From the time we are very young, impressionable to the world around us, to the time we mature, able to formulate and uphold our own beliefs, we are told to respect our elders, and subliminally value their word over our own. However, this blind following leads to ignorance and naivety among youth. In his poem “Dulce et Decorum Est”, Wilfred Owen conveys the grotesque reality of war, portraying a man choking to death due to mustard gas on a World War I battlefield. His conviction and striking details allow the once upheld statement, “Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori” or “It is sweet and honorable to die for one’s country”, to be proven false. Before even beginning his poem, Owen constructs verbal irony in the title alone. Translating to “it is sweet and honorable”, the poem’s title contradicts the content of the poem itself. The reader can immediately comprehend that Owen, who fought and eventually died in World War I, is bitter toward the belief that war is beautiful and honorable. At the time the poem was written young men were respected and praised for going to war, and it was an honor for a …show more content…
To convey the density of the mustard gas that fills the trenches of the young soldiers, Owen describes it as “a green sea”. To relate the horror and grotesqueness of the soldier’s death, he portrays it as “obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues”. And to portray the emotion and fatigue of the audience’s sons and brothers, Owen convey the boys as “old beggars under sacks…coughing like hags…blood-shod…drunk with fatigue”. Owen relates these details in words all can understand because his intended audience is not those who have experienced war, but those who have not. Painting death as a monstrosity rather than an honor, Owen is able to solidify his stance against “the old