Dulce Et Decorum Est

Dulce et Docorum Est

Dulcet et Decorum Est. one of Wilfred Owen’s most quoted pomes, is a recount of the horrors of war and, in particular, the gruesome and hunting gas attacks. It is a poem written to confront the propaganda of the nobility of war and the glory of human sacrifice. The amount of loss and destruction in the First World War was unprecedented and we should remember the sacrifices that were made if we are to prevent future wars.

The title of the poem Dulcet et Decorum Est. is only the first part of the saying Dulcet et Decorum Est pro Patria mori. When translated the saying goes ‘it is a sweet and decorous thing to die for ones country’ but the title of Owen’s poem only says ‘it is a sweet and decorous thing’. Owen then proceeds with his poem attempting to describe this alleged ‘sweet and decorous thing’.

The opening line contains two similes which compare the solders to beggars and hags ‘bent double, like old beggars under sacks’, ‘coughing like hags.’ This is not how we would portray young, fit, keen solders, but the fact of the matter is that they are no longer fit, they are no longer keen and they barely remain soldiers. War has aged and deteriorated them so much so that they are now compared to hags and beggars. Showing us that war is neither ‘sweet’ nor ‘decorous’.

Owen continues his description of the solders with the lines

“All went lame; all blind
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.”

The lines ‘All went lame; all blind’, ‘Drunk with fatigue; deaf’ further describe the their disabilities and to the extent at which war has effected them. The word all is all encompassing which is saying that every one is affected, on one is spared. Further emphasising that war is neither ‘sweet’ nor ‘decorous’.

The onomatopoeia of ‘hoots’ and ‘dropped’ is an attempt to capture the sound of the 5.9 Calabar shells, with them hooting over head and dropping behind. The description of the five-nines, ‘tired, out striped’ shows us that they are no longer intimidating or that there is not enough energy left in the soldiers to be intimidated, even though they are dangerously life threatening. Further showing the deteriorated state of the soldiers.

In the second stanza the poem begins its description of the gas attacks which is the central topic and the most described, because it is such a terrifying way to die. The pase increases with the outburst of warning

“Gas! Gas! Quick boys!”

to show the urgency of the situation. Considering the speed that they must react and the state at which they are in, a gas attach is a very dangerous situation. Owen uses the word boys which reminds us of their youth, but having already described them as aged and disabled we come to the realisation that their youth was stolen, and we are also confronted with the concept that they are innocent victims within the war.

“But someone still was yelling out and stumbling”

This is the line where Owen begins his vivid and chilling description of a gas attack death, which is his strongest argument against ‘the old lie’. The line has matter-of-fact tone which gives a lack of sympathy feal. It is introducing us to the situation this soldier is in from a third person view. The next line;

“And flound’ring like a man in fire of lime”

describes the helplessness of the soldier. Owen is showing us that war can be random and the soldiers’ lives are left up to chance. This man is floundering he has no control at all.

“Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,”

The word ‘Dim’ in this line has a lot of signifence and meaning. This is pointed out to us through the punctuation; more specifically the comma that separates it from the rest of the line.it operates on many levels. Firstly it describes the scene, the light, giving it an eerie and gloomy feal, one with little hope. Secondly, it describes the chances this soldier has, having shown us that war can be left up to chance, Owen is describing the chances or odds this boy now has for survival. And thirdly it describes the soldier him self, he knows the chances and odds he has and is now ‘Dim’, hopeless; his spirit has taken its final blow. The rest of the line is a description of the scene, which leads into the next line;

“As under a green sea, I saw him drowning”

The second half, ‘I saw him drowning’, (which are the last words of the stanza) is the first of a very few times Owen directly refers to himself. This is to personify the entire poem, to make it much more real to the reader. It is showing us that all the horrors Owen has described and will describe are all personal experiences.

The next stanza consists of two lines and is the only other time that Owen addresses himself.

“In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.”

It is in Owens dreams, it is before Owens helpless sight, the boy plunges him self at Owen. We can never know these horrors because we were not in Owen’s place. These visions have haunted him and all he is doing is attempt to merely describe them, we will never know these horrors to the extent that Owen does.

This is outlined in the last stanza with the repetition of the word If.

“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 the devils sick of sin;”

These fore lines are the first third of the stanza and say to us IF! If we could experience these things, that have only been described, described with words like smothering, flung, writhing, hanging and with a metaphor ‘like a devils sick of sin’… the next fore lines continue this If concept.

“If you could here, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, in curable sores on innocent tongues,-”

‘IF! You could hear’. These eight lines of this stanza tell us that we cannot know the real thing, but If! we could, then;

“My friend, you would not tall with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory
The old Lie: Dulce et decouum est
Pro patria mori.”

This is Owen’s point, you do not know the horrors of war, so do not speak falsies of it. On a last note, Owen saved the last part of the saying ‘Pro patria mori’ for the end. This is the only time these words are mentioned and translate to ‘to die for ones country’.

lives on the others like a worm that crawls to eat leaves and other things not worrying about any ideals yet in this poem the comparison was only to shade some light on how and what stage and state the solder after living the anguish of war and looking at his mates passed away or about to. Pain, hanger, thirst, lake of sleep and not able to rest. All of this can make a tough, young fit solder just like a bagger whose interest is simply to satisfy the current needs regardless of the ethics and morels. Looking at the stanza when one solder screams GAS GAS is another sad story for us to hear yet it was a nightmare to solders who inhaled the gas and a terror story for other solders looking at GAS entering the helpless bodies and exiting a soul out it's container. Yes this is a true story of war.

it's unfair comparsion between a man who stand for his country or right and the man who lives on the others like a worm that crawls to eat leaves and other things not worrying about any ideals yet in this poem the comparison was only to shade some light on how and what stage and state the solder after living the anguish of war and looking at his mates passed away or about to. Pain, hanger, thirst, lake of sleep and not able to rest. All of this can make a tough, young fit solder just like a bagger whose interest is simply to satisfy the current needs regardless of the ethics and morels. Looking at the stanza when one solder screams GAS GAS is another sad story for us to hear yet it was a nightmare to solders who inhaled the gas and a terror story for other solders looking at GAS entering the helpless bodies and exiting a soul out it's container. Yes this is a true story of war.

Sorry the first line was dropped by mistake.

Anyone view the poem's structure paralleling that of a story? The first stanza introduces the setting of trench warfare and the soldiers. The second stanza is the rising action with the advent and result of the gas. The third stanza, the shortest, is the climax, when the speaker realizes the true pain behind death when the soldier's death emotionally "plunges" at the speaker. The fourth stanza is the falling action and describes the speaker's further realization on the condition of death in WWI--the soldiers don't just die, they drown (notice how die / death is not used in the poem). The poem ends with the speaker's conclusion from this incident--it is neither sweet nor graceful to die for one's country.