critical essay on dulce et decorum est

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Dulce et Decorum Est Summary & Analysis by Wilfred Owen

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis
• Poetic Devices
• Vocabulary & References
• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme
• Line-by-Line Explanations

"Dulce et Decorum Est" is a poem by the English poet Wilfred Owen. Like most of Owen's work, it was written between August 1917 and September 1918, while he was fighting in World War 1. Owen is known for his wrenching descriptions of suffering in war. In "Dulce et Decorum Est," he illustrates the brutal everyday struggle of a company of soldiers, focuses on the story of one soldier's agonizing death, and discusses the trauma that this event left behind. He uses a quotation from the Roman poet Horace to highlight the difference between the glorious image of war (spread by those not actually fighting in it) and war's horrifying reality.

• Read the full text of “Dulce et Decorum Est”

The Full Text of “Dulce et Decorum Est”

1 Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

2 Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

3 Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,

4 And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

5 Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,

6 But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

7 Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

8 Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

9 Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling

10 Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,

11 But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

12 And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—

13 Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,

14 As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

15 In all my dreams before my helpless sight,

16 He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

17 If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace

18 Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

19 And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

20 His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;

21 If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

22 Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

23 Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

24 Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—

25 My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

26 To children ardent for some desperate glory,

27 The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

28 Pro patria mori .

“Dulce et Decorum Est” Summary

“dulce et decorum est” themes.

The Horror and Trauma of War

• See where this theme is active in the poem.

The Enduring Myth that War is Glorious

Line-by-line explanation & analysis of “dulce et decorum est”.

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,

Lines 11-14

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling 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.

Lines 15-16

In all my dreams before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

Lines 17-20

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;

Lines 21-24

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—

Lines 25-28

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori .

“Dulce et Decorum Est” Symbols

The Dying Soldier

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“Dulce et Decorum Est” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

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“Dulce et Decorum Est” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Knock-kneed
• Haunting flares
• Flound'ring
• Froth-corrupted
• See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Dulce et Decorum Est”

Rhyme scheme, “dulce et decorum est” speaker, “dulce et decorum est” setting, literary and historical context of “dulce et decorum est”, more “dulce et decorum est” resources, external resources.

Biography of Wilfred Owen — A detailed biographical sketch of Wilfred Owen's life, including analysis of his work.

An Overview of Chemical Warfare — A concise historical account of the development of chemical weapons, with detailed descriptions of the poison gases used in WWI.

Listen to "Dulce et Decorum Est" — A recording of "Dulce et Decorum Est," provided by the Poetry Foundation.

Representing the Great War — The Norton Anthology's overview of literary representation of World War I, with accompanying texts. This includes two of Jessie Pope's patriotic poems, as well as poems by Siegfried Sassoon and others and various contemporary illustrations. It also suggests many additional resources for exploration.

Horace, Ode 3.2 — One translation of the Horace ode that the lines "Dulce et Decorum Est" originally appear in. 

Digital Archive of Owen's Life and Work — An archive of scanned documents from Owen's life and work, including his letters, as well as several handwritten drafts of "Dulce et Decorum Est" and other poems.

The White Feather — A brief personal essay about the treatment of conscientious objectors in WWI-era Britain.

LitCharts on Other Poems by Wilfred Owen

Anthem for Doomed Youth

Mental Cases

Spring Offensive

Strange Meeting

The Next War

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Dulce et Decorum Est

By Wilfred Owen

‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen is a poignant anti-war poem that exposes the harsh reality of World War I.

Wilfred Owen

Nationality: English

He has been immortalized in several books and movies.

Key Poem Information

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Central Message: The war, in truth, is always gruesome and horrifying and should not be celebrated

Themes: Death , War

Speaker: A Soldier

Emotions Evoked: Anger , Pain , Sadness , Terror

Poetic Form: Sonnet

Time Period: 20th Century

'Dulce et Decorum Est' by Wilfred Owen, challenging romantic notions of war, is a robust anti-war poem that makes the reader face the petrifying harrowing truths of war with graphic imagery and blood-curdling nuances.

Poem Analyzed by Elise Dalli

B.A. Honors Degree in English and Communications

The year was 1917, just before the Third Battle of Ypres. Germany, in their bid to crush the British army, introduced yet another vicious and potentially lethal weapon of attack: mustard gas, differentiated from the other shells by their distinctive yellow markings. Although not the effective killing machine of chlorine gas (first used in 1915) and phosgene (invented by French chemists), mustard gas has stayed within the public consciousness as the most horrific weapon of the First World War. Once deployed, mustard gas lingers for several days, and anyone who comes in contact with mustard gas develops blisters and acute vomiting. It caused internal and external bleeding, and the lethally injured took as long as five weeks to die.

Shell shock, which can be defined as a type of post-traumatic stress disorder, was a term invented during the First World War as the soldiers suffered an immense impact on their psyche, witnessing the atrocities of war and the deaths of thousands.   Wilfred Owen served in the British Army during the First World War and initially believed in the glorified ideals of the war; however, as he witnessed the calamities of the war, he realized the bitter truth, going into a psychological shock.     He suffered injuries after he was caught in a blast and was unconscious for several days. Afterwards, he was admitted into Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh for treatment of shell shock. He wrote this poem bearing the physical and emotional trauma of soldiers while staying at the Craiglockhart War Hospital in October 1917.

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Explore Dulce et Decorum Est

• 2 Analysis, Stanza by Stanza
• 3 Historical Background

There was no draft in the First World War for British soldiers; it was an entirely voluntary occupation, but the British needed soldiers to fight in the war. Therefore, through a well-tuned propaganda machine of posters and poems, the British war supporters pushed young and easily influenced youths into signing up to fight for the glory of England.

Several poets, among them Rupert Brook, who wrote the poem ‘ The Soldier ‘  (there is a corner of a foreign field/ that is forever England), used to write poetry to encourage the youth to sign up for the army, often without having any experience themselves! It was a practice that Wilfred Owen personally despised, and in ‘Dulce et Decorum Est ,’ he calls out these false poets and journalists who glorify war.

The poem takes place during a slow trudge to an unknown place, which is interrupted by a gas attack. The soldiers hurry to put on their masks; only one of their numbers is too slow and gets consumed by the gas. The final stanza interlocks a personal address to war journalist Jessie Pope with horrifying imagery of what happened to those who ingested an excessive amount of mustard gas.

The Poem Analysis Take

Expert Insights by Jyoti Chopra

B.A. (Honors) and M.A. in English Literature

Painting a nuanced picture of the horrors of the Great War or the nightmarish calamity and dehumanization of soldiers, the poem critiques the glorification of war and hero-worship of soldiers, testing the misleading notions of patriotism that are relevant even today. The poem unflinchingly calls the false idealization 'it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country' a lie stressing the truth that war is always gruesome and soldiers are the worst sufferers of the calamity. It looks critically at the society and larger politics that push young soldiers into dehumanizing cruel deaths under the guise of hero-worship.  

