... Compare and Contrast “The Charge of the Light Brigade” and “Dulce Et Decorum Est” In this essay you will notice the differences and similarities between “The Charge of the Light Brigade” and “Dulce Et Decorum Est”. “The Charge of the Light Brigade” was written in the nineteenth century by Alfred Lord Tennyson. In contrast, “Dulce Et Decorum Est” was written in the twentieth century by Wilfred Owen. The main similarity observed is that they both capture wartime experiences. However, the poets’ present these events using their own style and the effect is two completely different observations of war. The themes of the two poems are portrayed in very distinctive ways. “The Charge of the Light Brigade” explains in a majestic approach that fighting in war is something every soldier should honor. The poem is also about the loyalty of the soldiers, not the bad luck or foolishness of men. Tennyson presents this in his poem to show the bravery of the soldiers, although, he only highlights on the benefits of war. Tennyson’s poem glorifies the war, celebrating the sacrifice they had made for their country with the statement “Honor the charge they made”, (“The Charge of the Light Brigade”, line 51, Tennyson). By glorifying the Brigade, Tennyson has ignored the obscurity and massacre of the war. This is shown by the loyalty that the soldiers have for their country. The commitment of war in “The Charge of the Light...
Words: 1868 - Pages: 8
...Why is imagery so important in Wilfred Owen’s poem ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’? The Imagery used in Wilfred Owen’s ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is a very important part of the poem; it is a very powerful tool when used correctly, and in Wilfred’s case he uses imagery very well to convey his point. The poem is about a soldiers experiences in the trenches at the Somme during World War One; what the soldiers had to deal with and how it affected them. When you read the poem you get a feeling of the harsh realities of war and what they endured from a currently serving soldier’s point of view. You also get a feeling of his thought on the Latin quote ‘Dulce et Decorum Est Pro patria mori’ (Horace.Odes.3.2), which roughly translates to ‘It is sweet and right to die for your country’, and how opposed he is to the lure of the quote, used to recruit young men into the army. Firstly I will examine and look at what imagery is and why it is used. Once we understand this I will examine how Wilfred Own used imagery in this poem and to what extent. I will look at what the poem is about and what message the writer is trying to get across to the reader, and what use of literary devices are used to help in this. By understanding why and how Wilfred used imagery we will be able to better understand the importance of it in his work. Imagery is important to any poet or writer; imagery is what you see in your mind when you are reading. Imagery to the writer is as colour would be to a painter, it is used to give...
Words: 925 - Pages: 4
...In the poem “Dulce et Decorum est,” the author Wilfred Owen describes how war is hell. Men are pushed savagely across wildernesses to battle against their greatest fears. During the progressive era of World War I the use of barbaric tools of destruction were used in the midst of the war. Chemical Warfare was introduced and new mechanical demands were developed to destroy men’s hopes of freedom. Men feared each other because of the deeds they would perform to survive. Wilfred Owen transmits in words the emotions that men felt as death rained down upon them. Through Wilfred Owen’s poem, “Dulce et Decorum est,” he argues that men’s ethics had to be destroyed because of the will to conquer and survive, he portrays the logic behind a soldiers’ minds...
Words: 1205 - Pages: 5
... A wise man once said that “It is sweet and glorious to die for one's country”, but over the years war has proved him wrong and with the poem “Dulce et Decorum est” Wilfred Owen wonderfully explains why he is wrong. “Dulce et Decorum est” is about a World War I veteran who tells the reader about an incident where the narrators company is ambushed by mustard gas and one of his allies die gruesomely. In “Five Day Requiem for Vietnam” by Nan Braymer, the author tells the reader about the Vietnam War and how the people did not want it to occur but the government made it happen. Both “Five Day requiem for Vietnam” by Nan Braymer and “Dulce et Decorum est” by Wilfred Owen use of allusions to show the good and evil to convey the theme that human nature has many facets and complexities, but Braymer...
