DULCE ET DECORUM EST
1.INTRODUCTION
In this paper I’m going to analyze the poem “dulce et
decorum est” written by Wilfred Owen. In this poem we will see how this poet
saw wars. To understand better the poem we should know that he first went to
the war on 30th of December 1916. He
had already completed his military training and sailed for
No knowledge,
imagination or training fully prepared Owen for the shock and suffering of
front line experience. Within twelve days of arriving in
( cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Owen )
I have said that he went to the war, because if we know this, we would understand better why this poem seems so real, it reflects very good the reality and the atmosphere of wars. And the reason will be, as I have said before, that he was a soldier and he was in the first world war, so the landscape and the situation of wars are very good reflected in the poem. In this paper, and in his poem, if we read between lines we will quickly know what he thought about this topic.
DULCE ET DECORUM EST1
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares2 we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest3 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 hoots4
Of tired, outstripped5 Five-Nines6 that dropped behind.
Gas!7 Gas! Quick, boys! – An
ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets8 just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime9 . . .
Dim, through the misty panes10 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,11 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 cud12
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest13
To children ardent14 for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.15
( cf. http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html
)
3.ANALYSIS OF THE POEM
Dulce et Decorum Est (written in 1917 and published posthumously in 1921) is a poem written by the English poet and World War I soldier Wilfred Owen. The work's horrifying imagery has made it one of the most popular condemnations of war ever written.
(cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dulce_Et_Decorum_Est)
TITLE
The title and the
Latin exhortation of the final two lines are drawn from a poem of Horace (Odes
iii 2.13):
"Dulce et decorum
est pro patria mori:
mors et fugacem persequitur virum
nec parcit inbellis iuventae
poplitibus timidove tergo."
"How sweet and
lovely it is to die for your country:
Death pursues the man who flees,
spares not the hamstrings or cowardly backs
Of battle-shy
youths."
These words were well-known and oft-quoted by supporters of the War near its inception and, as such, were of particular importance to soldiers of the era.
But the most important thing is that the title is ironic. The intention
was not so much to induce pity as to shock, especially civilians at home who
believed war was noble and glorious.
(c.f.http://www.1914-18.co.uk/owen/dulce.htm)
This poem deals with the
first world war and it reflects very good what happens
when an army is going to fight. But what the poet wants to express is his
dissaproval of wars, the negative thing that it is to die for your native
country.
This poem is structured
in three stanzas. The first stanza consists of 8 lines, the second of 8 and the
third one which is the most important part of the poem has 12 lines.
It begins with a
description of the landscape where they are going to fight and he is also
describing in what conditions were the soldiers going to struggle.
Then, in the second
stanza, as gas shells begin to fall, the soldiers fight to put their masks on. But, in the rush, one mal clumsily drops his mask, and the poet
sees the man “yelling out and stumbling” (line 11). The image of the man
“guttering, chocking, drowning” permeates Owen’s thoughts and dreams, forcing
him to remember the nightmare again and again.
In the
final stanza, Owen wtites that if readers could see the body of those soldiers
dying, they would cease to send young men to war. No longer would they tell their
children the “old lie”, so long ago told by the Roman
poet Horace: “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, that is, “sweet and
honorable it is, to die for the fatherland”.
In the poem he uses the
first, second and third persons, He uses the first person singular and the
second person plural to make us see that he experienced what he is talking
about in the poem. He uses, for example, “we” in lines 2,3
and 18, and “I” in line 14, “my” (line 15) and “me” (line 16). We find the
second person singular when he wants to make us think and make a reflection of
the cruel reality of wars, for example: in lines 21 and 25.
Eventually, we can see
the third person singular in the first stanza when he is describing how the
soldiers were going to fight (their physycal problems).
