Contrasting the title, “Dulce et Decorum Est” exhibits nothing honorable or patriotic about war. His writing

of an ironic title points to the hypocrisy of citizens who continue to preach war’s nobility (Miller 120). In war,

unfortunately, not even the witness claims heroism, but instead “[i]n all [his] dreams before [his] helpless sight,

[t]he [dying soldier] plunges at [him](15-16)” (LaBlanc 114). Then, Owen suggests that if you too witnessed these

memories, they would “smother” (17) your conscience and convince you of the horrors (LaBlanc 111). Therefore,

in World War I, the Germans were not the enemies. The real enemy, even though not even mentioned in the

poem, becomes the memory of the “helpless” (17) soldier “choking” (16) which never vanishes (Moran 117). When

Owen states “[i]f you could hear” (21) “[i]n some smothering dream” (17), he implies that, ultimately, whether

the soldiers experience these scenes in dreams or reality does not matter, the agony remains the same (Miller

120). Not only does the “you” and “my friend” imply the reader, but also it implies his “friend”, Jesse Pope who

wrote children's stories contrary to Owen’s opinion (Simcox). By asking citizens to “not tell with such high zest to

children ardent for...glory, the old Lie” (25-27), Owen presents his declaration for teachers and recruiters to not

recommend enlisting (Miller 120). Through his grotesque phrases and haunting details, Owen forces the reader to

“confront the ugly reality of war...[usually] mask[ed] behind fine phrases” (Miller 120).

Written to inform about the “realistic portrait of the brutality of war” (LaBlanc 111), Owen describes through

sensory imagery the appalling death of a soldier and its consequences. In this appalling world, the soldiers are

seen as unmanly and are reduced down to “old beggars” (1) and “hags” (2) (Lutz 121). These “beggars” (1) and

“hags” (2), who once were strong men, are left to struggle in a miserable world where they suffer but “seem as

they will go indefinitely. This status, however,” dramatically changes with the “explosive violence of the second

stanza” (Lablanc 110). The soldiers are hit by gas as Owen describes the scene as them “fumbling” (9) to quickly

get their helmets on. This unheroic side of warfare, “being fought in the trenches with gas...is nothing like the

idealized scenes of the one-on-one strife of valorous heroes fighting” (Miller 121). Owen paints the gruesome

image of a soldier perishing by gas, but the soldier dying is not to be focused on. However “it is on the man

condemned to replay this grisly scene again and again in his tortured sleep” (LaBlanc 112). At the end of the poem

it is the poet who “is one haunted by the memory of battle” (Moran 117) and now feels obligated to “reveal the

ugly truth of war to the world, and warn others of the danger of romanticizing the truth” (Lablanc 113).

The citizens of the world who romanticize the war and forget its horrificness fail to complete their responsibility

of providing for their young soldiers who (Terrinoni), “die as cattle” (1). Therefore, “Anthem for Doomed Youth”

starts with the picture of a battlefield described as a slaughterhouse for the “cattle”. Furthermore, the “passingbells”(1) ,like cowbells, again hints at the mockery made of the soldiers in battle (Parfitt). This can be viewed as

a “derogatory comparison with the animal world” of the situations the soldiers face. Owen again uses this poem

as an opportunity to criticize “those who present war as an unavoidable necessity”. Rather than an anthem, which

denotes celebration, “Anthem for Doomed Youth” evokes pity from the reader, almost like a prayer. Meanwhile, a

prayer provides some consolation for the one praying (Terrinoni). This poem, solely written to remind readers of

the individuality of each soldier, never focuses on the consolation of the families.

To inform readers about the “parody of a [soldier’s] funeral” and death, Owen wrote “Anthem for Doomed Youth”,

his sonnet, as a “mockery”. Capturing the real horror of a soldier’s death, Owen compares a real funeral to a

soldier’s funeral. First, the narrator compares the deaths of soldiers to “die as cattle” (1), which suggests the

shocking scene of a slaughterhouse. Again, the mention of their “passing-bells” insinuates cowbells, another

reference to a slaughterhouse (Parfitt). Then, at their parodic funeral, the soldiers receive a brutal service,

involving the “stuttering rifles’” (3) praying, and the “choirs...of wailing shells singing” (7). When asked about

these kind of experiences in the war, Owen answered that he “tr[ied] not to remember [those memories], but

when he attempted, he “watched [his] dreams”, where the horrors reborn (Stallworthy 105). By ending the

poem with the grief of the mourners, Owen changes the poem from satire, to elegy, thus altering the meaning

of the poem. To remind the reader that each soldier lived their own personal lives, Owen includes the mention of

mourners in the last quatrain and couplet. Explaining the subject of “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, Owen illustrated

that he was not concerned with poetry, and only with the “subject [of] war, and the pity of war” (Parfitt).

Again expressing “the pity of war” through his poem “Exposure”, the narrator expresses soldiers dying from

“exposure to the elements rather than the monstrous anger of the guns”. Owen feels that this form of death,

although no less tragic, becomes lost behind the heroic patriotism of most wars (Stanley). To “examin[e] the

sensations of soldiers slowly freezing to death”(Williams), Owen “gives a worm’s eye view... [of a] passive

suffering” (Stanley). With a change of view in “Exposure”, Owen states how the “[s]udden succesive flight of

bullets...[appear] [l]ess deadly than the air that shudders black with snow” (16,17). While the soldiers fight not

only a war, but the “iced east winds” (1), Owen uses warm and ironic images of the ones depicting “the fires of

home”. This home-front that the narrator depicts, “chooses not to see [the] pain” and suffering of the soldiers

on the front line, but instead turns to God who will “ultimately [kill the soldiers] with no pity” (Stanley). If these

soldiers returned home, they would be welcomed with “shutters and doors all closed”(6). As the poem progresses,

the lives of the soldiers do not. Owen states four times that “nothing happens” (5,15,20,40), with the only

exception to this with “tiny changes” in the time of day, weather, and progress in war (Williams). Throughout the

poem, Owen achieves his goal of expressing to the reader “cold indifference of nature” (Stanley).