Analysis, Stanza by Stanza

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

British soldiers would trudge from trench to trench, seeping further into France in pursuit of German soldiers. It was often a miserable, wet walk, and it is on one of these voyages that the poem opens. Immediately, it minimizes the war to a few paltry, exhausted soldiers, although it rages in the background (’till on the haunting flares we turned our backs / and towards our distant rest began to trudge’). Owen uses heavy words to describe their movement – words like ‘trudge’, and ‘limped’; the first stanza of the poem is a demonstration of pure exhaustion and mind-numbing misery.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling 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.

The second stanza changes the pace rapidly. It opens with an exclamation – ‘Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!’ – and suddenly, the soldiers are in ‘an ecstasy of fumbling’, groping for their helmets to prevent the gas from taking them over. Again, Owen uses language economically here: he uses words that express speed, hurry, and almost frantic demand for their helmets. However, one soldier does not manage to fit his helmet on in time. Owen sees him ‘flound’ring like a man in fire or lime’ through the thick-glassed pane of his gas mask.

Stanza Three

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

For a brief two lines, Owen pulls back from the events happening throughout the poems to revisit his own psyche. He writes, ‘In all my dreams,/ before my helpless sight’, showing how these images live on with the soldiers, how these men are tortured by the events of war even after they have been removed from war. There is no evading or escaping war.

Stanza Four

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,— My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie:  Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori .

In the last paragraph, Owen condenses the poem to an almost claustrophobic pace: ‘if in some smothering dreams, you too could pace’, and he goes into a very graphic, horrific description of the suffering that victims of mustard gas endured: ‘froth-corrupted lungs,” incurable sores,’ ‘the white eyes writhing in his face’. Although the pace of the poem has slowed to a crawl, there is much happening in the description of the torment of the mustard gas victim, allowing for a contrast between the stillness of the background and the animation of the mustard gas victim. This contrast highlights the description, making it far more grotesque .

Owen finishes the poem with a personal address to Jessie Pope: ‘My friend, you would not tell with such high zest/ To children ardent for some desperate glory, / The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori.’ Jessie Pope was a journalist who published, among others, books such as Jessie Pope’s War Poems and Simple Rhymes for Stirring Times. The Latin phrase is from Horace and means, ‘it is sweet and right to die for your country’.

The earliest dated record of this poem is 8. October 1917. It was written in the ballad form of poetry – a very flowing, romantic poetical style , and by using it outside of convention, Owen accentuates the disturbing cadence of the narrative. It is a visceral poem, relying very strongly on the senses, and while it starts out embedded in the horror and in the narrative, by the final stanza, it has pulled back to give a fuller view of the events, thus fully showing the horror of the mustard gas attack.

Historical Background

While at Craiglockhart, Owen became the editor of the hospital magazine The Hydra. Through it, he met the poet Siegfried Sassoon (read Sassoon’s poetry here ), who later became his editor and one of the most important impacts on his life and work. Owen wrote a number of his poems in Craiglockhart with Sassoon’s advice.

After his death in 1918, aged 25, Sassoon would compile Owen’s poems and publish them in a compilation in 1920.

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20th century, world war one (wwi).

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It was a volunteer army until 1916, when conscription was introduced.

Interesting. I had no idea conscription was so recent. Great subject knowledge. Thank you.

Pretty gruesome but it was telling the truth.

Oh definitely – cold reality was the hallmark of his later poetry.

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Dalli, Elise. "Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen". Poem Analysis , https://poemanalysis.com/wilfred-owen/dulce-et-decorum-est/ . Accessed 30 August 2024.

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“Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owens: A Critical Analysis

“Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen first appeared in 1920, a year after his death, in the posthumous collection Poems.

Introduction: “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owens

Table of Contents

“Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen first appeared in 1920, a year after his death, in the posthumous collection Poems . The poem’s graphic imagery and unflinching portrayal of the horrors of World War I shocked readers and challenged the prevailing glorification of war. Owen’s use of visceral language, vivid metaphors, and irregular rhyme schemes creates a sense of chaos and despair, reflecting the psychological trauma experienced by soldiers. The poem’s bitter irony and condemnation of the lie that “it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country” established it as a seminal work of war poetry and a poignant testament to the futility and brutality of conflict.

Text: “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owens

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

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.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori.

Annotations: “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owens

Literary And Poetic Devices : “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owens

Themes: “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owens

• The Horrors of War: In “Dulce et Decorum Est,” Wilfred Owen vividly portrays the brutal realities of war, emphasizing its gruesome and dehumanizing effects on soldiers. Through graphic imagery, such as “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks” and “blood-shod,” Owen illustrates the physical and mental toll that warfare takes on individuals. The soldiers are depicted as exhausted, injured, and stripped of their humanity, marching “asleep” and “lame; all blind” (Owen, 1917). This stark depiction serves to counter the romanticized view of war, revealing it as a nightmarish experience filled with pain and suffering.
• The Futility of War: Owen’s poem also explores the futility and senselessness of war, highlighting the meaningless loss of life and the empty promises of glory. The repeated imagery of soldiers “coughing like hags” and “flound’ring like a man in fire or lime” underscores the chaotic and desperate nature of battle, where death is an ever-present threat (Owen, 1917). By portraying the soldiers’ struggles and the randomness of their deaths, Owen challenges the notion that war has any noble purpose, suggesting instead that it is a tragic waste of human life.
• The Betrayal of the Youth: The poem critiques the older generation’s betrayal of the youth by propagating the “old Lie: Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori” (Owen, 1917). This Latin phrase, meaning “It is sweet and proper to die for one’s country,” is revealed to be a cruel deception used to encourage young men to enlist and fight. Owen’s use of vivid and horrific imagery, such as “the blood / Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,” exposes the stark contrast between the idealized vision of war and its gruesome reality. This theme underscores the manipulation and exploitation of young soldiers by those in positions of power.
• The Psychological Impact of War: Owen delves into the psychological trauma experienced by soldiers, depicting the lasting effects of their harrowing experiences. The speaker recounts haunting dreams in which a fellow soldier “plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning,” highlighting the persistent and inescapable nature of war’s horrors (Owen, 1917). This theme emphasizes the mental anguish and torment that soldiers endure long after the physical battles have ended, challenging the glorification of war and revealing its deep, lasting scars on the human psyche.

Literary Theories and “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owens

Critical Questions about “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owens

