Bratislav MISIC
English Literature War Poetry
Island School
War Poetry English Literature Assignment
Introduction
Wilfred Owen was a young British poet who enlisted in the Army at the first year of
the First Wold War. He was a patriotic soldier, who wanted to contribute as much as
he could to his country’s war effort. One of his achievements was that he devised an
improvement to the gas mask. He had spent two years of training at various shooting
ranges and at the end of the course was classified as a First Class Shot. He arrived at
the battlefield on the 1st of January 1917.At one point during his service he was
thought to be suffering from shell shock and was taken to hospital.
Many of his poems and especially the two we will look at tend to describe what life
was like for an ordinary soldier, and to what extent it could be changed by the war.
By October 1917 he was sick of the war and wrote Dulce et decorum est. He was
killed in action on the banks of the Sombre-Oise canal, on the 4th of November 1918.
Dulce et decorum est…
by Wilfred Owen
This poem is set in the First World War. It is about a group of tired soldiers who are
going behind the front lines for some much-needed rest. On their journey they are
attacked by the enemy who is using the deadly gas, presumably mustard gas. The poet
is one of these soldiers and he, like most of his comrades manages to put on a gasmask in time to save himself. However, one person doesn’t, and the poet describes
how the man dies in front of him. What is an obvious blow to the poet is the fact that
he can’t help the man, nobody can.
This poem starts with a feeling of tiredness. The poet uses similes such as like old
beggars. He also uses phrases like knock-kneed, coughing like hags. These tie in
with the idea of exhausted beggars. They cursed through sludge emphasizes feelings
of slow, hard movement. Words like sludge and trudge give us this energy-less
feeling by echoing sounds. We can actually picture these men.
In midst of this physically tired mood, the poet uses the phrase men marched asleep.
This is a very effective piece of imagery because it demonstrates very clearly that they
are equally mentally tired. They are marching, but they are weakened to the point
where they just go to sleep. It shows the kind of tolerance a soldier can develop to the
strenuous conditions of the war.
Another metaphor to illustrate this point is drunk with fatigue. This conveys an idea
of excess, with a word like drunk. The interesting thing here is what they are drunk
with. They are in a state where the events surrounding them are continuously over
their heads. They can’t concentrate. This point could’ve been illustrated by using
either the word drunk or the word fatigue alone, but the fact that they are used
together shows how firmly the poet is making his point.
Having introduced images of obstacles with sludge, the poet counters them with but
limped on. An especially effective choice of words, this shows just how determined
these soldiers are to get through the sludge, to survive. The usage of the word limped
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Bratislav MISIC
English Literature War Poetry
Island School
quite clever, because we know that not all of the soldiers will be limping literally, but
we can guess that they all have a wound or two. Even with these wounds they march
on, slowly, through the sludge. The poet is trying to illustrate their persistence.
The poet then describes them blood-shod. This phrase doesn’t exist in the English
language, but the poet has made it up, coined it, to create an idea, or effect. He does in
fact create both an idea and effect because of the words themselves. This phrase
would mean dressed in blood, or wearing shoes of blood. It’s a particularly clear
image, though not to be taken literally. Its effect is exactly what the poet intended –
the person who reads this would probably be disturbed, disgusted. When we think
about the phrase further, we actually ask ourselves whose blood it is, which makes the
image even more horrifying.
Next we are faced with something of a contradiction. The soldiers are determined to
survive, but they are deaf to the hoots of shells, or in other words are paying no
attention. The explanation for this is that the soldiers are so tired, worn out, that they
are half-asleep, and can’t possibly notice the shells. They must also be used to the
shells having spent all this time in the war. They can’t afford to care about the shells
anymore. If they do, they will go mad, and get “shell-shock”. The only way to go on
living for them is to develop a certain amount of tolerance. On the other hand they
might be simply too exhausted to notice. This ties in with the idea of being drunk
with fatigue.
Now we are introduced to a sneaky, abnormally slow atmosphere where shells are
dropping softly behind. This is a mere prelude to what follows. The silence breaks
into a much faster, much more intense pace. This is best described by one of the
poet’s own words, ecstasy. It conveys a feeling of exhilaration, intensity, which best
describes the type of mood that the soldiers were in at the time. If they don’t get the
masks on in time, they die.
