“Dulce et Derorum Est”
The poem, “Dulce et Decorum Est”, by Wilfred Owen, vividly describes his personal account of fighting in The First World War. He firstly describes the conditions of his fellow soldiers and then onto a first account of a man’s horrific death during a sudden, unsuspected gas attack. Owen rounds off by sharing his true feelings on war, to accomplish this he uses a strong variety of techniques. This allows us to further realise the shocking truth of war.
The forst verse of the poem thoroughly describes the awful state of owens fellow young soldiers. He begins by referring to them as, “bent double” and uses the simile, “like old beggars under sacks.” This empathises how sickly and poorly they are, trudging back from their helpless battle. The simile, “coughing like hags” is also used in order to appeal to the reader’s senses. This allows the reader to imagine the deep, harsh, rusted cough of an old witch, an unusual association with a fit young soldier.
Wilfred Owen then comments on the, “haunting flares”, a clever example or personification, showing how he will never forget the flares that fell as they turned away returning to their, “distant rest.” Owen uses this to show how dragged out and tiring it is until they finally return to a safer place. He also uses hyperbole to deliberately exaggerate the state of his fellow comrades, saying, “Men marched asleep.” Owen elaborates on how poorly these men are, by using the metaphor, “blood shod” this means blood like shoes, showing how ill-treated these men were, and how they marched on without proper shoes their feet swamped in blood.
The first verse finishes by focusing on how tired the soldiers are. Owen uses, “drunk with fatigue”, another clever metaphor, which helps the reader imagine their movements as if staggering around, too tired to even care about walking properly. He also talks about how they are so used to the sounds of they are no longer noticed. The last line talks about,...