Words: 893 - Pages: 4
...contrasts are ‘The Solider’ and ‘Dulce et Decorum est’. In ‘The Solider’, Rupert Brooke illustrates how a soldier is reflecting on the possible death going away to war may bring. Although from his opinion his death if so was to happen shouldn’t be mourned and his death will be a tribute to his England. When compared to Wilfred Owen’s ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ the views are far from similar. Brooke states dying for your country is honourable where as Owen interprets dying for your country is not all glory and honour and more pain and suffering. Both poets desire different forms to present their poems. ‘The Solider’ is a sonnet which suits Brookes type of poems as he romantises the theme of war ‘The Solider’ is very much as well a love poem to his idealized England. Where as Owen opts for the more simple 8. 8. 11, Owen doesn’t seem to have a solid form as Brookes does. They both share the rhyming pattern of ABABCDCD which allow their poems to flow and create rhythm. The structure ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ can be broken down into three parts, an outsiders description and recollection of events featuring soldiers withdrawing from the frontline, a man within the battle himself, and a addressing to the reader of confrontation to those who share the idealistic view of war. Owens poem creates a build up towards his main point in which he finishes off with ‘The Old lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro Patria mori’. From Owens experiences ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ acts as a warning and a...
Words: 643 - Pages: 3
...Departing Death The speakers of Out, Out-, Dulce et Decorum Est and Ozymandias express a particular relationship to the deceased. The writers from each poem allow the speaker to analyze death from their own experiences throughout life. Within the three poems, each has a different extension of the deceased, grief and death that allows for multiple comparisons of the meaning of existence. In the poem Out, Out-, the speaker has a very close relationship with the deceased. The poem begins with the speaker laboring beside the boy just before the boy’s sister tells them “supper,” implying that the speaker has a close relationship with the characters in the poem. The following lines from the poem hint that the speaker is in fact the boy’s father, “His sister stood beside them in her apron/ To tell them ‘Supper.’” (126). As the poem progresses, the boy’s hand gets cut off from the saw. The speaker and the boy’s sister rush him to a doctor, where the boy would eventually bleed to death leaving the family in shock and disbelief. In the final two lines, the remaining family decides to continue on with their lives, “No more to build on there. And they, since they/ Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.” (127). The speaker of Out, Out- displays a clear and simple reaction to grief and death in the final lines of the poem. The speaker’s son dies toward the end of the poem. As a father, this is a devastating loss to him and to his family. The speaker is shocked and couldn’t...
Words: 1092 - Pages: 5
...Wilfred Owen essay draft. The First World War rained havoc on the population of Great Britain and Europe between the years 1914 and 1918, causing catastrophe to the soldiers and their families. As well as many other European countries, Britain used propaganda as a tool and to make life on the front line sound more appealing to the average man. Propaganda posters were used to lure people into fight and to make those who decided not to fight appear as cowards among the other men that signed up. The propaganda worked and caused a positive opinion towards men going out to fight; which made more men go out to war and hope to come back as heroes. Many poets wrote about the things that occurred in World War One, such as, Wilfred Edward Salter Owen, who was one of the leading poets of the First World War. Born on the 18th March 1893, Owen was drafted into the army and he fought for Great Britain, which lead to his shocking, realistic war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare, which are mentioned in poems such as, ‘Dulce et Decorum est’, ‘Futility’ and ‘The Sentry’. His presence in the fighting for his country led him into being able to capture the life of the people on the front line and how it wasn’t glamorous as promoted to be and in reality it was a constant battle to stay alive even when not at front line. In addition to this, poets such as: Jessie Pope also wrote about World War One, Pope never was on the front line like Owen, or even been in a trench. Also...
