Wilfred Owen's Anti War Poem example essay topic

An Analysis of "Dulce et Decorum Est" Dolce et Decorum Est is the product of Wilfred Owen's frustration, not only against those who repeat the old lie "Dulce et Decorum Est", in other words, it is sweet and right to die for your country, but also against a certain kind of poetry. Through his poem, Owen who himself took part in World War 1, has no difficulty to convince us that the horrors that took place at this moment far outweighs the idea of those who encourage war. In this essay, I will approach the symbolic significance of the poem by analyzing each stanza. In the first stanza, Owen sets the scene.

This stanza contains a lot of simile and metaphors that shows us how crushed these men are, physically and mentally. Soldiers are turning their back to the lights of the battle field "Till on the haunting flares we turned ours backs". Exhausted, their knees are touching "knock-kneed", tired of supporting their heavy backpack "like old beggars under sacks". The condition of the poor soldiers is so miserable that the author compare them to "old beggars" and "hags" (ugly old woman). Some men had lost their boots and the only shoes they have is the blood on their feet "blood-shod". They are walking painfully, not even hearing the noise made by the shells rushing through the air "deaf even to the hoots".

Then, little bye little, soldiers struggle away from the battle field, shells now falling behind "Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind". In the second stanza, the author is focusing on one man who, because of stress and fatigue was not able to put his gas mask in time. The author describe the pain of this poor man throughout a big underwater metaphor: "found " ring", "green sea", "drowning" and "plunges", in the third stanza. Plugged by the glass in the eyepieces of the gas masks and the green light (chlorine gas) "Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light", Owen can see his comrade succumbing to the poison gas. In the third stanza, our speaker compare the scene to a nightmare. Owen will never forget the images of his friend, dying: "plunges at me", "my helpless sight".

Dismayed, Owen can't do anything to help his friend. In line 16, by guttering, the speaker was probably referring to the sound in the throat of the man, that was gurgling like water draining down a gutter. At the beginning of stanza 4, the author attacks people at home who think that it is sweet and right to die for their country. If only they had been victim of those terrible images "If in some smothering dreams you too could pace", they would not think this way. In line 18, soldiers throw the man in the wagon because they don't have time to be nicer. Through the coloured language that the author used, we can denote the virulent kind of pain Owen's compatriot is succumbing to: "white eyes writing", "like a devil's sick of sin", "jolt", "froth-corrupted lungs", "obscene as cancer", "bitter as the cud", etc.

In line 23, Owen compare the substance that is issuing his friend's mouth to the regurgitated grass the cows chew. By innocent tongues (Pound 377, 24), Owen probably wanted to point at a person in particular. Someone that is anything but innocent. This person is probably Jessie Pope, a writer that glorified war in her poems and to whom the speaker made reference as "my friend" in an ironic way, in line 25.

Owen try to make her understand that if she had witnessed those scenes, she would never repeat this odious lie to children, with such idealistic enthusiasm "with such high zest". In conclusion, Wilfred Owen's anti-war poem successfully illustrates the horrors of some of the few First World War scenes. I totally agree with him that "Dulce et Decorum Est" is indeed a big lie.