• How does Owen’s use of imagery impact the reader’s perception of war?
• Wilfred Owen’s use of vivid and graphic imagery in “Dulce et Decorum Est” profoundly shapes the reader’s understanding of the horrors of war. Phrases like “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks” and “blood-shod” paint a gruesome picture of the soldiers’ physical state, making their suffering palpable (Owen, 1917). This stark imagery contrasts sharply with romanticized notions of war, forcing the reader to confront the brutal reality and dispelling any illusions of glory or honor associated with battle.
• In what ways does the poem challenge the traditional notions of heroism and patriotism?
• “Dulce et Decorum Est” directly challenges traditional notions of heroism and patriotism by exposing the harsh realities of war and the deception behind the phrase “Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori” (Owen, 1917). Owen’s depiction of soldiers as “coughing like hags” and “flound’ring like a man in fire or lime” reveals the grim truth behind the glorified image of dying for one’s country. By juxtaposing the soldiers’ suffering with the idealized vision of patriotic sacrifice, Owen critiques the societal and governmental propaganda that glorifies war and exploits young soldiers.
• How does Owen convey the psychological trauma experienced by soldiers?
• Owen vividly conveys the psychological trauma experienced by soldiers through the poem’s intense and haunting descriptions. The recurring nightmare of a dying comrade “plunging at me, guttering, choking, drowning” exemplifies the enduring mental anguish faced by soldiers (Owen, 1917). These harrowing images illustrate that the trauma of war extends beyond the battlefield, affecting soldiers’ minds and spirits long after the physical danger has passed, thereby emphasizing the lasting impact of war on mental health.
• What is the significance of the poem’s title and the phrase “Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori”?
• The title and the phrase “Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori,” which translates to “It is sweet and proper to die for one’s country,” are used ironically to underscore the poem’s central theme of disillusionment with the glorification of war (Owen, 1917). Owen’s vivid descriptions of the soldiers’ suffering and his bitter recounting of their agonizing deaths starkly contrast with the idealistic sentiment expressed by the phrase. By framing the poem with this ironic statement, Owen critiques the patriotic propaganda that romanticizes war and highlights the deceitful nature of such rhetoric.

Literary Works Similar to “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owens

• “ The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner ” by Randall Jarrell: A chillingly brief account of a young airman’s death in World War II, highlighting the dehumanization and expendability of soldiers.
• “Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen: A mournful elegy lamenting the lack of proper mourning for fallen soldiers, emphasizing the loss of youth and potential.
• “ The Charge of the Light Brigade ” by Alfred Lord Tennyson: A dramatic depiction of a doomed cavalry charge in the Crimean War, celebrating bravery while acknowledging the futility of war.
• “Survivors” by Siegfried Sassoon: A bitter critique of the glorification of war, highlighting the psychological trauma and disillusionment of returning soldiers.
• “The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy: A simple yet profound reflection on the senselessness of killing in war, as a soldier contemplates the common humanity he shares with his enemy.

Suggested Readings: “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owens

• Stallworthy, Jon. Wilfred Owen . Oxford University Press, 1974.
• Hibberd, Dominic. Wilfred Owen: A New Biography . Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2002.
• Owen, Wilfred. The Complete Poems and Fragments . Edited by Jon Stallworthy, Chatto & Windus, 1983.

Web Links/URLs:

• The Poetry Foundation: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46560/dulce-et-decorum-est
• The Wilfred Owen Association: https://wilfredowen.org.uk/

Representative Quotations of “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owens

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Dulce et Decorum Est 101: Summary, Analysis, & Questions and Answers

“Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen concentrates on the shocking details of events soldiers came through in World War I. Owen recalls the war realities by showing readers the soldiers’ urgency when faced with death.

If you’re stuck with writing a paper on the poem, you’re in the right place! Below, you will find the Dulce et Decorum Est analysis, summary, answers to the most common questions. And don’t forget to check our free essay examples .

Let’s start!

• Literary Devices
• Language: Meter, Rhythm, Rhyme Scheme, Tone
• Essay Ideas
• Questions and Answers

Dulce Et Decorum Est: Summary

The author paints a group of marching soldiers in a muddy landscape. The soldiers are tired and sick. They are coughing like older adults, and their knees are shaking. Besides, they are far from the fighting spirit. Some of them walk like they seem to be sleeping. Some even lost their boots, and their feet are bleeding.

At the same time, they carry heavy packs while going away from light flares, used by the German army to spot an enemy by lighting up the territory. Their destination is a distant camp.

Soldiers are worn out physically and mentally. Their perception is clouded as if they were drunk. They can hardly recognize an impending threat.

Suddenly, one from the group warns about a gas attack so that soldiers can put on their protecting helmets. Everyone manages to do it on time, except for one soldier. The author saw his suffering and agony.

The soldier death reminded Owen of someone caught in fire or lime, used to blind the enemy in ancient times. He compares this terrible scene with drowning in the ocean, not underwater, but in the air full of poisonous gas.

Then, the reader is brought into the author’s post-war reality. Even years later, Owen did not escape the picture of yelling and dying in front of his eyes comrade-in-arms.

After sharing his grievous experience, the author turns to the readers and states a straightforward thing. It lies in the fact that if they took his boots and walked a mile, they would never have said to their children the war is glorious.

The author recalls marching behind a wagon with a dying wrecked-face soldier, who reminds of someone passing away from cancer or other diseases. Such memories dispel an “old lie” that dying for one’s country is sweet and fitting.

Dulce Et Decorum Est: Literary Analysis

We approach the literary analysis of the Dulce Et Decorum Est. You will understand the poem’s themes, the literary devices the author used, and the poem’s language.

Let’s go!

Dulce Et Decorum Est: Theme

The author illustrates the relationship between reality and heroic ideals. He does it via two central themes: patriotism and its false glory and horrors of war .

The poem’s title and final lines, “Dulce et Decorum Est,” are from Horace’s Ode 3.2 . The bar is a Latin equivalent for “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.” It echoes powerfully in the hearts of the young, showing only the heroic and romantic side of patriotic death and other sacrifices “for good.”

In reality, it’s far from that. The author argues such a way of war glorification, calling it an “old Lie.” Each horror depicted from the “on-site” shatters the enduring myth that the war is glorious.

Line by line, the poem shows how terrible and horrifying the war experience is. One thing is clear: if the reader could see and feel all the author’s horror, they would not talk so zealously about patriotism and the delights of war.

All the above is bolstered by the third theme: the traumatic war’s impact on humans . In this context, possible terrible emotional or physical pains will not get better with time. The lasting effects of war trauma barely level out all the arrogance and glory of war.

Dulce Et Decorum Est: Literary Devices

Now, we will stop on Dulce Et Decorum Est literary devices. To express the main idea, the author used several poetic techniques, including:

Let’s explore Dulce Et Decorum’s literary devices and look at a few examples of their application.

The author successfully uses many similes to make the terror visible. Thanks to them, it is easier for readers to perceive the pain, horrific images, and agony.

One of the examples is in the very beginning: “ like old beggars under sacks ” — soldiers are shown not as brave mighty heroes, but as the homeless and weak tramps who beg for a living.

Here is the list of other same-purpose phrases: “ coughing like hags ,” “ like a devil’s sick of sin ,” “ obscene as cancer ,” “ like a man in fire or lime ,” “ as under a green sea ,” and “ bitter as the cud .”

Dulce et Decorum Es is so literal that it has only a single metaphor . It is used in the poem to make vivid imagery of the soldiers’ physical state. The metaphors are the compelling phrases, namely, “ drunk with fatigue ” and “ deaf even to the hoots .”

We have already touched a bit upon the symbolic elements in the poem’s imagery. Symbolism pictures the WWI experience like a nightmare rather than a real-life event.

The first symbolic element author introduces a green sea in which one of the soldiers “dies” after a gas attack, as he could not put on a mask on time. It can be explained by what Owen saw then: a gas fog through the mask glass.

Using this symbol in pair with the verb “drowning” transmits the painful and cruel way the soldier died. Besides, it builds the link between drowning in the ocean and gas suffocation. It is easier for readers to imagine the terrible feeling of lacking enough oxygen underwater.

