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  • Essay / Wilfred Owen's view on war in his poem Dulce et Decorum Est

    Soldiers deserve the greatest respect, but they deserve it for the right reasons. They give their lives to protect their country. Giving up their lives means giving up time for family, certain freedoms, and sometimes even mental health. Owen was one of the first poets to present a different picture of war through his poem "Dulce et Decorum Est", as Lutz says: "Generally regarded as the stet poet of the First World War, Wilfred Owen broke with many literary conventions of the time. war literature in its poetry”. Most works did not recount the everyday accounts of the war, but rather told a larger story, "where conventional writing about the Great War in newspapers, novels and official histories tended to occupy crowds and nations.” Society only wanted to show the great things about war and leave aside the daily conflicts. In the poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est”, Owen wants to show that war is much more horrible than what literature has previously described. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayOwen wanted to use this poem to change society's views on war. Most writing in the early 1900s only talked about what society wanted to see from soldiers. They didn't want to see pain and death, only soldiers standing, saluting the flag and winning the war. This soldier is someone that society can look up to, praise and encourage. Owen uses “Dulce Et Decorum Est” to show some of the hardships the soldiers went through every day: “The men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots.” Owen uses the entire first stanza just to show that the soldiers had endured so much, that nothing phased them anymore: “Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the howls/Of the disappointed shells which fell behind”. The soldiers were so exhausted that they didn't even care that bombs and guns were firing right behind them. This state of horror of war was Owen's view, and it is what he wanted society to see before telling his children that they must die for their country, "Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori”. The mood that the speaker describes in this poem are both very negative. These two are very similar in the sense that they are both about emotions, but the difference is in who is feeling those emotions. The speaker addresses the society that encourages its children to enlist in war. He is angry that literature has not given a complete picture of war, even though it is still encouraged. The tone of “Dulce Et Decorum Est” is very depressing and aggressive. This poem is in the first person "we cursed through the mud", he wants to show that he lived through the war, he was not just a spectator. Because the topic is personal, it would make sense that the tone would seem very aggressive. The speaker is angry that society lies to young children. He uses aggressive words and phrases throughout the poem and ends by talking about the children. He begins the poem in a depressing tone, talking about what the soldiers experienced on a daily basis. He quickly changes his tone as he speeds up: “Gas! Gas! Quickly, boys! The mood is very similar to the tone. The mood could change for each reader, but there wasn't much room for guessing with "Dulce Et Decorum Est." Because no one had given society a true glimpse of what war was like, this poem appearedas very surprising and sad. The way the speaker used tone and mood in this poem makes it sound very negative towards the war. The form of a poem can add a lot of character to it. In “Dulce Et Decorum Est,” the author has used form to restate the point he is trying to make. Although form is a very subtle element, it can help pack a punch without the reader knowing it's happening. “Dulce Et Decorum Est” is divided into four different stanzas. The first stanza has eight lines, the second has six lines, the third has two lines and the last stanza has twelve lines. Each stanza has a specific purpose in relation to the poem and creates a different mood from the previous one. In the first stanza, Owen creates a sad and depressing atmosphere by lengthening the lines and magnifying the words: "On our knees, coughing like witches, we cursed through the mud." The second stanza creates a more exciting feeling in the reader by speeding it up, adding exclamations, and using smaller words. Because the third stanza is so short, it comes as a surprise. The fourth stanza ends it all by combining everything to prove that war is not the same thing as the image that society portrays. The other important factor of this poem is that it presents itself as a story. It starts at the beginning and the reader progresses as the story progresses. The reader hears the story in the order in which it happened. This form of story makes the poem easier to read, people learn from childhood to read stories. People will also identify more with a story; they tend to relate to the characters. In the lines where the soldiers moved quickly, the reader believes that they must also speed up, "installing the cumbersome helmets just in time." The form of this poem helps create a physical image of what Owen is trying to prove. Owen uses sound to incorporate emotions into his poem. In the first stanza he creates a very slow sound which in turn creates a sad emotion. He makes this slow sound using bigger, hyphenated words like “knee-knocking” and “blood-shod.” Owen also uses long vowels to make the sound slower. He uses slow-sounding phrases, "we cursed through the mud" and "began trudging." The author then quickly changes the sound to a much faster exciting sound, which changes the reader's mood or emotion to excitement. He moves from long straight lines to rapid words: “Disappointed shells that fell behind/Gaz!” Gas!". Owen uses this difference in sound to show the reader that in war, everything can change in the blink of an eye. Towards the end of the poem, the sound gives the reader an angrier emotion. It shows this anger through his choice of words, "writhing...devil...cancer, bitter." The author uses this anger to show that society has lied about what war really looks like. in “Dulce Et Decorum Est” is also essential to the point that he tries to prove it. Owen wants to destroy the image that society gives of soldiers and war. From the beginning, he gives another image of the soldier, “. bent double, like old beggars.” This imagery in the very first line of the poem completely destroys the typical image of a soldier standing in a straight line, at attention Owen uses the imagery of the dream in groups. times: “In all my dreams…even in some suffocating dreams.” He compares the imagery of a nightmare to war. Next, Owen uses the imagery of a drowning person to describe a soldier being suffocated by gas. These images give the reader a small glimpse of what it was like to see this7