Analysis of Owen’s Dulce Et Decorum Est PDF

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A poetry analysis of Owen's "Dulce Et Decorum Est" in five paragraph essay form in MLA format. It might be graphic for some due to the nature of the poem that is being analyzed. It has only one citation to the textbook used, and no peer-reviewed papers are cited because they were not required for my...

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Ferrante 1 Corey Ferrante Dr. Hayes English H102/1343 5-1-20 Essay #3 Final Draft Analysis of Owen’s Dulce Et Decorum Est It is neither fitting nor honorable to die in war, and the poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen illustrates why death in battle is not fitting or pleasant at all. In the poem, a man is depicted dying a horrible death from the chemical weapons used during a war, likely during WWI. The speaker in the poem is likely a veteran of World War I describing the horrors that he saw during his time in the army. The poem’s meaning is that there is nothing good about war. This is seen in the description of the setting, the language used, how the use of imagery illustrates the poem’s meaning. One way in which the poem’s meaning is developed is through the setting. This way of developing the meaning is seen in the first verse of the poem. The use of the phrase in the first line “bent double, like old beggars under sacks” (I. 1) implies that the soldiers were exhausted from carrying heavy loads a long distance. When people carry heavy loads they begin to bend over in the same way as a beggar would if he was carrying all of his possessions on his back. The speaker also says, “Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, … And towards our distant rest began to trudge” (l. 2-4). The use of the phrase “knock-kneed, coughing like hags” further demonstrates their exhaustion, and the phrase “cursed through the sludge” implies that the setting is a very dreary place that was filled with mud. The word “trudge” implies that the mud was deep because when people are walking in deep mud, they trudge through it. The

Ferrante 2 setting contributes to the meaning by displaying a very dreary, war-torn place that is filled with fatigued troops and misery. Because the setting portrays an active warzone in this way, it suggests that when people go to war, they find hardship and misery, and nothing pleasant. Another way the poem demonstrates its meaning is through the use of vivid descriptions. One thing described is the death of a soldier who was killed by chemical weapons. This death is illustrated when the speaker says, “He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning” (III. 2). The term “choking, drowning” calls to mind the fact that certain types of chemical weapons form an acid in the lungs when they are breathed in, and then the body tries to protect the lungs by coating the insides with extra phlegm. But then the lungs don’t function properly, and the person dies of asphyxiation. The term “guttering” implies that the man is coughing up bodily fluids. The lines “If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood / Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs” (III. 7-8) demonstrate that the man is spewing his own blood as his lungs fill with fluids. This quote also vividly portrays the horrifying agony of some of those who died from being gassed, writhing to their death. These quotes perfectly describe the unimaginable atrocities of war and the types of deadly pain that war causes. One final way the poem makes its meaning clear is through its structure. The speaker chooses to first develop the setting, and then describe the conflict using imagery. This structure causes a more complete image of the conflict. Rather than just seeing a man being gassed, readers see a man being gassed with people watching, in the middle of a warzone. Readers are given a description of the context and situation that the conflict occurs in. Without the development of the setting, readers might never have known who the speaker is or how he relates to the conflict. When Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” is analyzed, the description of the setting,

Ferrante 3 the use of vivid descriptions to dramatize the conflict, and its use of imagery to describe the conflict create the meaning. The meaning is that war is never a good thing, and this applies both at the time the poem takes place and in modern times. When one reads the poem, they are not only taught, but are also shown that death in war is never fun or glorious.

Works Cited Owen, Wilfred. “Dulce Et Decorum Est.” The Seagull Book of Poems, 4th ed. Ed by Joseph Kelly, W.W. Norton & Company, 2018, p. 246....