The irony shows up in the poem’s very beginning. First, the reader sees the title Dulce et Decorum Est, meaning the poem will show how great it is to fight for the homeland. The first line is opposite to something glorious and sweet.

Reading more into the poem opens up terrifying things about war gradually. The author uses irony to express the violence, making the phrase in the title an illusion.

Along with irony and other poetic techniques, the author uses oxymorons . Two contradictory words used together make an oxymoron.

In phrase “ To children ardent for some desperate glory ,” the initially negative “ desperate ” word is combined with the joyous “ glory .” Another oxymoron is “ An ecstasy of fumbling ,” where the opposing state of extreme happiness combines with an awkward way of doing something.

With oxymorons, Owen produces a dramatic effect. The poem forces the reader to stop and think about the whole complexity of war and man’s place in it.

Dulce Et Decorum Est Language: Meter, Rhythm, Rhyme Scheme, Tone

The language of the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est is composed of several poetic devices, including meter, rhythm, rhyme scheme, and tone. Let’s describe each of them:

• Meter. The poem is composed of five-syllable pairs. Each pair’s first syllable is unstressed, and the second is stressed. The Dulce Et Decorum Est meter pattern is iambic pentameter.
• Rhythm. Combined with other techniques, the poem’s somber rhythm expresses imagery. The words themselves are rumbling. They collide to paint a horrific picture of the field where soldiers march. What is more, it is evocative of the rhythm of the heart.
• Rhyme scheme. Although the poem’s meter is rather complex, the rhyme pattern is simple. The rhyme scheme in Dulce Et Decorum Est is ABABCDCD. The author manages with simple words and no more than double rhyme sounds repetition.
• Tone. The poem’s tone is bitter, angry, and critical. The trauma and self-recrimination heat the speaker’s voice. That’s why he so accurately conveys all the fears and horrors he endured. Along with the angry tone, the ironically used “my friend” addressing those supporting an “old lie” impacts them more intensely.

Now, we move on to the poem’s setting.

Dulce Et Decorum Est: Setting

Owen does not give the exact setting location, but it is clear from the context that the action takes place in 1917 winter in France.

What is this context?

The poem is written during Wilfred Owen’s actual WWI experience . Here when he wrote letters with stories of the dying soldier.

Besides, there are elements in the poem, which serve as a clue to understanding the setting.

The most evident is green chlorine gas, deployed by the German army since 1915, and “clumsy helmets” or gas masks, used as gas attacks responsive measure.

Gas shells and flares are also WWI-specific elements. Soldiers never used them before.

The setting breaks into the past and present in terms of the author. After two stanzas, we shift to his indeterminate present in the past. It shows us that his horrors did not leave him even in the postwar peacetime.

Dulce Et Decorum Est Essay Ideas

Now that you have explored the poem analysis, it’s time to write the Dulce et Decorum Est analysis essay. We gathered 15 essay topic ideas to make things simple. Please, pick any from the list:

• Dulce Et Decorum Est poem figurative language
• Dulce Et Decorum Est poem literary devices
• Irony in poem Dulce Et Decorum Est
• Symbolism in poem Dulce Et Decorum Est
• What is the theme of the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est?
• How does Wilfred Owen describe the horrors of war in the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est?
• The brutality of war in the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est
• How does Wilfred Owen convey the human costs of war in the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est?
• Illustration of First World War in the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
• Literary devices and themes in Dulce Et Decorum Est
• Dulce Et Decorum Est: is it charming to die for one’s country?
• Why was Dulce Et Decorum Est written: literary and historical context?
• What is the Dulce Et Decorum Est message?
• The portrayal of death in Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
• Depiction of tragedies of war in the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est

If the topics are not enough and you still have any questions, we suggest you check out an example of a ready-made Dulce et Decorum Est and The Things they Carried: Compare & Contrast Essay .

To help you finally delve into the topic, we gathered the most frequently asked questions and comprehensive answers to them below.

Dulce Et Decorum Est: Questions and Answers

Below you will find comprehensive Dulce et Decorum Est questions and answers.

Who Wrote Dulce Et Decorum Est?

Dulce et Decorum Est was written by Wilfred Edward Salter Owen , an English soldier, and poet. He was born on 18 March 1893 near Oswestry in Shropshire. Among the First World War poets, he was almost the leading one.

At the time he lived, ideas and themes he erased in his poetry were in contrast to the perception of war by the public. As ideas of anti-militarism developed, his poems became increasingly recognized. Here are several examples: “ Anthem for Doomed Youth ,” “ Strange Meeting ,” “ Insensibility ,” and “ Spring Offensive .” All of them were published posthumously.

On 4 November, at the age of 25, Owen was killed while leading his men across the Sambre and Oise Canal.

When Was Dulce Et Decorum Est Written?

Like most of Wilfred Owen’s works, Dulce et Decorum Est was written between August 1917 and September 1918. At that time, Owen was fighting in the First World War. Most likely, it was written in 1917 when he was at the Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh.

What Does Dulce Et Decorum Est Mean?

Dulce et Decorum Est is a citation from the Roman poet Horace’s Ode 3.2. The literal meaning of it is “it’s sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”

The author aims at deconstructing this myth. In the last stanza, he calls it an “old lie.”

Owen successfully showed the difference between the horrifying reality of war and its glorious image, usually spread by those not even fighting in it.

What Is Dulce Et Decorum Est About?

Originally written as a personal letter, Owen later decided to appeal to a broader audience of all war supporters. The poem is highly emotional, making it one of the most popular condemnations of the war.

Dulce et Decorum Est begins with an image of weary soldiers walking from the front lines through thick mud. Then, there is a gas attack, in which one of the soldiers dies.

What Happened in the Poem Dulce et Decorum Est?

The poem tells us the story of a group of soldiers, “ drunk with fatigue ,” forced to make their way “through the mud” to take shelter from the explosive shells that fall on their rear.

Then gas shells fell around them. The soldiers rushed to put on their gas masks. In a rush, one of them is caught gassed. The author sees him “screaming again and stumbling.” Then, he sees him yelling in agony as he is drowning in the green sea.

When the attack was over, they proceeded on their way, but their mate was in the wagon, with white eyes and coughing up blood.

Who Is the Speaker in the Poem Dulce et Decorum Est?

The poem, composed of 28 free iambic pentameters, lets us hear the voice of the poet himself . Owen appears here as a soldier with a deep incurable emotional trauma left after the war and its horrifying events.

Why Was Dulce Et Decorum Est Written?

Discussing war horrors in the abstract does not require much effort. Owen managed to depict those horrors in a specifically devastating way. What’s more, he shows in the poem that every aspect of war is terrible. Starting from a soldier’s daily life, continuing to the death in an attack, and postwar traumatized body and mind.

The author is very disappointed with the war. A reader can see it in the last few lines of the last stanza.

How Does Dulce et Decorum Est Make the Reader Feel?

The way the author uses language to put the audience inside the events helps them understand the terrible experience of awful aspects of war.

What Is the Message of Dulce et Decorum Est?

The central tension lies between the reality of the war and the government’s portrayal of war. They paint it as sweet and fitting to die for your homeland. The message that Owen conveys is the reality of the cruel and horrific war.

