"Dulce et Decorum Est" is a poem Wilfred Owen wrote following his
experiences fighting in the trenches in northern France during World War I.
The poem was published posthumously in a 1920 book simply called Poems.
Wilfred Owen's preface reads: "This book is not about heroes ... My subject is
War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity."
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, which is a line taken from the latin odes
of the Roman poet Horace, means it is sweet and proper to die for one's
country. Wilfred Owen takes the opposite stance.
● In the poem he is, in effect, saying that it is anything but sweet and
proper to die for one's country in a hideous war that eventually took the
lives of over 17 million people.
This poem, written by a young soldier recovering from his wounds who was
brave enough to return to the battlefield, still resonates today with its brutal
language and imagery.
First Stanza
The first line takes the reader straight into the ranks of the soldiers, an
unusual opening, only we're told they resemble "old beggars" and "hags" (note
the similes) by the speaker, who is actually in amongst this sick and motley
crew.
The initial rhythm is slightly broken iambic pentameter until line five when
commas and semi-colons and other punctuation reflect the disjointed efforts of
the men to keep pace.
Also note the term "blood-shod" which suggests a parallel with horses, and the
fact that many are lame, drunk, blind and deaf. The trauma of war has
intoxicated the soldiers.
Second Stanza
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. He's too
slow to don his gas mask and helmet, which would have saved his life by
filtering out the toxins.
"An ecstasy of fumbling," the poet writes. The ecstasy is used here in the
sense of a trance-like frenzy as the men hurriedly put on their helmets. It has
nothing to do with happiness.
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.
Third Stanza
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.
Owen chose the word "guttering" to describe the tears streaming down the
face of the unfortunate man, a symptom of inhaling toxic gas.
Fourth Stanza
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.
What Is the Main Theme of "Dulce et Decorum Est?"
"Dulce et Decorum Est" does not have one theme, but many. Still, each of the
themes centre around war and the antiquated notions associated with it. The
main themes of this poem are listed below:
o One of the main themes of this poem is war. It deals with a soldier's
experience in World War I, and contrasts the realities of war with the
glorified notion of what serving in a war is like.
o This poem takes aim at the idea of war presented by war-supporting
propaganda. During World War I, propaganda came in the form of
books, poems, posters, movies, radio and more, and presented an idea
of war full of glory and pride rather than of death and destruction.
o Politics are often the cause war, yet it is the men who have nothing to do
with politics who are recruited to fight it. This poem underlines the
wrongness of this dynamic.
o Everyone wants to be the hero. In reality, it is the man who keeps his
head down is he who survives the longest.
o "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori," means it is sweet and proper to
die for one's country. This idea of patriotism fueled the hopes and
dreams of many young soldiers who entered World War I. Once they
realised the horrors that awaited them, however, this ideal patriotism
was rightly viewed as ridiculous.
o Owen highlights this Latin phrase to show how antiquated and wrong it is
when applied to the modern age. Through his work, which entirely
destroys the idea that it is sweet and proper to die for one's country, he
hopes to make readers realise that times have changed – that while war
may have once been glorious, now, war is hell. So we should learn
such a lesson from the past.
What Is the Structure of "Dulce et Decorum Est?"
"Dulce et Decorum Est" might have started out as a double sonnet (there are
28 lines in total) and many lines are in iambic pentameter, with end rhymes.
Owen must have decided against it as he worked on the draft, ending up with
four unequal stanzas.
How Is Language and Diction Used in "Dulce et Decorum Est?"
"Dulce et Decorum Est" surprises the reader from the start. The opening lines
contain words such as bent, beggars, sacks, hags, cursed, haunting, trudge.
This is the language of poverty and deprivation, hardly suitable for the glory of
the battlefield where heroes are said to be found.
Yet this is precisely what the poet intended. Figurative language fights with
literal language. This is no ordinary march. Most seem asleep, from exhaustion
no doubt, suggesting that a dream world isn't too far distant–a dream world
very unlike the resting place they're headed for.
The second stanza's first line brings the reader directly in touch with the
unfolding drama and, although these are soldiers, men (as well as old beggars
and hags), the simple word "boys" seems to put everything into perspective.
Wilfred Owen makes use of numerous poetic devices in this poem. Aside from
the the structure, which is discussed above, Owen strategically uses
assonance, alliteration, and iambic pentameter to transmit the dirty and dark
feelings felt on the battlefield.
Assonance
It is important to note the poet's use of internal, line-by-line assonance. For
example:
double / under / cursed / sludge / haunting /turned / trudge.
And again with:
drunk / fumbling / clumsy / stumbling / under / plunges / guttering /
flung / corrupted / lungs / cud / dulce
Throughout the poem this is almost like the background rumbling of distant
explosions.