A point of interest is that suddenly they all seem to come awake from their sleep,
except of-course the presumably newer, greener soldier, who dies eventually. This can
be explained by the assumption that we made earlier about the fact that most if not all
of the soldiers there are experienced veterans. Staying alive is second nature to them.
The poet uses lots of words like clumsy, fumbling, stumbling to further enforce his
images of confusion and ecstasy.
Much like he did in the first stanza the poet horrifies us in the second one. He
describes the man who is dying as a man in fire or lime. He is trying (and
succeeding) to portray image of a man dying violently as grotesquely as possible.
He also tends to make the gas appear as a sea, possibly because of its size, and
vastness. He uses words like drowning, sea, floundering. The sea is very powerful,
and can engulf you very easily, just like gas. The message is clear again, those who
can swim will survive.
The third stanza describes his own horror of what had happened. He says in all my
dreams before my helpless sight. This tells us three things. One, these images are so
horrifying, they still haunt him, because he sees them in his dreams. The phrase
helpless sight can be used for two interpretations. One, he blames himself for not
being able to help the poor man who was dying in front him. Two, he wishes he never
had to go through the experience of witnessing the man’s death. Either way, it shows
just how human the poet is.
To demonstrate how horrifying the image is, he says in the next line he plunges at
me, guttering, choking, drowning. If we didn’t know the rest of the poem we would
still be quite horrified. However, we know the rest, so we can see that a word like
drowning ties in with the idea of a sea. There is also another effect being produced
Mrs.Armour
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Bratislav MISIC
English Literature War Poetry
Island School
here as well, with the different lengths of words he uses. The word plunges is quite
sudden, short and violent. The words guttering, choking, drowning are slow, long
words. This word sequence produces an effect that something fell into the water, and
is slowly sinking. We can prove this theory by looking closely at what the words
guttering, choking, drowning actually mean. Guttering can associate with trying to
resist water, or when water is just beginning to enter the person. Choking tells us that
the water has gotten through, and is having it’s short-term effects on whoever
swallowed it. Drowning is the overall effect of water entering someone’s body in
large quantities.
For the next stanza the poet changes his audience to the people who haven’t
experienced this. He uses the phrase If in some smothering dreams. This tells us two
things. One, it’s a nightmare. Two, it vaguely ties in with images of drowning and
tiredness. It also conveys his own attitude to the situation. He feels it’s more like a
bad dream rather than reality.
Next he uses yet another grotesque phrase, white eyes writhing in his face. The
simple image of eyes writhing is bad enough on it’s own, but this isn’t enough for the
poet. Up to now, as with most First World War poems, we tended to imagine the
colours as dark and shadowy. However, the eyes are white. This produces a strong
contrast of colours, and therefore a strong effect. In this case it’s also a scary effect.
The following important phrase is devil’s sick of sin. This whole place, situation and
events are something so horrible, terrible, grotesque and sinful that they make even
the devil sick of them. This is particularly effective because it is ironical. The devil is
the one person that we expect to be where sin is committed, and to enjoy it.
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues. He is now shifting to blaming
whoever sent these kids to die in this horrible manner. These sores are scars, they are
vile lies. They are left on innocent, unsuspecting tongues. They are lies that will scar a
whole generation.
Up to now he has been saying to the audience if you had seen this, if you had
experienced this, etc.
Now he says to them you would not tell with such high zest, to children ardent for
some desperate glory. In other words, you wouldn’t go and be really excited to send
off some kids who just want to be important to certain death.
He addresses his audience in the next stanza as my friend. He is definitely being
sardonic. He has lived through something so horrible, he feels that no other persons
other than his comrades could even start to grasp the idea of living at the front.
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est. The fact that the word lie is spelled with a capital
means that it isn’t just any lie, it’s the lie, it is a particular lie and has been used
before. This could also been taken to mean the most untrue of all lies, the one that is
really as far away from the truth as you can get. It is an old lie. This means that it has
been used before, for other generations. Nobody knows how many age groups have
been to told this lie before, and how many died as a result. But the poet says only the
first part of the famous saying, which means it is sweet and honorable. This is the
Lie. He is trying to make a point that this saying has been manipulated by a third
party, not for the sake of the saying, but for the sake of something else.
The complete saying means: It is sweet and honorable to die for your country.
At the beginning of the poem the mood is gloomy and weary. We get a feeling that
anything can happen. There is also a squalid feeling. The poet uses words like sludge,
hags, etc.