Why Is Dulce Et Decorum Est Important?

The poem lies genre of protest poetry because it shows the horror and reality of war, specifically the First World War. Dulce et Decorum Est sets this horror against how war is so often glorified.

• Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” — English Emory
• Horace, Ode 3.2 
• Biography of Wilfred Owen
• Wilfred Owen: Biography & War Poet
• Digital Archive of Owen’s Life and Work 
• Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum est: Summary & Analysis
• Dr. Santanu Das explores the manuscript for Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum est” Video on the British Library’s World War I website
• Ian McMillan asks if “Dulce et Decorum est” has distorted our view of WWI Video on the BBC’s iWonder website
• Manuscript version of ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ The Poetry Manuscripts of Wilfred Owen on the British Library’s website
• Listen to “Dulce et Decorum Est” 
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A Short Analysis of Wilfred Owen’s ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’

By Dr Oliver Tearle

‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ or, to give the phrase in full: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori , Latin for ‘it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country’ ( patria is where we get our word ‘patriotic’ from). The phrase originated in the Roman poet Horace, but in ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’, Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) famously rejects this idea.

For Owen, who had experienced the horrors of trench warfare and a gas attack, there was nothing sweet, and nothing fitting, about giving one’s life for one’s country. Focusing in particular on one moment in the First World War, when Owen and his platoon are attacked with poison gas, ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is a studied analysis of suffering and perhaps the most famous anti-war poem ever written.

Dulce et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, But someone still was yelling out and stumbling 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.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,— My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori .

In October 1917, Wilfred Owen wrote to his mother from Craiglockhart Hospital: ‘Here is a gas poem, done yesterday……..the famous Latin tag (from Horace, Odes) means of course it is sweet and meet to die for one’s country. Sweet! and decorous!’

Although he drafted the poem that October, the surviving drafts of ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ show that Owen revised and revisited it on several occasions thereafter, before his death the following November – one week before the Armistice.

Although he wrote all his poetry while he was still a young man – he died aged just 25, like the poet he so admired, John Keats – Wilfred Owen was a master of form and metre, although the extent to which ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is carefully structured is not necessarily apparent from reading it (and certainly not from hearing it read aloud).

The first two stanzas, comprising eight lines and six lines respectively, form a traditional 14-line sonnet, with an octave (eight-line section) and sestet (six-line section).

The ababcdcd of the first eight lines summon the Shakespearean sonnet , but the succeeding six lines disrupt the expectations of an English sonnet: what should run efefgg instead runs efefgh , with an extra rhyme introduced, and we realise we must read on beyond the 14 lines of a sonnet: the horrific experience of war cannot be summed up neatly in a pretty little sonnet. (Although Owen did write sonnets elsewhere, most famously ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ , there he is not describing the events of warfare but rather discussing more generally the senseless waste of life that the war caused.)

The line break after the fourteenth line only brings this home: there’s a pause, and then we find ourselves returning to the word ‘drowning’, locked in it, fixating on that word, ‘drowning’ to describe the helpless state of the poor soldier suffocating from poison gas. The helplessness, of course, is Owen’s too, being unable to do anything for his falling comrade: all we can do is watch in horror.

The imagery is as striking and memorable as the structure, though a little more explicit: the first stanza bombards us with a series of similes for the exhausted men trudging through mud (‘like old beggars’, ‘coughing like hags’) and more direct metaphors (‘blood-shod’ suggesting feet caked in blood, implying trench-foot and cut legs; with ‘shod’ putting us in mind of horses, perhaps being used to plough a very different kind of muddy field; and ‘drunk with fatigue’ bitterly reminding us that this isn’t some sort of beer-fuelled jolly, a bunch of friends out for a night on the town).

Then we are shocked by the double cry of ‘Gas! GAS!’ at the beginning of the second stanza, with the two successive heavy stresses grabbing our attention, much as the cry from one soldier to his comrades is designed to – and they all fumble for their masks, struggling to put them in place to protect them against the deadly gas attack.

The word ‘ecstasy’ is another bitterly ironic take, preparing the ground for that ironic final stanza: these soldiers are ecstatic not with delirious pleasure but simply with delirium and panic. As I mentioned in the formal analysis above, the repetition of ‘drowning’ is a touch of genius: where the other rhymes all advance the poem (sludge/trudge, fumbling/stumbling), drowning/drowning brings us to a dead halt.

Even after he physically witnessed the soldier dying from the effects of the poison gas, Owen cannot forget it: it haunts his dreams, a recurring nightmare. The recurrence of the word ‘drowning’ neatly conveys this.

In that final stanza, Owen turns what until now has been a descriptive poem into a piece of anti-war propaganda, responding with brilliant irony to the patriotic poets such as Jessie Pope (whom Owen specifically has in mind here), who wrote jingoistic doggerel that encouraged young men to enlist and ‘do their bit for king and country’.

Further analysis

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin …

If people like Pope, Owen argues, addressing her directly (‘If in some smothering dreams you too could pace…’), could witness what he has witnessed, and were forced to relive it in their dreams and waking thoughts every day and night, they would not in all good conscience be able to write such pro-war poetry, knowing they were encouraging more men to share the horrific fate of the soldier Owen had seen killed.

Jessie Pope and her ilk would not be able to feed the ‘Old Lie’, Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori , to impressionable young men (some of them so young they are still ‘children’: it’s worth remembering that some boys lied about their age so they could join up) who are ‘ardent for some desperate glory’.

‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is a fine example of Owen’s superb craftsmanship as a poet: young he may have been, and valuable as his poetry is as a window onto the horrors of the First World War, in the last analysis the reason we value his response to the horrific events he witnessed is that he put them across in such emotive but controlled language, using imagery at once true and effective.

As he put it in the draft preface he wrote for his poems: ‘My subject is War, and the pity of War. The poetry is in the pity.’

Continue to explore the world of war poetry with our post about Leicestershire’s forgotten war poet , the little-known poetry of WWI poet F. V. Branford , and T. E. Hulme’s powerful modernist poem from the trenches .

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8 thoughts on “A Short Analysis of Wilfred Owen’s ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’”

• Pingback: 10 Classic Wilfred Owen Poems Everyone Should Read | Interesting Literature
• Pingback: The Best War Poems Everyone Should Read | Interesting Literature

Excellent analysis of a great poem.

Thank you :)

Wilfred Owen is one of the many talented war poets that inspired me to love literature!

Good piece here on a powerful poem. And I still think ‘Disabled’ is his best…

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A very good analysis of one of my favourite poems. Arguably the best of any war poet.

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Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen ( WJEC Eduqas GCSE English Literature )

Revision note.

English content creator

What is the poem about? 

The poem ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ was written by English poet Wilfred Owen in 1917 and published after his death in 1920. This war poem graphically portrays the horrors of war on the front line, detailing the agonising death of a soldier after a gas attack. The content of the poem is in stark contrast with its Latin title, which means, “It is fitting and sweet to die for one’s country”.

