Explication of dulce et decoru
Explication of dulce et decoruExplication of "Dulce et Decorum Est"
In Dulce et Decorum Est Wilfred Owen explores the harsh conditions and realities of war. The burdens of war and the overwhelming weariness faced by soldiers are described in the first ten lines of the poem. Many soldiers in World War I did not have the proper training and equipment to fight a war. The long marches to battle through bad conditions wore the soldiers down and caused their reaction times to be down.
The author is expressing the weariness of the soldiers and the hardships the soldiers are undergoing during World War One. In line eleven the poem changes mood to one of urgency. He begins to talk about bombs, in this case nuclear warfare. When the bomb is dropped the soldiers begin to fumble with their helmets to protect themselves from the gas of the bomb. The helmets of this time were crude, but they did their job. The soldiers get their helmets on in time, except one. The soldier is "flound'ring like a man in fire...drowning" from exposure to the poisonous gases fired by the enemy.
The author is expressing the cruelty of war through this poem in describing the slow and painful deaths that many soldiers went through. Death by poisonous gas is slow and painful. The soldiers who died did so painfully, it was as if they were drowning. Choking slowly, like being drown, death by compression and collapsing of the lungs. This is a horrid death. The poem is from the viewpoint of a soldier watching another soldier die. The soldier is experiencing the death of the other soldier. He is describing his dreams of choking and grasping for breath, grasping for life. As he watches the other soldier die he is thinking about his own death, about the deaths of other soldiers, about the deaths and casualties of war.
The author is discussing the realities of war...war is death. The reality of it all is that war amounts to death, there has never been a war without death. The author is revealing a viewpoint towards this death from a soldier watching his fellow soldiers die. Death by suffocation is a hideous way to die. The poet is...
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