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Bratislav MISIC
English Literature War Poetry
Island School
In the second part of the poem the atmosphere is hectic because everyone is trying to
survive. The most notable words for this are quick! and ecstasy.
The following part of the poem is the poet looking at how much damage is done to
him, and others. He is haunted by the images of the dying man. In the last part he is
angry, even sardonic. He is talking to the people at home, the people who are fed on
propaganda, who still think that the war is glorious and good. Words that best
describe his attitude towards these people are zest, and they way he addresses them –
my friend.
The poet was trying to show through a single incident of many, how horrifying war is.
He was trying to show how horrible it is there, and how different it is from what it is
described to be. He tells us that war is and has always been with Man (the old Lie).
The message is that war is like an incurable sore on a generation that has landed in
war through no fault of its own (innocent tongues). The poet is very imaginative, and
he presents us with lots of unpleasant images in order to make us feel disgust for these
events. It is as if the poem was the poet’s single-handed effort to persuade everyone
that war isn’t as good as we are told.
Disabled
by Wilfred Owen
This poem is also set in the First World War. It is about a young man who was very
popular with his friends and peers. He is influenced by them and other things of the
time to go and join the Army underage. He does so and is sent off with lots of cheers
and similar things. He gives virtually no thought as to why he is fighting, because the
rewards he thinks he’s going to get interest him more. At the front he is heavily
wounded and his legs and arm(s) are subsequently amputated. Now he is a cripple,
who has no future and nothing else to think about except how good things were
before.
This poem starts off in a very uneasy, discomforting manner, emphasized with the
words shivered, and ghastly. The man sitting in the wheeled chair is waiting for
dark, waiting for death to come and take him. This also gives a feeling of despair. His
gray suit is ghastly because it is legless, sewn short at elbow. This tells us that the
disabled person is a paraplegic, without any legs and missing at least one arm.
We learn that he is near a park, because he can hear children playing. However,
instead of making him happy, the sounds of play and pleasure ring saddening. He
feels sad because he used to play like that and have fun, and he knows he will never
be able to do it again. Through this we also learn that he is lonely.
He then remembers how lively life used to be for him, at night, when the town used
to swing so gay. He can remember how the girls used to like him, how everything
was wonderful. But whilst describing all this the poet uses past-tense, to demonstrate
that that’s the way things were, and never will be again. This was all in the old times,
before he threw away his knees. The usage of the phrase threw away is particularly
effective because it shows how the poet feels about his sacrifice. He feels it was
useless and uncalled for.
Now the girls touch him like some queer disease. They don’t even want to come near
him, for he isn’t as handsome as before. We know he was handsome because there
was an artist silly for his face.
Now he’s old, his back will never brace. He has aged abnormally from the hot race.
I think the two lines in the middle of this stanza are very well written. He’s lost his
colour very far from here, Poured it down shell holes till the veins ran dry.
Mrs.Armour
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Bratislav MISIC
English Literature War Poetry
Island School
Again, we see how the poet feels about it when he uses the word poured – he
obviously thinks it’s a waste. The phrase veins ran dry is very important here. If they
ran dry, it means he lost some blood. But I think that poet only uses this as
symbolism. It really means his life-blood, the very stuff that made him a young man. I
feel that this is very powerful, very effective imagery.
Next, typical of Wilfred Owen , we get yet another vivid piece of imagery. And leap
of purple spurted from his thigh. Firstly, it ties in with the words from the previous
line, like lapsed, and race. This is used to demonstrate again how the poet feels about
war – a pointless race. Apart from that, the image itself is very powerful. We can now
probably deduce that his leg was amputated above the thigh. The following stanza
brings some irony here, because it says he liked a blood-smear down his leg.
In this stanza we learn that he was very popular, very good at football, and that he was
intoxicated when he joined up – when he’d drunk a peg. Everyone said he should,
either because he would look a god in kilts, or to please his Meg, etc.
Smiling they wrote his lie: aged nineteen years. This line tells us that the people at
the recruitment office were quite happy for someone underage to join. The poet is
trying to paint them as heartless people who can live with their conscience (smiling)
even though they have sent a boy off to near-certain death.
The second-last stanza tells us of how he didn’t care about what war was fought over.