Poem analysis

'Dulce et Decorum Est' by Wilfred Owen

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, 

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, 

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling 

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling 

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.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace 

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie:  Dulce et decorum est

Sensory language renders the descriptions vivid and impactful; visually, Owen portrays men “bent double”; audibly he captures the “hoots” of gas shells, and the phrase “ecstasy of fumbling” conveys the physical sensation of panic

Similes comparing soldiers with “old beggars” and “hags” juxtaposes sharply with the idea of soldiers as strong and fit

The use of alliteration and sibilance imbues the poem with a linguistic harshness that reflects the distressing setting 

The diction “blood-shod” and “cud” evokes animal imagery to highlight the dehumanising impact of war. The words “devil’s”, “writhing”, “froth-corrupted” and “vile” evoke imagery reminiscent of hell

The metaphor “I saw him drowning” depicts a strong visual image, conveying the shocking event as momentarily drowning out sound, as if submerged in water

Stanza one maintains a consistent rhyme scheme, connoting an orderliness and discipline as the soldiers march. This pattern is interrupted in the second and third stanzas, reflecting the chaotic scene

The Latin phrase “dulce et decorum est/Pro patria mori” reveals Owen’s condemnation of the glorification of war which strengthen the impact of his argument

The line beginning “Knock-kneed” deviates from the typical iambic pentameter pattern, thus reflecting the challenges of the soldiers’ movement 

The third stanza is isolated within the poem to emphasise the psychological horror of witnessing (and reliving) the soldier’s agonising death

Caesura highlights the the soldiers’ plight, forcing the reader to pause after each description: “All went lame; all blind;/Drunk with fatigue”

By using the first person, Owen compels the reader to envision witnessing the harrowing events described

Stanza one maintains a consistent rhyme scheme, connoting a orderliness and discipline as the soldiers march. This pattern is interrupted in the second and third stanzas, reflecting the chaotic scene

The deliberate disruption to a traditional poem form, with varied stanza and line lengths reinforces the chaos and horror of battle

Overview of themes 

Historical and literary context 

Wilfred Owen was a soldier in the First World War and a highly acclaimed poet:

In 1916 he sustained injuries in battle and remained trapped in a shell hole for 12 days, close to the dead body of one of his comrades

Following this traumatic experience, he was diagnosed with shell shock before being transferred to Edinburgh for treatment

It was there that he formed a friendship with another World War I poet, Siegfried Sassoon 

Based on his own experiences on the battlefield, Owen wrote ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ a year before he was killed in action in 1917

The Latin lines “Dulce et decorum Est/Pro patria mori” (“It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country”) come from the Roman poet, Horace:

The lines were often quoted as propaganda by those who were pro-war and wanted to encourage people to fight

A propaganda poem called ‘Who’s for the game?’ by Jessie Pope was published in a British newspaper during the First World War promoting patriotism, which presented the war as a game — “the biggest that’s played” — and fighting as “fun”

Owen wrote ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ as a rebuttal to such propaganda by depicting the harsh realities of war

He even included an ironic dedication to Jessie Pope in the original manuscript 

Comparing poems

Look at this exam-style question about ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’:   

How you could approach this question: 

Predicted exam questions to prepare for 

Compare the ways poets present soldiers in ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ and in one other poem from the anthology. 

Compare the way conflict is presented in ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ and in one other poem from the anthology.   

Remember that a good response will integrate contextual understanding with detailed textual analysis and will enhance the overall discussion of the poems. For example, if you are writing a response to a question about ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’, you could comment that Wilfred Owen was himself a soldier whose own experiences left him traumatised and bitter towards those who glorified war.

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Dulce et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of gas-shells dropping softly behind. Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, But someone still was yelling out and stumbling 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. In all my dreams before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,— My friend , you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.

Summary of Dulce et Decorum Est

Analysis of the literary devices used in “dulce et decorum est”, analysis of poetic devices in “dulce et decorum est”.

Quotes to be Used

“Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge.”

“Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.”

Related posts:

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• Annotated Full Text
• Literary Period: World War I
• Publication Date: 1920
• Flesch-Kincaid Level: 8
• Approx. Reading Time: 0 minutes

Dulce et Decorum Est

English soldier Wilfred Owen wrote “Dulce et Decorum Est” in 1917 while recovering from shell-shock during World War I, which overlapped with the modern literary period. The poem was published in 1920, two years after Owen died in battle. Its title alludes to a phrase from Horace’s Odes that had become popular among patriots in England during the war. Loosely translated, it means “It is sweet and fitting [to die for one’s country].” Owen, however, ultimately condemns the war in his use of the phrase by contrasting pro-war idealism with the gruesome reality experienced by soldiers in the trenches.

Table of Contents

• Text of the Poem
• Historical Context
• Literary Devices
• Quote Analysis

Study Guide

• Wilfred Owen Biography

Wilfred Owen: Poems

By wilfred owen, wilfred owen: poems summary and analysis of "dulce et decorum est".

The boys are bent over like old beggars carrying sacks, and they curse and cough through the mud until the "haunting flares" tell them it is time to head toward their rest. As they march some men are asleep, others limp with bloody feet as they'd lost their boots. All are lame and blind, extremely tired and deaf to the shells falling behind them.

Suddenly there is gas, and the speaker calls, "Quick, boys!" There is fumbling as they try to put on their helmets in time. One soldier is still yelling and stumbling about as if he is on fire. Through the dim "thick green light" the speaker sees him fall like he is drowning.

The drowning man is in the speaker's dreams, always falling, choking.

The speaker says that if you could follow behind that wagon where the soldier's body was thrown, watching his eyes roll about in his head, see his face "like a devil's sick of sin", hear his voice gargling frothy blood at every bounce of the wagon, sounding as "obscene as cancer" and bitter as lingering sores on the tongue, then you, "my friend", would not say with such passion and conviction to children desirous of glory, "the old lie" of "Dulce et decorum est".

"Dulce et Decorum est" is without a doubt one of, if not the most, memorable and anthologized poems in Owen's oeuvre. Its vibrant imagery and searing tone make it an unforgettable excoriation of WWI, and it has found its way into both literature and history courses as a paragon of textual representation of the horrors of the battlefield. It was written in 1917 while Owen was at Craiglockhart, revised while he was at either Ripon or Scarborough in 1918, and published posthumously in 1920. One version was sent to Susan Owen, the poet's mother, with the inscription, "Here is a gas poem done yesterday (which is not private, but not final)." The poem paints a battlefield scene of soldiers trudging along only to be interrupted by poison gas. One soldier does not get his helmet on in time and is thrown on the back of the wagon where he coughs and sputters as he dies. The speaker bitterly and ironically refutes the message espoused by many that war is glorious and it is an honor to die for one's country.

The poem is a combination of two sonnets, although the spacing between the two is irregular. It resembles French ballad structure. The broken sonnet form and the irregularity reinforce the feeling of otherworldliness; in the first sonnet, Owen narrates the action in the present, while in the second he looks upon the scene, almost dazed, contemplative. The rhyme scheme is traditional, and each stanza features two quatrains of rhymed iambic pentameter with several spondaic substitutions.

