Dulce Et Decorum Est Essay

Wilfred Owen wrote the poem “Dulce et Decorum Est”. This poem graphically describes how terrible war is. Owen experienced war first hand when he fought and was killed in World War One. He wrote the poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” to attempt to change the image of what war was at the time. During his time many young men saw war as fun and honorable. He sought to show them that war is terrible and full of death. Owen used imagery, simile and caesura to help convey the theme, war is not fun and honorable. Throughout the entire poem Owen uses imagery to show the theme. In one specific instance though he uses imagery to shock and scare the reader. Owen describes a man as,” And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime… / Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, / As under a green sea, I saw him drowning” (12-4). This quote from “Dulce et Decorum Est” shows a great example of the imagery used by Owen in the poem. Owen used words like “fire or lime” because they help to show the horrible condition of the soldier that is suffering from the gas.

Right from the start, Owen uses caesura to slow the poem down. He slows down the poem so that the reader can better picture the intense images that he creates. One of the many caesuras is,“But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;” (6). The slow speed of this line, and the whole first stanza, helps to make the change in speed in the second stanza more dramatic. The sudden change in speed of the poem matches the shocking event that happens in the poem. The poem moves slowly like a soldier might be stumbling along. Then all of the sudden the poem picks up speed like a bomb might go off right behind them. Toward the end Owen uses more caesuras to slow the poem back down as he describes the body of a dying, if not dead soldier. Owen uses the speed of the poem and the images that speed helps create, to try and convince the reader that war isn’t