Dulce et Decorum Est – Summary & Analysis
In Short
- The poem depicts exhausted, dying soldiers marching through the mud of a World War I trench during a gas attack
- In the opening stanza, soldiers are described as bent double, coughing, covered in mud—barely human, moving like beggars
- Many soldiers have lost their boots and are marching barefoot, "blood-shod," moving toward distant rest
- The soldiers are so exhausted they march as if asleep, deaf to the sound of gas-shells approaching
- A sudden gas attack erupts, and soldiers scramble frantically to put on their gas masks
- One soldier fails to get his mask on in time and dies an agonizing death from chemical gas
- The speaker witnesses this death and describes the soldier drowning in the thick green gas as if under a green sea
- The soldier chokes and gasps, his white eyes writhing in his face, blood gargling from his corrupted lungs
- Owen addresses the reader directly: if you witnessed this horrific death, you would understand the truth
- Owen calls patriotic slogans about dying for one's country "the old Lie," directly quoting the Latin phrase from Horace
Dulce et Decorum Est– Line by Line Analysis
Stanza I (Lines 1-8): The March—Exhaustion and Dehumanization
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
The poem opens with a shocking comparison: "Bent double, like old beggars under sacks." The soldiers are not described with dignity or heroism but compared to the lowest, most wretched members of society—homeless beggars. They are not merely tired; they are bent, their bodies broken by exhaustion and hardship. The image is deliberately dehumanizing.
"Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge" intensifies the degradation. The soldiers are coughing like old women (hags), their knees knocking together in weakness. They are cursing—expressing anger and despair—while moving through mud. The "we" establishes that Owen is among these soldiers, a firsthand witness.
"Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs" introduces the trench warfare setting. Flares illuminate the battlefield at night, revealing positions to enemy forces. The soldiers see these "haunting" lights and turn away from them, moving toward the rear. The word "haunting" suggests the flares are ghostly, ominous, and inescapable.
"And towards our distant rest began to trudge" describes the soldiers' movement toward the rest area. "Trudge" is heavy, laborious movement—not marching with military precision but dragging oneself forward. The rest is "distant," suggesting it is unreachable, a mirage. The soldiers are walking toward something they may not attain.
"Men marched asleep" reveals the shocking truth: soldiers are so exhausted they are literally marching unconsciously. They have lost awareness of their surroundings. "Many had lost their boots" emphasizes physical deterioration—soldiers lack basic protection from the muddy ground.
"But limped on, blood-shod" creates a vivid and terrible image. "Blood-shod" means their feet, stripped of boots, are bleeding and bloodied from the ground—they are literally wearing their own blood as footwear. Yet they continue onward, unable to stop.
"All went lame; all blind" uses biblical language suggesting fundamental human damage. Lameness and blindness are conditions Jesus heals in the Gospels; their presence here suggests no savior is coming, no redemption is possible. These are not merely physical states but represent spiritual and psychological damage.
"Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots / Of gas-shells dropping softly behind" describes soldiers intoxicated by exhaustion, unable to hear danger. The word "deaf" sounds like "death"—a near-homophone suggesting the connection between the soldiers' inability to hear and their impending death. The gas-shells approach "softly," suggesting they arrive with silent, deadly stealth. The soldiers cannot defend themselves because they cannot perceive the threat.
Stanza II (Lines 9-16): The Gas Attack and Death
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime.
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
"Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!" alerts readers to the sudden emergency. The repeated word and exclamation marks create panic and urgency. The address "boys" emphasizes the soldiers' youth and vulnerability.
"An ecstasy of fumbling" is a paradoxical phrase: "ecstasy" normally means extreme joy, but here describes the frantic, chaotic scrambling to put on gas masks. The soldiers move with desperate intensity, not graceful order. Fumbling suggests clumsiness and desperation—they are clumsy, fingers shaking, unable to coordinate.
"Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time" describes soldiers getting their gas masks on "just in time"—but the next line reveals that one soldier fails. The masks are "clumsy," difficult to operate under pressure. The time pressure is immense; mistakes are fatal.
