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  • Essay / Use of poetic devices by Wilfred Owen in the poem Dulce et Decorum Est

    Children grow up believing that war and fighting for their country is the most honorable thing to do. In the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est, the author says that dying for one's country is sweet and proud. The poem shows the propaganda that dying in war is honorable. Wilfred Owen expresses that war is not gentle and honoring as one might say or perceive. He shows this in the poem through images describing the surroundings of the troops and the cacophonous words throughout the poem show an unpleasant tone and mood. Finally, the poem itself says that the saying Dulce Et Decorum Est misleads children, that death is not sweet even if it is for your country. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Throughout the poem, the author uses poetic devices to explain the depth and true meaning of the poem. In this poem, harsh and sharp sounds are spoken. These sounds are cacophonous sounding words, which bring out the idea of ​​unpleasantness. An example of this being used is “His face hanging, like a devil sick with sin,/ If you could hear, at every shake, the blood/ Come and gargle from the lungs corrupted by foam/ Bitter as rumination”. Shake, sick, devil, gargle, etc. are words used to describe the story of the poem. The author uses these phrases because he wants to show and support the meaning of the poem in a poetic way. It shows the reality of war through the story of these soldiers, which explains why Dulce Et Decorum Est is a lie. Shows that war is not gentle and dying in war is horrible, which is supported by the cacophony of the poem. If the author did not use cacophony, the message would not seem as solid and holey, with these words the author can have a greater impact on the audience. Another poetic device used to support the idea that children are led to think that war is the best thing is imagery. Imagery is used a lot in this poem to elaborate on the setting of the poem. For example: “All have become lame, all blind;/ Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the howls / Gas shells falling gently behind. In this line of the poem, Wilfred Owen uses the auditory, the visual and even the tactile. Owen uses them at the beginning of the poem to help the reader visualize the setting of the story. These devices show real feelings and physical sensations to the reader by the way they are presented. Another time Owen uses imagery is in line 14 "As under a green sea, I saw him drown." This shows support for the message, how the soldier died was neither brave nor proud, he suffered and was sort of tortured until he died. He may have been told as a child or even an adult that dying for his country is brave and proud, he may have joined the military because of it and he dies a horrible death because of it . Others may honor your memory as a hero, but was it worth your life and even the death he suffered. The last thing the author uses to support his statement is his use of the end rhyme. In the poem there are a lot of end rhymes and that is one thing that makes it such a good poem and such a good message that we even use it in school. Owen used “bags/mud/back/trudge/boots/blind/hooves/behinds” at the end of lines 1-8 to create an ABABCDCD ending rhyme. The author used them to show the connection with the different lines without having to put them both on one line. The way this improves the poem is to give it rhythm and flow, to make.