Dulce Et Decorum Est Essay

Dulce et Decorum est Essay

Dulce et Decorum est, a poem written by Sir Wilfred Owen at the time of World War I, which however was published after his demise 1920. The title of the poem “Dulce et Decorum est” is a line extracted from Ode 3.2, written by Horace that means ‘it is sweet and fitting’, while the entire meaning of the title suggests that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country as written by Horace saying Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori. The title of Wilfred Owen's poem, which is inspired by Horace’s poem is in actual a criticism of the original poem, which glorifies the death of a soldier dying in the battlefield fighting for his country.

Summary of the Poem

The poem explicitly describes about a frontline situation of a day in the battlefield of the First World War, specifically highlighting the British soldiers who were attacked with chlorine gas. The poem starts with a brief scenario where a soldier is unable to put on his mask in time while the shell of a chlorine gas bomb explodes, making him choke. The narrator of the poem though clearly expresses gruesome impact of the exploded chlorine gas bomb on the poor soldier who could not wear his mask on time and thus gutters, chokes and drowns pain. The narrator further expresses his disagreement with Horace’s perspective of glorifying a soldier's death in the battlefield saying that Horace would not have approved of such sentiment if he would have been present at the scene to witness the poor soldier’s physical pain and agony. Wilfred Owen took inspiration from the horrific face of war and penned down this poem to highlight the futileness and horrors of war, which however marks a soldier hero and his death heroic, yet the real picture in the battlefield is extremely terrorising and therefore no country should encourage war. The poet voices his opinion in regard to the atrocities of war, thereby highlighting the real condition of the soldiers facing death at any moment, thus pointing out his disregard for Horace’s word about glorifying a soldier’s death as sweet and fitting for his country. We have a team of extremely skilful Essay Tutors who can mold the essay as per your requirements.

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Structure of the Poem

To analyse the structure of the poem, it has been written in a similar style of French Ballade poetic form, where writers break the conventional pattern and rhyming. Each of the stanzas carry a traditional rhyming scheme, which even though describes the chaotic event of a war yet it is framed by using two quatrains of iambic pentameter, along with numerous spondaic substitutions. Such an approach makes the poem a serious one yet something close to a casual conversation, with a smooth clarity and speed. The poem is divided into two parts, well the first part is narrated in present highlighting though current scene of the battlefield, while the second part take the readers back to unanalysed picture of warfare, thus drawing negative lesson the overall scheme of warfare.

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Horace’s Perspective

Horace, the Roman lyric poet, wrote the poem Ode 3.2 where he mentions “Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori” which means it is sweet and fitting for one to die for his homeland. Horace had pinned down this poem in the backdrop of an Industrialization of military technology, where thousands of supporters of war saw it Beneficial for two nations in conflict to settle their differences through combat, four there was no other reasonable way to do so. In this context Horace had glorified the death of a soldier, particularly so by thinking about the then growing advancement of military technology that glorified war itself.

Author’s Perspective

No one expects or wishes to die, before a normal or natural death that everyone deserves. Death in a battlefield is the last thing that anybody would want, in addition to the fact that nobody once their country in a state of war with another as well. irrespective of winning or losing a war, it is the soldiers who are made a victim of political turmoil between two nations, asked to give up their lives for their motherland, not knowing whether sacrificing their lives would be fruitful or not. For the sake of argument, even if it is accepted that a soldier sacrificing his life for the love of his nation is heroic and reasonable, yet it cannot be denied in any form of debate that a life lost is a loss for the nation, for the family and the society as a whole. Moreover, the painstakingly hard situation along with the constant fear of losing one’s own life and his friend cum colleague fighting beside him at any moment in a battlefield. It is not a happy picture at all and it cannot be denied that the soldiers must go through immense fear and pressure for not doing his job right for the sake of his country and at the same time being afraid of dying. Our essay writers service is always available to help you with essay papers so that you don’t need to face any hurdle while completing your assignment.

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In this regard Wilfred Owen has criticised Horace’s perspective of romanticising war by highlighting the brutality of warfare in the backdrop of First World War, which was something quite different from what the Roman poet had envisaged at the time of industrialization of military technology. Wilfred Owen has highlighted the fact that war is nothing more than a machinery of mass killing, which needs to be stopped by all civilised nations along with refraining from romanticising and glorifying the death of the soldiers.

Therefore, to conclude, Wilfred Owen’s message for conveying the horrific face of war that takes away nothing but precious lives of young men, leaving their families in despair is successful and much celebrated. He rightly points out the real terrifying situation that war puts the young soldiers into, who are in constant fear of losing their lives and at the same time is at pressure of underperforming for their homeland. Thus, the saying Dulce et Decorum est is an old lie as famously called by the critics for Horace’s poem, including Owen.

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