"But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, / And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime" reveals the soldier who fails to get his mask on. He is yelling—screaming—in agony. "Floundering like a man in fire or lime" compares his death to drowning in burning lime or fire. The comparison suggests the soldier's lungs are burning from the chemical gas as if they were on fire.
"Dim through the misty panes and thick green light" uses the gas mask's visual distortion to describe the scene. The speaker sees through the "misty panes" of his own mask, looking out at the green fog of poison gas.
"As under a green sea, I saw him drowning" extends the metaphor: the gas is a green sea in which the soldier drowns. This is one of the poem's most powerful images—the soldier is drowning in poisonous air as if it were water. The passive voice "I saw him drowning" emphasizes the speaker's helplessness—he can only watch.
"In all my dreams before my helpless sight, / He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning" reveals that this death haunts the speaker's dreams. The soldier "plunges at me"—the traumatized speaker imagines the dying soldier reaching toward him. "Guttering" suggests the sounds of choking and gasping. The triple repetition of "drowning" emphasizes the ongoing, eternal nature of this death in the speaker's consciousness. The soldier drowns not once but perpetually in the speaker's nightmares.
Stanza III (Lines 17-24): The Aftermath—Graphic Description of Death
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
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,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
Owen shifts from narrative to direct address: "If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace." He directly invites the reader to imagine witnessing the soldier's death. "Smothering dreams" suggests dreams of suffocation—nightmares of choking and drowning.
"Behind the wagon that we flung him in" reveals that the dead soldier's body is thrown into a wagon like waste. "Flung him in" suggests violence and lack of respect—the body is discarded, not gently placed. This indignity compounds the tragedy of death.
"And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, / His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin" provides graphic detail of the corpse. The eyes are "white"—pupils rolled back in death—and "writhing," suggesting final death-spasms. "His hanging face" suggests the head hangs limply, without life. The comparison to "a devil's sick of sin" is shocking and blasphemous: Owen compares the dead soldier to a devil so corrupted by sin that even the devil is sickened. This suggests the soldier is degraded beyond humanity, beyond even demonic evil.
"If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood / Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs" continues the graphic horror. "At every jolt" suggests the wagon bumping along, the body jostling, causing blood to continue flowing from the corpse. The repeated word "froth-corrupted" emphasizes the chemical destruction of the lungs—they are so corrupted by gas that they produce frothy blood instead of functioning tissue.
"Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud / Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues" uses a series of shocking comparisons. The soldier's death is "obscene"—morally repulsive, inappropriate, shocking. It is compared to cancer—a disease that slowly consumes the body. It is "bitter as the cud" (the regurgitated food that cows chew)—suggesting bitterness and degradation. The phrase "incurable sores on innocent tongues" returns to the theme of innocence destroyed: these are young soldiers, innocent of any crime, yet they suffer terminal disease-like symptoms from chemical weapons.
Stanza IV (Lines 25-28): The Conclusion—The Old Lie
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
"My friend, you would not tell with such high zest" directly addresses the reader—or a specific figure like the war propagandist Jessie Pope. "High zest" means enthusiastic promotion, eager endorsement. If the reader witnessed the graphic death described in the previous stanza, he would not promote war with such enthusiasm.
"To children ardent for some desperate glory" reveals Owen's concern: young men enlist believing in "glory"—honor, heroic achievement. They are "ardent," passionate and eager. Yet they seek "desperate glory"—glory achieved through desperation, through sacrifice. Owen sees these young men as children, innocent, naive, manipulated by propaganda.
"The old Lie:" introduces the final revelation. Owen calls the following statement a "lie"—false, deceptive, used to manipulate. The phrase is old—repeated throughout history to justify wars.
"Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori" is the Latin phrase from the Roman poet Horace meaning "It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country." This maxim has inspired soldiers for centuries, suggesting that dying in battle is noble, honorable, and beautiful. Yet Owen, having witnessed the actual death of a soldier from gas, reveals this statement to be a lie. There is nothing sweet or fitting about dying from chemical weapons. The glory is false; the sacrifice is meaningless; the death is horrific and degrading. The poem concludes with Owen's ironic, bitter condemnation of this ancient maxim that continues to send young men to their deaths.