"Dulce" is a message of sorts to a poet and civilian propagandist, Jessie Pope, who had written several jingoistic and enthusiastic poems exhorting young men to join the war effort. She is the "friend" Owen mentions near the end of his poem. The first draft was dedicated to her, with a later revision being altered to "a certain Poetess". However, the final draft eliminated a specific reference to her, as Owen wanted his words to apply to a larger audience.

The title of the poem, which also appears in the last two lines, is Latin for, "It is sweet and right to die for one's country" - or, more informally, "it is an honor to die for one's country". The line derives from the Roman poet Horace's Ode 3.2 . The phrase was commonly used during the WWI era, and thus would have resonated with Owen's readers. It was also inscribed on the wall of the chapel of the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst in 1913.

In the first stanza Owen is speaking in first person, putting himself with his fellow soldiers as they labor through the sludge of the battlefield. He depicts them as old men, as "beggars". They have lost the semblance of humanity and are reduced to ciphers. They are wearied to the bone and desensitized to all but their march. In the second stanza the action occurs – poisonous gas forces the soldiers to put their helmets on. Owen heightens the tension through the depiction of one unlucky soldier who could not complete this task in time - he ends up falling, "drowning" in gas. This is seen through "the misty panes and the thick green light", and, as the imagery suggests, the poet sees this in his dreams.

In the fourth stanza Owen takes a step back from the action and uses his poetic voice to bitterly and incisively criticize those who promulgate going to war as a glorious endeavor. He paints a vivid picture of the dying young soldier, taking pains to limn just how unnatural it is, "obscene as cancer". The dying man is an offense to innocence and purity – his face like a "devil's sick of sin". Owen then says that, if you knew what the reality of war was like, you would not go about telling children they should enlist. There is utterly no ambiguity in the poem, and thus it is emblematic of poetry critical of war.

Wilfred Owen: Poems Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Wilfred Owen: Poems is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

How could we interpret the symbol of ‘fruits’?​

Poem title, please?

What are the similarities between the poems Next War and Dulce et Decorum est? for example how grief is portrayed through both is almost the same fashion

I'm not sure what you mean by "next war".

Experience of war in Dulce Et Decorum Est

"Dulce et Decorum est" is without a doubt one of, if not the most, memorable and anthologized poems in Owen's oeuvre. Its vibrant imagery and searing tone make it an unforgettable excoriation of WWI, and it has found its way into both literature...

Study Guide for Wilfred Owen: Poems

Wilfred Owen: Poems study guide contains a biography of Wilfred Owen, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis of Wilfred Owen's major poems.

• About Wilfred Owen: Poems
• Wilfred Owen: Poems Summary
• Character List

Essays for Wilfred Owen: Poems

Wilfred Owen: Poems essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Wilfred Owen's poetry.

• “Fellowships Untold”: The Role of Wilfred Owen’s Poetry in Understanding Comradeship During World War I
• Analysis of Owen's "Strange Meeting"
• The Development of Modernism as Seen through World War I Poetry and "The Prussian Officer"
• Commentary on the Poem “Disabled” by Wilfred Owen
• Commentary on the Poem "Anthem for Doomed Youth" by Wilfred Owen

E-Text of Wilfred Owen: Poems

Wilfred Owen: Poems e-text contains the full texts of select poems by Wilfred Owen.

• Introduction by Siegfried Sassoon
• Strange Meeting
• Greater Love
• Apologia pro Poemeta Mio

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‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ by Wilford Owen

Wilfred Owen, the poet, tells of his first-hand experience in war. He tells the tale of tired and wounded soldiers walking through dirt and sludge. Suddenly, there is a warning about gas, which the soldiers hurriedly and awkwardly heed by donning their helmets. Unfortunately, one soldier is too late in donning the helmet and his companions watch him ‘drowning’ in the gas. The unfortunate soldier was thrown in the back of a wagon, where it is implied that he was left to die. The persona points out that if you (the reader/ listener) could have witnessed these events, then you would not tell children the old lie: dulce et decorum est pro-Patria Mori (It is sweet and honourable to die for one’s country).

LITERARY DEVICES

1. SIMILE Stanza 1, line 1: This simile introduces the exhaustion of the soldiers.

Stanza 1, line 2: This emphasises not only the tiredness of the soldiers but the fact that they might be sick as well.

Stanza 2, line 19: This device gives a visual image of how the soldier physically reacted to the gas. Floundering implies flopping about, therefore, the soldier was flopping about violently. We know it was violent because fire and lime illicit excruciating pain.

Stanza 4, line 39: This device gives a visual image of the expression on the soldier’s face. This is a particularly grotesque image that highlights the soldier in the throes of death.

Stanza 4, line 39: Cancer is a horrible disease that takes many lives on a daily basis. Therefore, to compare this dying soldier’s face to this disease is to emphasize the agony that the soldier was going through, which was reflected on his face.

Stanza 4, lines 39-40: This is another graphic comparison that compares the soldier’s face to incurable sores. ‘Sores’ is a disgusting visual image of degradation which, in turn, highlights the soldier in the throes of death.

ALLITERATION Stanza 1, line 7: This device points to the level of fatigue that the soldiers were undergoing.

Stanza 1, lines 7-9: This highlights not only the fatigue that the soldiers were feeling but the fact that they were injured as well.

Stanza 4, lines 29-30: This device highlights a visually graphic death mask. The soldier is in the throes of impending death.

IMPORTANT WORDS/ PHRASES 3. ‘Bent double’ The soldiers are bent over with fatigue. It is very significant that the poet/ persona initiates the poem by highlighting the exhaustion of the soldiers. He is trying to emphasize the harsh realities of war.

4. ‘haunting flares’ Flares are typically used to signal distress. The flare is fired from a flare gun, in the air, where rescue crafts, at sea or in the air, can have a general idea of the location of the soldiers who are in distress. Therefore, to describe the flares as haunting implies that the soldiers are severely distressed by their situation.

5.’ deaf even to the hoots of tired outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.’ Five-nines are German 5.9 artillery shells. This means that bullets were firing around them while they were walking. The extent of the soldiers’ tiredness is also emphasized at this point because the soldiers do not hear the shells going off around them.

6. ‘An ecstasy of fumbling’ The word ecstasy, which is used to describe fumbling, implies the level of panic that this one word (gas) elicits. The soldiers’ were so tired that they could not even hear the five nines, but this one word immediately woke them up.

7. ‘Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, as under a green sea, I saw him drowning.’ This describes exactly what the outside world looks like through the lens of a gas mask. The effect of the gas is seen in the mention of the word ‘drown’. It implies that the unfortunate soldier could not breathe.

8. ‘He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.’ This is the very graphic result of breathing in the gas. It is a very violent reaction, as seen in the word ‘plunge’. The dying soldier did not simply reach for the persona/poet, but he did so in a desperate manner, while all the time being unable to breathe.

9. ‘wagon that we flung him in’  The statement implies that the soldier was left for dead in a wagon. No regard was shown to him, through the use of the word ‘flung’. This implies that war is heartless and tragic.

10 .’Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.’  This statement literally means it is sweet and honourable to die for one’s country. The persona/ poet clearly does NOT believe this to be the case. 

