1
Dulce et Decorum Est
Wilfred Owen
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime…
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, -
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.*
*Note: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori – It is sweet and honourable to die for one’s
country.
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SUMMARY:
Wilfred Owen, the poet, tells of his first-hand experience in war. He tells the tale of tired and
wounded soldiers walking through dirt and sludge. Suddenly, there is a warning about gas, which
the soldiers hurriedly and awkwardly heed by donning their helmets. Unfortunately, one soldier
is too late in donning the helmet and his companions watch him ‘drowning’ in the gas. The
unfortunate soldier was thrown in the back of a wagon, where it is implied that he was left to die.
The persona points out that if you (the reader/ listener) could have witnessed these events, then
you would not tell children the old lie: dulce et decorum est pro patria mori (It is sweet and
honourable to die for one’s country).
ANALYSIS: FIRST STANZA
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five Nines that dropped behind.
In the first stanza of “Dulce et Decorum Est,” the speaker thrusts the reader into the
mundane drudgery and suffering of the wartime experience, as the speaker's regiment
walks from the front lines back to an undescribed place of “distant rest.” This is not a
portrait of men driven by purpose or thrilled by battle.
The first four lines thus set up a scene, helping the reader understand the soldiers' fatigue,
their frustration (expressed by cursing), and the constant danger that still surrounds them
(represented by the flares). They have lost the semblance of humanity and are reduced to
nobodies. They are wearied to the bone and desensitized to all but their march.
‘deaf even to the hoots of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.’ – Five-
nines are German 5.9 artillery shells. This means that bullets were firing around them
while they were walking. The extent of the soldiers’ tiredness is also emphasized at this
point because the soldiers do not hear the shells going off around them.
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ANALYSIS: SECOND STANZA
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime…
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In the second stanza the action occurs. Suddenly the call goes up: "Gas!" We delve
deeper into the scene as chemical warfare raises its ugly head and one man gets caught
and left behind. Owen heightens the tension through the depiction of one unlucky soldier
who is too slow to don his gas mask and helmet, which would have saved his life by
filtering out the toxins. he ends up falling, "drowning" in gas.
‘An ecstasy of fumbling’ – The word ecstasy, that is used to describe the fumbling,
implies the level of panic that this one word (gas) elicits. The soldiers’ were so tired that
they could not even hear the five nines, but this one word immediately wakes them up.
Here the poem becomes personal and metaphorical. The speaker sees the man consumed
by gas as a drowning man, as if he were underwater. Misty panes add an unreal element
to this traumatic scene, as though the speaker is looking through a window.
ANALYSIS: THIRD STANZA
In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
Only two lines long, this stanza brings home the personal effect of the scene on the
speaker. The image sears through and scars despite the dream-like atmosphere created by
the green gas and the floundering soldier.
‘He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.’ – This is the very graphic result of
breathing in the gas. It is a very violent reaction, as seen in the word ‘plunge’. The dying
soldier did not simply reach for the persona/poet, but he did so in a desperate manner,
while all the time being unable to breathe.
For these brief two lines, Owen pulls back from the events happening throughout the
poems to revisit his own psyche. He writes, ‘In all my dreams,/ before my helpless sight’,
showing how these images live on with the soldiers, how these men are tortured by the
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events of war even after they have been removed from war. There is no evading or
escaping war.
ANALYSIS: FOURTH STANZA
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, -
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
In the last stanza, Owen condenses the poem to an almost claustrophobic pace: ‘if in
some smothering dreams you too could pace’, and he goes into a very graphic, horrific
description of the suffering that victims of mustard gas endured: ‘froth-corrupted lungs’,’
incurable sores’, ‘the white eyes writhing in his face’. Although the pace of the poem has
slowed to a crawl, there is much happening in the description of the torment of the
mustard gas victim, allowing for a contrast between the stillness of the background, and
the animation of the mustard gas victim. This contrast highlights the description, making
it far more haunting.
The speaker widens the issue by confronting the reader (and especially the people at
home, far away from the war), suggesting that if they too could experience what he had
witnessed, they would not be so quick to praise those who die in action.
They would be lying to future generations if they thought that death on the battlefield was
sweet. Owen does not hold back. His vivid imagery is quite shocking, his message direct
and his conclusion sincere.
