Matthew Breske
Professor McIntire
English 1213-MW1
01 December 2012
The True Definition of Courage
After reading the poem "Dulce Et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen, I realized, based on my own personal combat experiences and the combat experiences of Owen, the only word that could possibly describe the poem was courage. Throughout my time in the military, I have been instructed that courage is one of the fourteen leadership traits. Traits are qualities of thoughts and actions, which, if demonstrated in daily activities, help warriors earn the respect, confidence, and loyal cooperation of fellow warriors. There are two different kinds of courage. Moral courage is having the inner strength to stand up for what is right and to accept blame when something is your fault. The second is physical courage, which means that you can continue to function effectively when there is physical danger present. No matter the specific type of courage, both allow the warrior to remain calm and continue with the mission while recognizing fear, which is precisely what the young infantryman demonstrated in the poem and what Owen, personally demonstrated in combat during World War I.
Growing up in the country as I did, I tend to think I was pretty much the same as other young boys that spent their lives in the country. I went hunting, fishing, watched war movies, listened to stories of World War II and Vietnam from my grandfather and father, ran through the woods while playing war with the neighborhood kids, and had those grand visions of rushing into a hail of enemy gunfire to save the day. Much later in my life, I would come to realize that all of my childhood visions of war were quite far from the truth. Those spectacular feats and the glamour portrayed in war movies only happen in Hollywood. They are also a product of someone’s youthful memories of playing war. Although I have not earned a college degree or any other certificate that would officially designate me as an expert in courage, I do have twenty-two years of experience as a Combat Corpsman with multiple combat tours. Even though I have never rushed into a barrage of enemy gunfire to win a battle, I have been on the receiving end of enemy gunfire, returned fire, drug wounded comrades out of the line of fire, and held onto dying men while trying to save their life. That in itself should suffice as deeming me as a relevant and reliable source, by which the following is my own personal interview used to support the claim of courage.
Moral Courage is not a complicated concept; it is merely the act of doing the right thing when it is much easier to do otherwise. It is often said that human beings have a "moral compass" inside, an invisible mechanism that automatically points people toward the right thing to do. Sometimes circumstances can shake your compass so badly that, for a time, it no longer points true. However, when you reflect on your values, the compass needle always seems to set you on the right course. At some point in everyone’s life, there has been an incident of some type that no one has witnessed, except you. Moreover, if you just walk away you could pretend as if it never happened, quite possibly saving yourself hundreds of dollars, lots of embarrassment, or even time in jail, but that moral compass inside takes over and points you in the right direction. It helps you make the right decision and in turn, you do the right thing. The entirety of the poem is one big example of moral courage. All of the young infantrymen used their moral compass to point them in the right direction and by standing up for what they believed in, they had the moral courage to join the military, endure countless days, weeks and months of intense training, with many shedding blood, sweat, and tears. In addition, all of them were following their moral compass and had the moral courage to rise and fight against the evil German army.
Although not quite as important as moral courage, physical courage also plays an important role. Physical courage is probably what comes to mind when people think about the military in combat. They have grand images of brave men, rushing into a hail of gunfire, fighting to save their brother-in-arms, or fighting back untold numbers of the enemy, as most war movies depict. There are just as many, if not more, untold stories of battlefield valor as there are of the ones told; stories that might describe warriors who have gone above and beyond the call of duty like John Basilone, Audie Murphy, Robert Ingram, and Michael Murphy. Within the poem, there are also a few examples that exemplify the true military definition of physical courage, the mental quality that recognizes fear of danger, but enables a man to proceed in the face of it with calmness and firmness. “Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots. But limped on, blood-shod” (Owen), and “Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind” (Owen), but they continued to fight. The title of the poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est” (Owen), only uses a part of the original phrase, but in its entirety it is “Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori” (Owen), and when translated from Latin, means, “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country” (Horace). When read by some, it might come across as a quite sick and twisted phrase, and after reading the poem, it is apparent the young infantryman uses the phrase with a cynical tone. How could anyone think that dying for one’s country is sweet and fitting? Moments before the infantryman had spoken those words he had been in intense combat. He watched as a fellow warrior slowly and painfully lost his life. The warrior died due to not donning his protective gas mask quickly enough during a deadly chemical warfare attack which spread a lethal gas. Because of watching those events, the infantryman surely felt like winning the war or even surviving the war was a hopeless feat. Even though the warrior uses Horace’s phrase of “Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori” with a cynical tone, the fact remains, he had to use courage to survive in combat up to the point in the war which he was currently at. He also had to use courage to continue with the remainder of the war. The two aforementioned examples of courage are acts that I am sure most civilians, along with warriors’ alike, hope and pray they will never have to endure, and are aspects of combat most do not realize. “The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war” (MacArthur). As previously stated, courage has two components; physical and moral. We focus on the physical aspect of courage the most, because society thinks it is what makes heroes, rushing into that all-famous hail of gunfire. However, moral courage is the true center of courage, making the right decision and doing the right thing when so much could be at stake. However, both examples are overwhelmingly displayed in many ways within Owen’s poem "Dulce Et Decorum Est." Owen wrote forty-six firsthand experience war poems and he ultimately gave the greatest sacrifice one could give to their country, his life. In October of 1918, he won the Military Cross by seizing a German machine-gun and used it to kill a number of Germans. On 4 November 1918, he was shot and killed near the village of Ors, France. The news of his death reached his parents home as the Armistice bells were ringing on 11 November 1918. This is one of the many reasons why the word courage has such a deep meaning to myself, and why without hesitation, I chose to use it as the interpretation of Wilfred Owen’s poem.

Works Cited
Horace. "Translators Note." Trans. A. S. Kline. Horace 'The Odes' Book III. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. p. Web 24 Nov. 2012. http://poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/HoraceOdesBkIII.htm>.
MacArthur, Douglas. “Farewell Speech to West Point.” General Douglas MacArthur's Farewell Speech to West Point. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2012. http://www.nationalcenter.org/MacArthurFarewell.html>.
Owen, Wilfred. “Dulce Et Decorum Est.” Reading Literature and Writing Argument. Custom Edition for Oklahoma City Community College. Eds. Missy James and Alan P. Merickel. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2008. 183. Print.
Owen, Wilfred. “Dulce Et Decorum Est,” Text of Poem and Notes. Wilfred Owen, Dulce Et Decorum Est, Text of Poem and Notes. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2012. http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html>.