INTRODUCTIONIn the poem, ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen, the social climate of the World War I era is reflected through the poet’s use of vivid imagery and poetic techniques.
The poem itself presents an a blunt impression of the world through its linking of ideas and language in its text. The poem addresses the falsehood, that war is glorious, that it is noble, it describes the true horror and waste that is war, with the aim of changing the way in which society thinks about conflict. THE POEMS MEANING TO METhe poem epitomises the futility and pointlessness of war. Not only is war a shocking waste of life, but it is ultimately barbarous and pointless act as World War I so horrendously demonstrated to the world powers. The graphic horror of war is presented through a series of images which are designed to demolish the notion of war being a patriotic and meaningful adventure. The one particularly vivid image that got to me was that of the lone soldier who doesn’t fasten his mask fast enough and suffers from the full effects of deadly gas: ‘In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
‘ And then: ‘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. ‘ Owen generates two powerful images aimed at discouraging the mere thought of war by its emotionally distressing descriptions. The way in which Owen moved the images from a general concept to personal illustration by addressing the reader directly, ‘If you could hear’ indicated that I must place myself in this situation, and evoke the setting and all the associated emotions in my mind as I were in fact witnessing this event first hand. Perhaps to feel the emotions as Owen would himself. The poet helps this by precisely describing the surroundings and encouraging particularly sinister and dark emotions to surface.
The vivid similes: ‘obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud,’ encourage a sickening reaction to the notion of actively engaging in battle. The idea of cancer represents the ‘terminal’ results and finality of war. Owen suggests that men who are sent to fight are being sent to their death; something as inevitable as death from cancer. The slow and painful death associated with cancer is likened to dying on the battlefield where those who aren’t killed instantly are left to suffer horribly. Just like Owens gassed soldier. The futility of war is shown in the first part of the poem where we see the soldiers, fatigued and wounded, returning to base camp when a gas attack is launched on them: ‘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. . . Gas! Gas! Quick boys! The slow and steady movement of time felt whilst reading the beginning of this extract is due to the subdued and disheartening attitude of the soldiers.
The placement of words directly reflects the fatigue felt by the weary boys. The image of them marching slowly, bloody and ‘drunk’, evokes similar feelings of tiredness in the reader which are quickly interrupted by ‘Gas! Gas! Quick boys!’. These last few words of the passage come across as though one of the soldiers is saying them, even though it is the persona trying to communicate a message of cautiousness to the soldiers and at the same time reinforce the reality of these events to the reader. As a reader I feel the relative stillness of the men’s quiet attitude being quickly interrupted by these ‘loud’ words. A contrast is established. This image, and the one of the lone soldier dying ‘awakens’ the minds of the people who read the poem to the reality of war as being a terrifyingly sad way for young people to die, and that ideology of patriotism and honour is the cause of such sickening circumstance.
Owen is, effectively, placing the blame of the war’s consequences squarely on the shoulders of the society that supports it. LANGUAGE AND TECHNIQUESThe language in this poem is quite simple yet vivid, encouraging the reader to understand the situation and to be emotionally ‘awakened’ in the process. In particular, Owen wants to bring home the realities of war to the boffins as well as the relatively sheltered public. By his use of simple language, Owen overcomes the social barriers of class and education that existed at the time.
Thus he allows the message to reach and be understood by a large cross section of the public. By his use of these vivid, descriptive images, Owen allows those who aren’t used to analysing literature in depth to clearly identify the central anti-war themes of the poem, and to identify that war is a pointless waste of life. This is especially relevant for the British society of the time who generally viewed war as a patriotic and a heroic forum to display national unity and pride. Owen brings these general conceptions onto a shockingly personal level. There are many poetic techniques used by Owen which encourage and support the main challenge to the typical attitudes of the time. He uses similes such as, ‘Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,’ and, ‘obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud,’ to familiarise the situation to the reader and to focus on the repulsive truth of war.
These similes simplify the theme of his poem without reducing its effect, and make the poem easier to understand. This reflects the views of the World War I society where there was a need for such anti-war messages, especially when there were people placed in high social classes who supported the war. The alliteration of the letter ‘s’ such as in ‘sick of sin’ also works well to this anti-war message as the ‘s’ sound is usually identified to stealth and maliciousness. The hyphen joining compound epithets ‘knock-kneed’ and ‘blood-shod’, where we again see the use of alliteration, describe the physical condition of the soldiers quickly and effectively, and allowing the reader to easily picture the soldiers in their mind.
These techniques work together to easily present the themes to the public in an understandable way. The graphic horror of war is presented through a series of images which are designed to demolish the notion of war being a patriotic and meaningful adventure. One particularly vivid image is that of the lone soldier who doesn’t fasten his mask fast enough and suffers from the effects of the deadly gas: ‘In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. ‘ And then: ‘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. ‘ These two images powerfully discourage the mere thought of war by terrifying the reader through emotionally frightening descriptions.
Owen moves the images from a general concept to personal illustration by addressing the reader directly through saying, ‘If you could hear’. Now, it is indicated to the reader that they must place themselves in this situation, and evoke the setting and all associated emotions in their mind that a person witnessing this event would feel, perhaps like Owen himself. The poet helps by precisely describing the surroundings and encouraging particularly dark feelings to arise. The vivid similes: ‘obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud,’ encourage a sickening reaction to the notion of actively engaging in battle. The idea of cancer represents the ‘terminal’ results or the finality of war. Owen suggests that men who are sent to fight are being sent to their death; something as inevitable as death from cancer.
The slow and painful death associated with cancer is likened to dying on the battlefield where those who aren’t killed instantly are left to suffer horribly. Like the gassed soldier. The futility of war is shown in the first part of the poem where we see the soldiers, fatigued and wounded, returning to base camp when a gas attack is launched on them: ‘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.
. . Gas! Gas! Quick boys! The slow and steady movement of time felt whilst reading the beginning of this extract is due to the subdued and disheartening attitude of the soldiers. The placement of words directly reflects the fatigue felt by the weary soldiers.
The image of them marching slowly, bloody and ‘drunk’, evokes similar feelings of tiredness in the reader which are quickly interrupted by ‘Gas! Gas! Quick boys!’. These last few words of the passage are designed as though one of the soldiers is saying them, even though it is the persona trying to communicate a message of cautiousness to the soldiers and at the same time reinforce the reality of these events to the reader. We feel the relative stillness of the men’s quiet attitude being quickly interrupted by these ‘loud’ words and it seems as if time was one of the boys; sullen and weary, then suddenly activated and alert. A contrast is established. This image, and the one of the lone soldier dying ‘awakens’ the minds of the people who read the poem to the reality of war as being a terrifyingly sad way for young people to die, and that ideology of patriotism and honour is the cause of such sickening circumstance. Owen is, effectively, placing the blame of the war’s consequences squarely on the shoulders of the society that supports it.
CONCLUSION!Wilfred Owen’s extremely powerful poem, ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ thoroughly criticises the ideology of war being ‘a sweet and glorious way to die, fighting for one’s country’. The combination of vivid imagery and poetic devices work to evoke a horrible anti-war feeling in the reader and encourage them to act and cease the on-going violence in the world. With powerful imagery and simple language, Owen allows the poem to be understood by the public at large so as to influence as many people as possible. The power of ideology is revealed and skilfully condemned by Owen’s masterful writing of poetry and war is appropriately presented as the hideous thing it is.