Alliteration
Alliteration also occurs in lines five, eleven and nineteen:
Line 5: Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
Line 11: But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
Line 19: And watch the white eyes writhing in his face
More Than Iambic Pentameter
The iambic pentameter is dominant, but quite a few lines break with this
rhythm, such as line five in the first stanza. This inconsistency reflects the
strangeness of the situation. An opening spondee (two stressed syllables) and
a trochee (stress followed by unstressed syllable) add power to the iambic feet
that follow :
Men marched / asleep. / Many / had lost / their boots,
This refers to the exhaustion of the men and the fact that marching through
thick sludge led to some losing their boots.
His hang / ing face, / like a / devil's / sick of sin
This is line 20. Note the alliteration and the simile, plus another spondee and
pyrrhic (no stressed syllable.) Whatever you think a devil looks like, this is one
that has gone beyond the pale.
bitter as the cud
This is a term used in farming, where cud is the half digested food of
ruminants which is chewed again to make it digestible. The suggestion is that
the blood coming up from the lungs has to be chewed by the poor dying man.
A sobering image.
This line is very similar to the first line of Owen's poem "Anthem For Doomed
Youth," which reads, "What passing bells for these who die as cattle?"
The Latin ending is perhaps a gentle reminder of many a slogan, many a motto
and maxim held dear by clubs, military units, teams and families as an
expression of belief and ideals. These are often displayed in Latin which was, of
course, the language of the ancient Romans.
What Is the Tone and Mood of "Dulce et Decorum Est?"
From the start of this poem you are immersed in the atmosphere of war. These
are the trenches of WWI, full of mud and death. Once optimistic, healthy
soldiers have now been reduced to a miserable, exhausted gang who have
little left to give.
It's a shocking environment into which the reader is taken–one that is
oppressive, dangerous and without any real hope.
The poet wants the reader to know that warfare is anything but glorious, so he
paints a gloomy, realistic, human picture of life at the frontline. He leaves us
no doubt about his feelings.
● The tone and mood is also set by language such as "misty panes and
thick green light." From the start we feel that the world has been turned
upside down, and that all things having to do with happiness and vitality
have been cast away. This is not a lively green, but a thick green. The
window is not clear, but misty. This is the land of the walking dead, of
the sickly–a world cold, muddy and metallic.
By the end of the poem, it appears the reader has been moved away from the
"haunting" battlefield, and the setting becomes internal. Here, the mood is less
gruesome, but no less pitiful. In one sense, to see the way these scenes of
death and violence have affected the poet's mind is just as disturbing as the
scenes themselves.
How Is Imagery Used in "Dulce et Decorum Est?"
This poem is packed full of vivid images forged in the heat of battle, skillfully
drawn by the young, keenly observant poet.
The opening scene is one of a group of soldiers making their weary way from
the frontline "towards our distant rest" as bombs drop and lethal gas is
released. Details are intimate and immediate, taking the reader right into the
thick of trench war.
These men appear old, but that is only an illusion. War has twisted reality
which gradually turns surreal as the poem progresses. The speaker evokes a
dream-like scenario, the green of the enveloping gas turning his mind to
another element, that of water, and the cruel sea in which a man is drowning.
The descriptions become more intense as the drowning man is disposed of on a
cart. All the speaker can do is compare the suffering to a disease with no
known cure. The final image - sores on a tongue - hints at what the dying
soldier himself might have said about the war and the idea of a glorious death.
What Symbols Are Used in "Dulce et Decorum Est?"
While Owen utilizes figurative language, similes, and assonance to combat the
illusion that war is glorious, he also uses symbols to underline his message.
There are three overarching symbols that strengthen the impact of "Dulce et
Decorum Est."
Disfiguration
Owen focuses on the way war disfigures and warps all things that come into
contact with it. Primarily, he focuses on the human body and the way it is
slowly damaged and changed before ultimately being destroyed. We see the
symbol of disfiguration in the first stanza, when the poet reports on the state
of his fellow men:
Lines 1–3
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
Lines 5–7
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
By looking closely at the language used in the above lines, the symbol of
disfiguration becomes clear. The men are no longer the men the used to be.
They are shadows of their former selves: dead men walking.
Allusion
As we can see by the title and last line of this poem, one of the main symbols
is allusion (in this instance, an allusion to Horace's Latin phrase). The allusion
points to the idea that fighting and dying for your country is glorious. After
making this allusion, the poet devotes all of his efforts to proving it wrong.
The devil is also alluded to in line 20, indicating the badness of the battlefield.
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
Nightmares
Another symbol that pervades this poem is the idea of the nightmare. Owen
presents the scenes of war as a nightmare with their greenish color and
mistiness. Also, the terrifying imagery adds to the feeling of a bad dream.
This symbol indicates that the horrors of war are almost too hard to
comprehend. This must be a nightmare, mustn't it? The reality is that it is not
a nightmare: These are real atrocities that happened to real people. The fact
that the poet presents the poem as a sort of nightmare makes it all the more
terrible.
