Dulce Et Decorum Est Essay

The poem, “Dulce Et Decorum Est” is a powerful anti-war poem set in World War 1 that uses dramatic imagery, diction, a unique type of rhyme and rhythm, and symbolism in the structure to show how harsh war is and not the glamor it is made out to be. A writer from the war knows it much better than the people at home and during the time of World War 1 patriotism was at an all-time high. The men were proud and ready to fight for our country and the women were quick to support, but they were heading into something much worse. To understand the poem we must first understand the title. “Dulce et Decorum Est” is a Latin title that is taken from the Roman poet Horace and means "it is sweet and honorable...” followed by “pro patria mori,” which means "to die for one's country”. Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” is one of the most famous poems from the “soldier-poets” who fought in the World War 1. In 1917, Owen was diagnosed with “shell shock”, commonly known as post-traumatic stress disorder,

This is what Owen wants. We can never truly understand war without being a part of it. Owen does the closest thing he can to make the reader feel this. He attempts to make the reader feel the gore of the images that go along with it. In lines 21-23 the poem says, “If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood / Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, / Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud.” This shows us that many men were killed during this war with no less than graphic words that make cause us to imagine the most horrible. Another example of this is when the gas bomb is dropped, “But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, / And floundering like a man in fire or lime . . .” (Lines 11-12). These lines show that men drowned in the gas because they did not make it in time to their gas masks. The graphic nature of the images is what draws the reader in and set the disturbing reality that is