1st poetic technique in “Dulce Et Decorum Est”: In the poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est”, Wilfred Owen uses assonance of verb -ing to show that he got a shell-shock of his friend’s death. The line that suggests this point is: “He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.” This line shows the consequence, which will haunt the author forever. The verb -ing is repeated because Owen wants us to understand that he always remembers every moment of his friend’s death. It was still haunting even when he got back to England, and it seems that the image is happening now.
2nd poetic technique in “Dulce Et Decorum Est”: Wilfred Owen uses hyperbole to exaggerate his friend death as if his friend looks like a devil. The line that shows the horrible scene, where Owen can never forget, is: “His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;” Wilfred Owen exaggerates the image to let us, especially the propaganda poem’s author, think more about the war in a serious way. He also reminds the government about their careless about the soldiers, who were fitting to protect the government. He wants the government to feel sorry, to…
3rd poetic technique in “Dulce Et Decorum Est”: Wilfred Owen uses repetition to show the terrifying felling of the soldiers, when they saw mustard gas. The line that shows the threatening of the gas is: “GAS! Gas! Quick boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling” In this line, Owen took an actual speech at the Front Line into his poem to show that… The speech suggests that the soldiers had to remind each others when things happened, as the government didn’t care about them. If they didn’t remind each others, no one would and they would all die. The tired marching of the soldiers was interrupted by the horror of the mustard gas. Everything became a chaos and everyone was trying to do anything to save their life. ECSTASY OF SUMBLING
4th poetic technique in “Dulce Et Decorum Est”: Wilfred Owen uses Latin words in the last two lines of the poem, because he knows that only the rich and powerful people know or learn about Latin. Therefore, he wants them to use their power to pressure the governments to stop the war. The two lines that show this are: “The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patris mori.” Latin is a very old-fashiond language and Owen also emphasises this by say the term “The old Lie” to general say that all the wars are not necessary, they should be forgotten and all the wars are lie. The word “The” shows that the lie has been there for very long time, but everyone just ignores it. The meaning in English of these Latin lines is:
“The old Lie: Sweet and right are To die for your country.” Owen wants the entire propaganda poem’s authors to think about what they wrote, is it true that it will be sweet and right to die for your country or is it wrong just for encouraging men to join the Front Line.
