War Poetry: Dulce Et Decorum Est

The use of propaganda to deceive innocent lives to contribute to war and become a
meat shield for society. The suffering the young men go through to protect their
country. Can it be considered “sweet and fitting”?
Wilfred Owen, a poet who participated in active military service in the past,
effectively portrays war as a horrifying event, and shows us the people who support
war and persuade young men to join, to be foolish, unknowing of the true horror of
war, in his poem Dulce Et Decorum Est. Owen’s tactful use of metaphors and similes
at the first stanza of the poem, creates a vivid imagery of the suffering soldier’s
experience and portrays his poem in a contradictory manner, The soldiers are “bent
double, like old beggars under sacks” and “Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the
hoots”, showing the harsh conditions the soldiers experience in the Warfield and how
they have lost hope and have been impacted physically and mentally, living in
poverty and destitution. Thus, Owen clearly conveys war as an event that negatively
effects lives of millions of young men and is not an event that is “sweet and fitting”.
Furthermore, Owen conveys the detrimental consequences war will bring to soldiers,
by making thoughtful use of repetition and anticlimax. The suffering of the soldiers is
shown when Owen showcases the soldier’s desperation and panic when a gas bomb
is dropped on them, and they yell out to each other, “Gas! Gas! Quick Boys!” Which
is when they proceed to fit their clumsy helmets just in time, creating an anticlimax,
which conveys that the soldier’s suffering and pain will pro-long. However, one of the
soldiers does not manage to wear their gas masks, and he experiences torture
beyond hell, guttering, choking and drowning. This painful and torturous experiences
soldiers must experience; Owen conveys war as a despicable event that brings
suffering and pain to innocent lives. Moreover, His tone towards the people who
convince young men to join war, is a disapproved and reproving manner. Owen in
his poem, questions the people who have convinced the young men to join war,
rhetorical questions that lets them know the traumatic scenes that war has exposed
the innocent soldiers to, such as “If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood come
gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud, my
friend, you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some desperate
glory” This statement lets the people reflect on their words and action they have
used to persuade the young men to join the war, and let them understand the true
horrors war actually brings to the soldier’s lives, and how war is not a “sweet and
fitting” event.