MOOD/ ATMOSPHERE The mood of the poem is reflective. The persona/ poet is thinking about his experiences in WWI. TONE The general tone of the poem is both sarcastic and ironic. The persona/ poet tries to present a visual of the realities of war while using haunting words that contradict that reality. It is, in fact, NOT sweet and honourable to die for one’s country. THEMATIC CATEGORIZATION War, death, survival,  patriotism

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Poems & Poets

Dulce et Decorum Est

Latin phrase is from the Roman poet Horace: “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”

Miss Maxwell's English Classes

Resources for english.

Close Reading

Here are the Close Reading materials used in class. They may help you with your revision.

• RUAE – Tone JM
• LINK QUESTION JM
• N5 Close Reading – Big Bang Theory

Let me know if I’ve missed anything.

Hieroglyphics Essay

PP_essay_frames

‘Dulce et Decorum est’ Revision Ideas

Can you remember every word of ‘Dulce et Decorum est”? Test yourself with this quiz!

‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ Resources

Here are some of the resources used in class for Wilfred Owen’s ‘Dulce et Decorum est’.

Dulce et Decorum Est JMAX Annotations

4A1 – Sailmaker Quotations

I’ve uploaded your amazing theme mind maps to help you revise for the Final 8-mark question in the Scottish Set Text exam.

These themes are not the ONLY ones that can come up but it is a good starting point for your revision.

• 2 marks for commonality
• 2 marks for quote + comment from extract
• 2 marks for quote + comment from another point in the play
• 2 marks for quote + commend from another part of the play

If you have time left at the end of the exam and you can think of ANOTHER quotation that is relevant to the final question then add it in. It’s good to have a backup in case one of your quotations or analysis isn’t quite right.

‘Hieroglyphics’ – Sympathy Essay Plan

‘Hieroglyphics’ – Essay Advice

Personal/Reflective Writing Folio

The deadline for your first draft is Monday 18th September 2017 .

The folio makes up 15% of your overall grade and must be submitted if you are to sit your National 5 qualification.

The first draft must be:

•  As close to 1,000 words as you can make it.
• Completed (No half stories/two paragraphs)
• Include varied vocabulary and be interesting to read
• Very neatly handwritten or typed up (The final piece must be typed up)

You can bring your draft to class on Monday 18th September 2017 or email it to me at [email protected]

Help sheets – National 5 – Personal Reflective Writing

Assessment Grid – (page 9 https://www.sqa.org.uk/files_ccc/GAInfoNational5EnglishPortfolio.pdf

BBC Bitesize – http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/zjdfr82/revision

I will be available to give additional support Wednesday and Thursday lunchtimes. If you would rather stay after school to work on the folio piece then let me know and I will see what I can arrange.

‘Hieroglyphics’ Introduction

I have attached the PowerPoint that we looked at in class. It gives you the success criteria for a critical essay introduction.

5A3 Hieroglyphics – Critical Essay Introduction 24.09.14

Once you have perfected your introduction you should think about how you will tweak it in the exam to fit the question.

Hieroglyphics Quotation Sheets

I have attached the quotation sheets used in class today.

Once you have completed the sheets to include the missing information you will have more than enough evidence (as well as some analysis) to include in your essays.

Hieroglyphics QUOTATION GRID

4A1 Performance (Talking and Listening)

Just a reminder that you should be prepared for your group discussion on a section of ‘Sailmaker’ on Thursday 31st August 2017. I will try to listen to as many groups as I can on this date but any left over will have the opportunity to talk on Monday 4th September 2017.

There will be further opportunities for assessment later in the year for those who are absent or do not achieve outcomes on the first attempt.

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NAT 5 English Model Critical Essay: Dulce et Decorum Est (18/20)

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

17 December 2019

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This is an A-grade critical essay at NAT 5 English that examines Wilfred Owen’s poem ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ in relation to the following question:

Choose a poem which explores an aspect of human experience. By referring to poetic techniques, explain how this aspect of human experience is explored.

This poem examines the key themes of war, and should be used as a benchmark for teaching at National 5 or Higher English. Quotations have been highlighted in blue for ease.

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A collection of two essays and a detailed critical essay quote booklet aimed at National 5 students studying Wilfred Owen's 'Dulce Et Decorum Est'. This can be used for Higher English as well.

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Dulce et Decorum Est Critical Essay.

Dulce et Decorum Est Critical Essay

Wilfred Owen deals with the horror of war in his eloquent poem “Dulce et Decorum Est”.  The poem is written with a bitter tone to describe men before and through an attack that happened during the First World War.  The theme of the poem, as the title is an antithesis of, is it is no “fine and fitting thing to die for one’s country.  Owen has created a different atmosphere in each verse, creating a picture that is certainly not glorious; the point the author uses this poem to prove.

Owen has used the first verse to create a scene of despair  “deaf even to the hoots”. He has used enjambment to create a conversational tone, but each phrase strikes the reader while being part of a list to reinforce how many injuries there were. It suggests that the soldiers are elderly, giving up and barely alive “old beggars under sacks” and “coughing like hags”.  Owen has created a slow pace in the first verse using long sentences and figurative language “Knock-kneed, coughing like hags”.  The word choice “asleep”, “lame” and blind also gives connotations of old men, slowly dying.  This shows the author’s skill; he creates images that he can later shatter.  Owen had cleverly caused me to forget that these men are young and should be in good health.

This is a preview of the whole essay

The second verse contrasts well with the first, the author has cleverly built a lively, fast-moving scene.  Minor sentences “Gas! Gas!” quickly readjusts the pace.  Repeated present participle endings have been used to emphasise the feeling of haste. The use of “boys” in the first line quickly shows the reader that it is youths being described in this poem, another transformation from the first verse, which suggests otherwise.  Again, the word choice is of importance, unusual words like “ecstasy” have been carefully chosen to suggest excitement. The word “drowning” gives connotations of someone drowning in the sea, gasping as they are dragged down to their death.  The last three lines of the verse touched me and gave vivid images with their detailed descriptions.  The informality of the language “yelled” is used by Owen to reach out to the reader.  

The third verse has another change of atmosphere, which Owen uses to show the true meaning and horror of war.  He uses onomatopoeia, “gargling”, a word that has vivid imagery and suggests the severity of the injuries sustained by the soldiers.  The alliterative words “froth-corrupted” evoke graphic images, which could make any reader shudder.  During the third verse the author addresses the reader, “If you could hear”, to create intimacy and bring to life the horror of war.  The two lines which end the poem are possibly the most important; they emphasize the theme of the poem, it is not glorious to die for your country.

The theme is apparent throughout the poem, there are no positives aspects of war mentioned in it. Owen has used imagery and structure to create a negative and graphic picture of war, this ties in perfectly with the theme.  It is clear that Owen strongly objects to war and uses this poem to circulate his message, that is why he made the last two lines particularly blunt

“The old Lie: Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori”.  There is a capital letter at the beginning of the word “Lie” to emphasize his point.

Owen has used his poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” to convey a message about war, it is no fine and fitting thing to die for one’s country.  To do this effectively he used figurative language, enjambment, informal language and carefully controlled the tone.  The poem was effectively written, causing the reader to be shocked by the graphic images and word choice.  

Document Details

• Word Count 629
• Page Count 2
• Level AS and A Level
• Subject English

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