He thought of how celebrated he will be - jewelled hilts, smart salutes. Actually this
way of describing what he was thinking of is quite effective, because it seems so very
fine, and very grand, eg. daggers in plaid socks.
He also thought of comradeship and team spirit, which the poet describes as Esprit de
corps. All these things had motivated him to come to the front and yet he never gave
any thought to the dangers or why he was going to fight.
An interesting phrase in this stanza is and no fears of Fear came yet. It means that
the boy wasn’t yet afraid that he might be afraid at the front. Fear is personified here
to some extent, though not fully. The poet is trying to make us imagine an average
person, and what they were fighting for in the war. The reason for this is that the poet
considers it to be a major issue, or concept, that is in the mind of every new recruit.
We also learn how cheerfully he was sent off to the front, though he comes back
without any drums or cheers, only a solemn man who brought his fruits…and
then enquired about his soul – a priest. This, no doubt, would have been a savage
blow to the man. He had fought underage, gave up his legs, his youth and life, just so
a priest can welcome him home. How ironic. This idea about a priest ties in with the
ideas about death that are introduced at the beginning of the poem.
The last stanza is really the poet just enforcing his point – how war can ruin a man.
He will spend a few sick years in institutes – he has no future to consider. He is now
dependant on other people’s mercy, whatever pity they may dole.
The last two lines repeat the question why don’t they come? In a way, they are just
enforcing the feeling of weariness, anxiety, despair that is constant throughout the
poem. This demonstrates what the man must feel like. The poet is being very brutal in
his approach in a sense that he exposes the reader to some of the most unpleasant
feelings a human can experience.
The mood of this poem is despairing and sad throughout. The man shivers in his
ghastly suit of gray. There is always a sense of how the poet is saying to us, “Look
what he went out and did and where it got him.” We always feel pity for the man. He
is a working definition of the term ‘loser’. There is always a feeling that the man has
no future – his back will never brace, etc.
Mrs.Armour
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CMA
Bratislav MISIC
English Literature War Poetry
Island School
The pace is also very slow to emphasize the sadness of the situation – so we pity the
man.
I’m sure the poet didn’t want us to think the man was stupid because he joined, just
naïve. By disgusting us in this way he makes sure we never get the idea the man was
brave or anything like that. The message is clear: he gave away his life for no reason.
Comparisons
We can easily make comparisons between the poems because the poet is the same.
We can see some patterns in his style. He always uses very clear, descriptive images
to provoke disgust in the reader. He uses phrases like leap of purple, white eyes
writhing, blood-shod, etc. He describes war as very devastating to all those involved.
For example, the men in the first part of Dulce et decorum est are compared with old
beggars and hags. He makes his point through irony. They come all the way to
France. They come to fight for glory and their nation, to preserve their lifestyle. They
find the war is exactly opposite of what they had imagined. It isn’t for their nation,
their nation doesn’t care when they come back disabled. It isn’t for glory, because its
basically groups of young men killing eachother in the most horrible of ways. Finally
they live in rat and lice infested holes in the ground – the very reason they came to
fight was so they wouldn’t live like that.
This best relates to the life of Owen himself. When he joined the war he was
intoxicated by the lies. He was dedicated, and patriotic. However, when he came there
the things he saw and the things he lived through totally changed the way he thought
about the war. He felt he was betrayed by the old men in the government, that they
lied to him.
This brings us to another important aspect of Owen’s writing. In both poems the
young men that join are not stupid, but naïve. They don’t really know what the war is
about. They are just there because they look good in uniform, or because they think
they will somehow be glorified. In one of the poems, Owen says children ardent of
some desperate glory. In another he says Germans he scarcely thought of. He
effectively shows how he and millions of other unfortunate young men felt in that
patriotic moment. To Owen it is not the young men’s fault that they got tricked.
However, he never seems to say outright who tricked the young men. He refers to the
old Lie, but never directly to anyone in particular. I think that this phrase holds the
key. As I said before if it is an old lie it has been used before. What Owen thinks is
that war is just something that Man does, and always will do. However, we know that
he was a soldier committed to his duties, so we can tell that he is completely against
war. He doesn’t like it, but seems to accept it. It is partially the fault of the people
who talk with high zest, and the naïve children ardent for some desperate glory. In
the end, he is only trying to show us the darker side of our nature and what it is
capable of doing to us.
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