Dealing with the
temporal structure, we can say that he uses the past and the present tenses. We
can see the first person when he is describing the action of the poem, whereas
we find the present tense when he talks about his dream (that man yelling ot in his nightmare). As a curiosity, we must say that the "you" whom he addresses in line 17 can
imply people in general but also perhaps, one person in particular, the
"my friend" identified as Jessie Pope. Jessie Pope for one perhaps,
his appeal to whom as "my friend" is doubtless ironic.
With regard to the
connectors used in the poem, we can say that he mainly uses coordination
linkers such as “and” in lines 4, 11, 12, 13 and 19, and we find “but” in lines
6 and 11.
We can also see cases of
juxtaposition, for example in line 2 “knock-kneed, coughing like
hags, we cursed through sludge”. He also uses long sentences but not much
complicated.
Dealing with the rethorical devices we can say that hell seems close at hand with the curious simile "like a devil’s sick
of sin". Sick in what sense? Physically?
Satiated? Then that "jolt". No gentle stretcher-bearing here but
agony intensified. Owen’s imagery is enough to sear the heart and mind.
Futhermore, there are
also repetitions like “drowning” (that appears in lines 14 and 16).
(c.f.http://www.1914-18.co.uk/owen/dulce.htm)
There are no archaic words but we can find lexical fields like the field of “war” (that is, typical words dealing with war) such as “helmet” (line 10), “yelling out” (line 11), “ckocking” (line 16), “guttering” (line 16), “drowning” (line 16), “gragling” (line 22), “boots” (line 15) or “flares” (line 3).
The 28-line poem, written loosely in iambic pentameter, is told from the person of Wilfred Owen.
(cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dulce_Et_Decorum_Est)
4.PERSONAL INTERPRETATION
From my point of view,
I consider that the hole poem reflects very well the
cruel reality that a war contains. He uses a lot of words related with the
death semantic field such as “drown”, “chok”, “smother”, “yell” etc.
In the first stanza, I
think he’s pointing us and describing the place where the soldiers were
standing and what they were doing. They are tired and walking with dificulty
when the hoot started ringing (so they had to be ready for the fight). In the second stanza, he tells us that there
have been thrown polluted gaz which affects the lungs( I suppose this because
later, in the poem, he explains to us which parts does this gaz affects, that
is the reason why we can presuppose that is affects the lungs). And there is
one soldier who hasn’t been able to fit his helmet (because of this he can’t be
protected), so he saw him drowning and chocking. He also tells us that he still
dreams of that.
And finally, in the
last stanza, we can see the most important part of the poem. Here, he expresses
that it’s not so good to die for your native country. He also consider that if someone could
see what he had seen (people dying painfully, gargling, drowning etc), you
wouldn’t say with such great passion that it is wonderful to die for your
native country.
Eventually, I consider
that this poem perfectly reflects the bad points that war has and that it has a
very strong tone (I mean that things are described dramatically, as it happens
in wars).
5.CONCLUSION
In order to sum up I have to say that we have already seen a very good example of the worse things that wars has and the conclusion of the poem cannot be better. It reflects the reality of wars with a very strong tone and his ideas towards this theme can be seen in the poem.
We must also say that, in one moment of his life, he worked in the war as a soldier so, we don’t know if what he wrote in the poem was true, but we can say that it is very good explained and that the conclusion (which are the lines written in Latin) reflects the ideas that he had towards the reality of wars.
For this reason, I have chosen this author and this poem because it made me sympathize with him and to think of what wars really mean. Eventually, I must say that, in my opinion, the poem is very good developed, it reflects very good the cruel reality of wars and it is written in such simple sentences that you quickly understand what he is feeling in all moments of the poem.
6.BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html
Home:< www.warpoetry.co.uk> 22-03-07
http://www.1914-18.co.uk/owen/dulce.htm
Home: <www.1914-18.co.uk>22-03-07
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dulce_Et_Decorum_Est
Home:< www.wikipedia.org>22-03-07
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Owen
Home:< www.wikipedia.org>22-03-07