Dulce Et Decorum Est Analysis

As an effort to understand themselves, soldiers and veterans of World War One wrote many poems and other forms of literature while in battle, and after returning home. One of the many poems that were written that truly expresses the tone of the war and how it impacted soldiers is “Dulce et Decorum Est”, by Wilfred Owen. This poem is one written about World War One, where gas was a very common weapon used against troops in the trenches. It describes not only how treacherous life in the trenches was, but the tragedies that soldiers encountered while fighting there. During World War One, many of the trenches were filled with water and “sludge” which made it difficult for the soldiers to walk and carry all of their equipment. This took a physical

He recalls little, because he was 10 years old when it ended, but while he was talking about his time in the service, he recalled the events of World War One, and people he knows who had fought in various wars around the world. When he was shipped overseas, my grandfather was sent to Verdun, France, which held some of the deadliest battles of WW1, and more than likely led one of the leading death rates. “They cut my orders and sent me down to Verdun, France, and that was where the big war was in World War One. They lost a million people outside of Verdun. A million people. They called it the war of the trenches. They had trenches and gas, and the water and the slime, the dead people. It was a terrible war ” (Simpson, 2018). This quote truly explains the tragedy and horrors that world War One soldiers faced. The diaries that were written from the trenches reflect the horrible conditions that were faced during that time. The trenches, the deadly gas, walking over your dead friends. As he stated, the war truly was terrible. Once it ended, the World was then faced with Ww2. My Uncle’s father, Kenny Barrett, was in live battle for many of the significant events of WW2. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and he was in the 5th line when the Americans and the British invaded Normandy. “Kenny Barrett. He was in the Battle of the Bulge in WW2. I don’t think he’d talk to you, but he might a little. He doesn’t talk much about it” (Simpson, 2018). These two events were war-changing, and they changed him. Being involved in such vigorous fighting and horrifying conditions must have impacted Kenny in such a way that he does not speak of the war. He doesn’t speak of it because he doesn’t want to remember it, and nobody will truly understand what he was put through, just as Rudolph Binding stated in his letter home. “There’s plenty of history there, but it’s not all fun and games.