Disabled and Dulce et decorum est analysis

Essay by cheejo8 November 2014

download word file, 4 pages 0.0

Disabled and Dulce Et Decorum Est

War has been part of human history since the beginning of creation. So as a result war has been very much part of our culture. As our culture has developed the way we record war. Poems have been used to communicate the experience of war. Poems provide us with a very personal insight on war. Wilfred Owen in his poems "dulce et deorum est" and "disabled" provide us with such an insight. His poem "Dulce et Deorum Est" talks about horror of the gas attacks faced by men on the front line while "Disabled" compares the life of a injured soldier to his past hopes and accomplishments.

The first stanza of "Dulce et Decorum Est" immediately tells us how someone felt on the front. The words "bent double, like old beggars under sacks, knock-kneed, coughing like hags" convey that the soldiers are mentally and physically overwhelmed by their experience of war.

This is particularly conveyed by the two similes, "like old beggars" and "like hags". The condition of the men is also communicated by "men marched asleep". This tells us that the men were so weary that they marched as if they were dead. This is how the poet saw the soldiers around him.

The second stanza is all about the experience of a gas attack. The words, "Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!" inform us that there is a real urgency and threat of the gas attack. As the masks were unreliable there was always a chance that you would be killed. The poet then gives a deeper more personal experience to the gas attacks by using the "-ing" conjunction to communicate that the poet was in the moment. He uses words like "stumbling", "floundering" and drowning". This is how the poet is trying to...