Words: 1114 - Pages: 5
...Dulce Et Docorum Est by Wilfred Owen The World War One poet, Wilfred Owen, wrote two poems named ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ and ‘Disabled’. The main themes running throughout both poems are that of the pain and worthlessness of war, and the crime towards the young soldiers it was. The beginning and ending of these two poems link these ideas through the use of imagery contrast and language features. The poem ‘disabled’ begins by describing a physically and mentally destroyed soldier, clearly a result of war, welcoming darkness to come and end his misery by taking him away. The image of a “wheeled chair” implies that he is disabled and probably dependent on others. Legless, sewn short at elbow” further implies the disability of the persona. Wilfred Owen describes him as a ‘ghastly suit of grey’ painting a picture of a colourless and lifeless man, an idea that is driven home through the use of the word ghastly, which the reader may easily mistake for ‘ghostly’. “Voices of boys rang saddening” reminds him of the old times when he used to be like them, playing and enjoying himself. The language used in this description of these boys carries very positive connotations, ‘play and pleasure’, in contrast to the dull words used to describe the wounded soldier. Darkness fell too quickly for these boys who were forced to end their games and retire inside, unlike the soldier who welcomed nightfall. The two contrasting sentences are used as juxtaposition, and set up the main theme of the...
Words: 829 - Pages: 4
...Lit of War 10/30/15 Comparison The poem "Dulce et decorum est" by Wilfred Owen has a lot In common with "All Quiet on the Western Front." By Erich Remarque although Remarque never fought in the first World War he still is able to write about the tragedies of war. In Owen’s "Dulce et Decorum est" it is a vividly descriptive war poem, In which Owen describes the horrors of trench warfare during the Great War in great details. Although the imagery Remarque uses in the book “All Quiet on the Western Front” is much more detailed then the poem as it has more time to describe everything. Some people think that “The fields are flat” is a better description as it gives the book in general a bit more feeling. Whereas in the poem, Owen uses lots of short hard hitting words and sentences to get the point across while being extremely descriptive such as "Obscene as cancer" The poem gives a much more immediate effect in a shorter space of time which allows the readers to paint a picture in their minds...
Words: 840 - Pages: 4
...Soldiers are often idolized in society for their bravery. While this is positive because they courageously risk their lives to protect others, the trauma soldiers face is rarely addressed. Often the stories one is told will not be used to incite fear, but to encourage a person to enlist, similar to the many others soldiers who have patriotically fought before them. In Luigi Pirandello’s War and Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est, they criticize society’s use of patriotism as a means to manipulate people into suffering in service of their country. The author’s take different approaches to conveying this message, resulting in the texts having different tones. Patriotism as a rationale may convince a person to do something, but it is not enough...
Words: 1069 - Pages: 5
...Jeff Liao English 1 H 2 September 2011 Dulce et Decorum Est The poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” let readers visualize the scenes of war, it shows how painful and frighten is to die for your own country. Owen used lots of strong and ugly word like “yelling, stumbling, choking, drowning…etc.” to let the reader illustrate how vile and inhumane it actually is. Owen use “Dulce et Decorum Est” as a title, it is a Latin phrase which means “it is sweet and honorable to die for your country”. It give readers a false sense of the poem, it makes them think that this poem is definitely about a heroic guy did something great in the war, like sacrifice himself for the country. At the end, Owen continues his poem by ending that the title is a lie. In this poem, the speaker describe the scenes in the battlefield, he want the readers to image it. The poem start off with a simile “like old beggars under sacks”, which compare men to beggars. There are tons of imagery in hear, like “From gargling blood to cancer-like sores, we've got it all’, describe that soldier's body breaks down completely. There aren’t too many allusions here, but there is a good one, in line 20 “devil” is always about bad stuff. The poem is rhyme in (ababcdcdefef). In stanza1, the speaker describes that the soldiers are like old beggars, crawling over dead bodies on the ground, tries to get through enemies defense. Until almost the end for the day, the soldiers turn away from the lights and noise, and head back to where...
Words: 661 - Pages: 3
...Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est, is gory portrayal of the helplessness of soldiers who are caught in a gas bomb. Dulce is well known for its criticism of war propaganda and the glorification of war through the old lie ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’. Owen directs his main criticism at another war poet, Jessica Pope, who wrote a poem urging impressionable young men to fight in the war as they would be seen as heroes by their country. The poem directly detests Pope’s ideals of War as Owen himself has experienced the torment of War and has not experienced the things Pope speaks about in her poem. Straight away in the first stanza Owen confronts the readers with the horrific image of soldiers displaced by the war in poor physical state. Instead of the...
