Analysis of Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen Essay -- Dulce Decoru

Analysis of Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen Based on the poem of Dulce et Decorum Est, by Wilfred Owen.Owens war poesy is a passionate expression of outrage at the horrorsof war and of pity for the young s experiencediers sacrificed in it.It is Dulce et Decorum Est which provides a very dramatic andmemorable exposition of the psychological and physical horrors thatwar brings about.From the first stanza Owen uses strong metaphors and similes to conveya strong warning. The first line describes the troops as beingness comparableold beggars under sacks. This not only says that the men are tiredbut that they are so tired they have been brought down to the level ofbeggars. Coughing like hags suggests that these young men ( humankindy whowere in their teens) were suffering from ill health due to the damp,sludge and fumes from the decaying bodies of their fallen men at arms,lying on their chests. It was as well as in the winters of The Great Warwhere the events that, Owen speaks of took place, so they would havebeen prone to pneumonias and other diseases.By using the phrase blood shod Owen is describing how the troopshave been on their feet for days and never resting. Drunk withfatigue, echoes this view that the troops are wandering and stumblingaround aimlessly with no sense of direction or of purpose.In the second stanza, the pace changes to one of urgency Owen usingthe word Gas in swift repetition demonstrates this. By doing thisOwen illustrates the urgency of a life and finale situation, whichrequires the need to put on their gas masks. Owen describes a horrificscene unfolding in front of his very eyes, a scene of a man dying ahorrible death because he was too slow to put on his ... ...one changes to one of questioninghopelessness and of quiet resignation with the invasion of death. Owendemonstrates this by asking the reader to think, Think how it wakesthe seeds- Woke, once, the clays of a cold star. Here the reader cansee that the suggestion of clay as being cold and lifeless and thatwhen the sun tries to warm clay, it in fact bakes it hard.In lines 3, 4 and 5, Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides,Full-nerved - warm-to hard too hard to get up? Was it for this the claygrew tall? the reader can begin to ask the age old questions, why?and Are we here for just this reason, too die for the pursuit ofpointless wars that occur through mans own greed of power?BibliographyOwen, Wilfred. Dulce et Decorum Est. Perrine?s Literature Structure, Sound, and Sense. 7th ed. Ed. Thomas R. Arp. Ft. Worth Harcourt, 1998. 565-566.