The last four lines are thought to have been addressed to a Jessie Pope, a children's writer
and journalist at the time, whose published book Jessie Pope's War Poems included a
poem titled The Call, an encouragement for young men to enlist and fight in the war.
LITERARY DEVICES
Simile:
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“Bent double, like old beggars under sacks” – This simile introduces the exhaustion of
the soldiers. There is a comparison between the soldiers that are in the war and old
beggars under sacks, suggesting that the soldiers are weak and poor.
“Knock-kneed, coughing like hags” – This emphasizes not only the tiredness of the
soldiers, but the fact that they might be sick as well.
“And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime” – This device gives a visual image of how
the soldier physically reacted to the gas. Floundering implies flopping about, therefore,
the soldier was flopping about violently. We know it was violent because fire and lime
illicit excruciating pain.
“His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin” – This device gives a visual image of the
expression on the soldier’s face. This is a particularly haunting image that highlights the
soldier in the throes of death.
“Obscene as cancer” – Cancer is a horrible disease that takes many lives on a daily
basis. Therefore, to compare this dying soldiers face to this disease is to emphasize the
agony that the soldier was going through, which was reflected on his face.
“bitter as the cud/Of vile, incurable sores” – This is another graphic comparison that
compares the soldier’s face to incurable sores. ‘Sores’ is a disgusting visual image of
degradation which, in turn, highlights the soldier in the throes of death.
The speaker’s use of simile throughout the poem is a way for the poet to emphasize the suffering
of the men, and enable the reader to connect with the soldiers and experience that suffering.
Metaphor:
“Drunk with fatigue” – The poet is comparing the exhaustion the soldiers are feeling to
being drunk. It suggests that the men are mentally vacant and are staggering along. To be
'Drunk with fatigue,' these men must be so tired that they are no longer sane and can
barely even think for themselves.
Alliteration:
“Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots” - This line points to the level of fatigue that
the soldiers were undergoing. It highlights not only the fatigue that the soldiers were
feeling, but the fact that they were injured as well.
“And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,” – The alliteration shows that the harsh
“w” sound portrays what would happen during war, if a soldier was dying. The “w”
sound shows that lips twist and the face will twist while trying to pronounce the words
Owen uses. The alliteration reinforces the idea by emphasizing the terror, which the color
white associates with. In addition, the word “writhing” (19) describes the eyes and the
agony and panic that the soldier goes through.
“His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin” – Visual imagery manifests itself in the line
by showing not only the face of a devil, but the image of a devil that is sick of sin. This
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means that a devil wants to leave hell, but in this case, it is referring to a soldier who
realizes his errors on the battlefield, like killing innocent men for no reason, and he
obviously wants to try and leave the battlefield or trench. So, Owen compares the
battlefield to a place of no escape or a hell. Owen also uses the alliteration in the harsh ‘s’
sound of “sick” and “sin” to provide the auditory imagery of evil.
Hyperbole:
“As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.” – The speaker does not actually see the
man drowning. Rather, the poet is using hyperbole here to emphasize the man’s suffering
and his panicked reaction to the poison gas. The hyperbole may also refer to the
comparison of the poison gas cloud as a “green sea” which would suggest that the thick
cloud the poison gas creates is so large and encompassing that it might be compared to
the sea. The visualization created by the hyperbole of the man drowning is two-fold.
First, the reader visualizes the man’s reaction to the gas. Secondly, the reader gets a
glimpse of the speaker’s reaction to watching his comrade become enveloped by the gas.
In both instances the reader is not meant to take the speaker’s word literally, but rather it
serves to emphasize the situation by creating imagery and giving the reader a greater
sense of the gravity of the situation.
Irony:
“Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.” – This lines means “it is sweet and honourable
to die for one’s country”, however, the horrifying images of distort and disgust
completely contrasts with the meaning of this Latin phrase. The title is totally ironical as
the soldiers undergo disfigurement and death in the name of patriotism and nothing else.
According to the poet, no matter how noble the cause is, the individual soldier can expect
nothing but misery in combat and a horrible death.
