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 meaning and depth to a passage, and you could say it is the soul of the work. A passage without imagery would just be a single group of words not striking anyone with any particular importance. Wilfred Owen writes in his poem ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, ‘Only the monstrous anger of the guns.’ If we were to remove this imagery from this sentence we would have ‘Only the guns’. By Wilfred’s use