Wilfred Owen’s Use of Poetic Devices in The Poem Dulce Et Decorum Est

Children grow up believing that war and fighting for their country is the most honorable thing to do. In the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est, the author is saying that dying for your country is sweet and prideful. The poem shows the propaganda that dying in war is honorable. Wilfred Owen expresses that war is not sweet and honoring as people may be told or perceived as. He shows this in the poem through imagery describing the surrounding of the troops and the cacophonic words in the whole poem shows a displeasing tone and mood. Lastly, the poem itself says, that the saying Dulce Et Decorum Est is misleading children, that death is not sweet even if it is for your country.

Throughout the entire poem, the author uses poetic devices to explain the depth and true meaning of the poem. In this poem harsh, sharp sounds are being said. These sounds are cacophonic sounding words, which bring out the idea of unpleasantness. One example of this being uses is “His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,/ If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood/ Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs/ Bitter as the cud”. Jolt, sick, devil, gargling, etc. are words that were used to describe the story in the poem. The author uses these phrases because he wants to show and support the meaning within the poem in a poetic way. He shows the reality of war through the story of these soldiers, which supports why Dulce Et Decorum Est is a lie. Shows that war is not sweet and dying in war is horrible, which is supported by the cacophony in the poem. If the author didn't use cacophony the message wouldn't seem as solid and hole, with these words the author can make a bigger impact on the audience.

Another poetic device that is used to support the idea that children are being misled to think that war is the best thing, is imagery. Imagery is used a lot in this poem to elaborate on the setting of the poem. For example, “All went lame, all blind;/ Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots/ Of gas-shells dropping softly behind”. In this line of the poem, Wilfred Owen uses aural, visual and even some tactile. Owen uses these at the beginning of the poem to help the reader visualize the environment of the story. These devices show true feelings and physical feelings to the reader by the way they are presented. Another time when Owen uses imagery is in line 14 “As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.” This shows the support to the message, how the soldier died was not courageous, nor prideful, he suffered and was sort of tortured till he died. He might have been told as a child or even an adult that dying for your country is courageous and proud, he might have joined the army because of that and he dies a horrible death because of it. Others may honor your memory as a hero but was that worth your life and even the death that he got.

The last thing that the author uses to support his claim, is his use of end rhyme. In the poem there is a lot of end rhyme going on and that is one thing that makes it such a good poem and message, that we even use it in school. Owen used “sacks/ sludge/ back/ trudge/ boots/ blind/ hoofs/ behinds” the end of lines 1-8 to create an end rhyme ABABCDCD. The author used these to show the connection with the different lines without having to put them both in one line. The way that this enhances the poem is to give it rhythm and have a flow, to make the poem cleaner and easier to read. The way that this supports the claim is because rhymes give a emotional experience to the poetry and causes the reader to think back to other parts of the poem because it rhymes. With this the author can create a deeper meaning to the poem that the readers can find and understand.

With the poem Dulce et decorum est, Wilfred Owen conveys the message that the saying Dulce et decorum est is not provided the right way, that people are being misled by a simple saying that gets told to a lot, dying in the war in proud and honorable. This is supported by the author’s use of cacophonic words and imagery and hiding his opinion in the poem itself. Owen created this so that people could see reality through the eyes of the soldiers and war through his poem, which would help a lot of people in deciding what they think is right.