Words: 391 - Pages: 2
...Jasmine Wright Prof. Riveland ENG 102-078 March 4, 2015 War Experiences: Vietnam Between the 1950-1980’s, soldiers were busy with fighting for our country. The Vietnam War had a huge impact on America. It began in 1954 and more than 3 million people were killed. In class, we read three pieces of literature related to the conflict, Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen, and Vietnam: The Loss of American Innocence by Terry Leonard. Two of the literatures giving a feel of what it was like to fight a war or even be living during the time of the war and the last one telling the events that took place during the time of the war. No one that wasn’t living during the time of the war does not know exactly what it was like, but can give an opinion on what it might have been like. In Things They Carried and Dulce et Decorum Est, two stories that convey the experience during the war. Things They Carried conveyed the way of life. The author, Tim O’Brien, kept emphasis on the things they carried, which symbolized things that meant the most to them. He did not incorporate the bad, ugly and terror of the war, but gave an idea when he included Ted Lavender’s death. Family and loved one’s that the soldiers left back home meant the world to them. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was a character that showed how their loved ones were missed. He was in love with a girl back home, Martha, he kept her letters with him everywhere he went. When Lavender was killed...
Words: 810 - Pages: 4
...How does “Anthem for Doomed Youth” and “Dulce et Decorum Est” present Wilfred Owen’s thoughts and feelings towards the war? Wilfred Owen was born in Oswestry on 18th March 1893. After school, he became a teaching assistant and in 1913 went to France for two years to work as a language tutor. In 1915 he returned to England to enlist in the army and was commissioned into the Manchester Regiment. After spending the remainder of the year training in England, he left for the western front early in January 1917. He was diagnosed with shellshock after experiencing heavy fighting and was evacuated to England to recover at Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh in June. Anthem for Doomed Youth and Dulce et Decorum est were written in 1917, during Owen’s time at Craiglockhart. Here, he was able to write some of his best work. He also met the poet Siegfried Sassoon here, who was already a well-established poet. Sassoon agreed to look over Owen's poems, gave him encouragement and introduced him to literary figures such as Robert Graves. Owen conveys his feelings towards the war through the many poems he wrote, especially while being treated at Craiglockhart. His poems give the reader a sense of what it was like to be a militant during conflict. His poetry is characterised by powerful descriptions of the conditions faced by soldiers in the trenches. His poems are sometimes violent and realistic, challenging earlier poetry which communicated a pro-war message. His first-hand experience...
Words: 2313 - Pages: 10
...to the innocent young soldiers who endured disquieting circumstances to suffer the complete suffocation of their mental and physical spirit; that is, they were reduced to a disheartening morbid state. Through the study of both ‘Anthem For Doomed Youth’ and ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est.’ Nonetheless, not all of Owen’s poems focus on the circumstance of soldiers some of his poems condemn those who send the young to war, providing them with “the old lie” that it is honorable to die for one’s country. Ultimately, Owen conveys his admiration of the sacrifice to engage in war, and shows how even ordinary people experience extraordinary circumstances. War’s relentless horror is exposed as Owen’s critical truth in ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est.’ structural manipulation, enhanced through poetic voice, allows Owen to graphically capture the horrific experience of a gas attack and its physical and psychological impact on the ordinary soldier. The appearance of traditional lyrics in full rhyme ‘sacks/backs … sludge/trudge’ is effectively destabilized by varied length, extinguishing conventional iambic pentameter just as traditional form and notions of war as noble and heroic became obsolete in 20th century modern warfare. Drawing us in as surrogate participants to ‘an ecstasy of fumbling’, Owen’s dramatic exclamation, ‘Gas! GAS! Quick boys!’ provokes a frenzy of action, present tense escalating the pace, adding to the realism. Clearly ironizing Horace’s ode, ‘Dulce et Decorum est Pro Patria Mori’, Owen...
Words: 1693 - Pages: 7
