Dulce et Decorum Est

Content

'Dulce et Decorum Est'

It is sweet and right to die for your country
It is about how soldiers are lied to about the reality of war
Using another language suggests that the soldiers didn't understand what they were getting themselves in to it.
It comapres the reality of war to government propoganda

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'Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge'

First person makes the imagery stronger
Although we know Wilfred Owen was a man 'hags' relates to old women suggesting he felt demasculinised
Cursed shows he is angry as if he been betrayed as he has been lied to about the reality of war

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'Of gas shells dropping softly behind'

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'Bent double, like old beggars undersack'

Simile creates the image a dirty and tired men rather than a heroic soldier

'Men marched asleep.Many had lost their boots'

The consonnance creats a rhythm like marching and shows that it is drilled into them so much they march in their sleep showing they are overworked

'thick green light/ As under a gree sea'

repetiton of green suggets being sick and that the image of the gas attack is engrained in his mind

'Obscene as cancer'

Simile makes war which is unknow to most people into something more relatable and suggets it happens to innpcent people

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'In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,/He plunges at me, guttering, chocking, drowing

These lines are separated from the poem suggesting it is the event that has the most impacton him. It also suggests that it is clear image in his mind

Most is Iambic pentameter

creates the sound of a heartbeat
'But someone still was yelling out and stumbling' - has an extra syllable draws attention to the man who didn't keep pace with the rest

'The old Lie:Dulce et decorum est/pro patria mori'

Final line creates a circular narrative suggesting the message he is trying to get accross is very important

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