Dulce_Et_Decorum_Est

Dulce et Decorum Est is a powerful poem which expresses Wilfred Owen's opinion on the war through vivid graphic imagery. In the first paragraph, Owen describes the soldiers as 'bent double, like old beggars under sacks'. The phrase 'old beggars' conveys that the soldiers are now weak men which is nothing like a soldier should be: fit and healthy. Owen showed throughout this poem that war doesn't just effect a man physically but mentally. 'Haunting flares' displays that whilst trudging through the thick mud, the soldiers were get flashes of death arising upon them. The soldiers were extremely exhausted, they were 'drunk with fatigue'. The word 'drunk' has a frictive sound which sounds harsh and is onomatopoeic. Wilfred Owen uses many words with harsh consonant sounds, which I think generates the whole tone of the poem. In the second paragraph, the mood the poem changes as in the first, the mood was normal but it was building up to something. The use of monosyllabic words 'gas!' show the quickness of the situation with the uprising of poisonous gas. The second monosyllabic 'GAS!' is capitalised showing the panic of soldiers trying the get their gas mask on in time. 'In all my dreams' shows that for Owen this event of the young man dying right in front of his eyes was a heart-breaking experience and he was so helpless. This event is now reoccurring his mind in the form of nightmares. The layout of the poem is a double sonnet with an ABAB rhyming pattern and he uses iambic pentameter is most of the lines (10 syllables within a line). In comparison to other war poets, I think that Wilfred Owen has a more gentle approach of saying to his country how war is right. 'with the old Lie: dulce et decorum est........'