Allusion:
In the title and the final two lines of this "Dulce et Decorum Est," Owen alludes to an ode
by the Roman poet Horace. Horace's ode encouraged young men to find fulfillment and
discipline in military service. The poem criticizes cowardice and weakness, pointing out
that everyone dies in the end, whether gloriously or not. Given this, Horace argues that it
is best to strive for courage and a steely temperament. Horace's ideas of what is and isn't
virtuous and honorable were commonly accepted as being correct.
Often, poets include allusions as a way to connect a poem to a traditional event, myth, or
idea—to place their own poem into that tradition. But Owen includes the allusion to
Horace for exactly the opposite reason. Owen's poem—which is full of brutal, awful
death that is marked by only confusion and agony, and to which glory and courage could
not even begin to apply—seeks to expose the entire traditional belief in the glory and
honor of war as being a lie.
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That he includes the original lines from Horace, and not a paraphrase or English
translation, makes clear that it is the entire tradition that he sees as fraudulent and
destructive. Put another way: Owen seeks to undermine and refute what he is alluding to.
THEMES
Warfare:
Wilfred Owen wrote “Dulce et Decorum Est” while he was fighting as a soldier during
World War I. The poem graphically and bitterly describes the horrors of that war in
particular, although it also implicitly speaks of the horror of all wars.
As Owen describes it, war becomes a never-ending nightmare of muddy trenches and
unexpected gas attacks. Interestingly, with the new-fangled technology of WWI, there
doesn't even need to be a real enemy present to create the devastation and destruction. Set
in the middle of a gas attack, this poem explores the intense agony of a world gone
suddenly insane – and the unfortunate men who have to struggle through it. As the poem
itself asks, how can anyone condone so much suffering?
The poem’s portrayal of the horror of war, then, is complete and total. It reveals all
aspects of war—living through it, dying in it, and surviving it—as being brutal,
agonizing, and without meaning.
Appearance vs. Reality:
There was the commonly held belief – communicated in the lines of Latin from the poet
Horace (“it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country”) – that war, and dying in war, is
meaningful and full of glory. It was a sentimental and patriotic belief by the general
public that being a soldier meant that one was courageous, honourable. This belief was
purported by the governments at that time to encourage young men to enlist as soldiers.
The poet however, shows the messy, horrifying and brutal reality of war. Owen wrote the
poem with the belief that perhaps the poem’s audience will change its attitude towards
war and cease cheerfully sending young men—mere "children"—to die in agony. As the
speaker puts it: If the audience could experience the trauma the speaker describes (“the
white eyes writhing,” the “gargling from froth-corrupted lungs”), then they wouldn’t
pass their patriotic militarism down to their children.
Further, by referring to this false story about the glory of war as “the old Lie,” and then
quoting a Latin line from the Roman poet Horace, the speaker makes clear that the
depiction of war as glorious is not just a simple misconception made by those unfamiliar
with war. It is, rather, a lie—a purposefully told falsehood. And it is a lie that has been
told for thousands of years in order to inspire young men to willingly give their lives to
serve the political needs of their countries.
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Suffering:
Physical pain and psychological trauma blur in this searing description of a World War I
battleground.
Caught in the memory of a gas-attack, the poem's speaker oscillates between the pain of
the past (the actual experience of battle) and the pain of the present (he can't get the
image of his dying comrade out of his head).
As Owen argues, war is so painful that it becomes surreal.
By drawing readers directly into the action of battle, Owen's speaker manipulates us into
assuming the anti-war stance that results from his own experiences of the war.
Patriotism:
In this poem, dying for your country (or even fighting for your country) seems a lot less
worthwhile than the trumped-up truisms of old patriotic battle cries imply.
Strategically drawing his readers through the ghastly reality of life in a battle zone, Owen
turns patriotic fervor into a kind of deadly life force. The people at home just can't
understand how horrible life on the front actually is. The soldiers in war can't remember
why they are fighting. Everyone, it seems, is lost: lost in a fog of war or in the useless
ideals that sacrifice youth at the altar of national glory.
"Dulce et Decorum Est" privileges individual well-being (or ending individual suffering)
over the collective good (or blind patriotism).
THE POET’S OBJECTIVE:
Owen uses this poem to condemn the historical institutions and political/social structures that
have, for time immemorial, sent young men to their deaths based on pretty tales of glory. The
poem demands that the reader face the truth and no longer be complicit with that old Lie, but
even as it does so, it seems to bitterly perceive that nothing will change, because nothing ever
has.