Dulce et Decorum Est– Word Notes
Bent double: Folded at the waist, body crouching low. Suggests physical exhaustion and dehumanization. Soldiers are broken by fatigue.
Beggars under sacks: Comparison to homeless, wretched individuals. Suggests soldiers are at the bottom of human dignity, stripped of respect.
Knock-kneed: Knees touching or knocking together; a sign of weakness, fear, or exhaustion. The soldiers' bodies are failing.
Coughing like hags: Coughing is compared to that of old women. Suggests elderly, dying people. Soldiers are made prematurely old by war.
Cursed through sludge: Moving through mud while cursing (expressing anger and despair). "Sludge" emphasizes the filthy, miserable conditions.
Haunting flares: Illumination flares sent up at night to light the battlefield. "Haunting" suggests they are ghostly, ominous, terrifying—inescapable spectral lights.
Trudge: Walk with heavy, dragging steps. Implies exhaustion, unwillingness, burden. Not a purposeful march but painful movement.
Marched asleep: Moving while in a state of unconsciousness from exhaustion. The soldiers are so tired they are unaware of surroundings.
Lost their boots: Soldiers lack basic footwear protection. Indicates deterioration of equipment and conditions.
Blood-shod: Wearing blood instead of shoes; feet bloodied and bare, bleeding on the ground. A shocking, vivid metaphor for suffering.
Lame; blind: Unable to walk; unable to see. Biblical references suggesting spiritual and physical damage. Jesus heals these conditions in the Gospels; their presence suggests no redemption.
Drunk with fatigue: So exhausted as to be intoxicated; stupefied by tiredness. Soldiers lose control and awareness.
Deaf even to the hoots: Unable to hear the sound of incoming gas-shells. "Deaf" and "death" are near-homophones, suggesting the connection between not hearing danger and dying.
Gas-shells: Artillery shells that explode to release poisonous gas. The weapon of the First World War, causing horrific, lingering deaths.
Dropping softly behind: The shells arrive with silent stealth, approaching from behind where soldiers cannot see them. The soldiers are unaware of impending doom.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! An urgent alarm warning of chemical attack. Exclamation marks convey panic and crisis.
Ecstasy of fumbling: Paradoxical phrase: "ecstasy" normally means extreme joy, but here describes frantic, desperate scrambling. The soldiers move with intense panic.
Clumsy helmets: Gas masks are difficult to put on, especially under pressure. "Clumsy" emphasizes their unwieldy, difficult nature.
Yelling out and stumbling: A soldier screaming and falling, unable to get his mask on. His voice expresses agony and panic.
Floundering like a man in fire or lime: Thrashing about as if drowning in burning fire or caustic lime. The gas burns the lungs and throat like liquid fire.
Misty panes: The glass or clear material of the gas mask, fogged with breath and moisture, limiting vision.
Thick green light: The color of the poison gas (likely chlorine gas), which has a greenish-yellow hue. The thick density of the gas reduces visibility.
Drowning: A repeated word suggesting the soldier is suffocating in gas as if it were water. The repeated use emphasizes the ongoing nature of this death in memory.
Guttering: Making gurgling, choking sounds. The soldier's breath coming in gasps and gurgles as his lungs fail.
Choking: Unable to breathe; strangling on gas. A fundamental human horror—the inability to breathe.
Smothering dreams: Nightmares in which one is smothered or suffocated. The speaker's traumatized unconscious mind replays the soldier's death.
Pace behind the wagon: Walk alongside the wagon carrying the dead soldier's body. To witness the aftermath and indignity of death.
Flung him in: Threw the body roughly into the wagon. Suggests lack of respect, treating the corpse as waste or garbage.
White eyes writhing: Eyes rolled back in death, pupils white, undergoing final death-spasms. A horrific image of death.
Hanging face: The head hanging limp without life, the neck unable to support it. A defeated, desecrated face.
Devil's sick of sin: Blasphemous comparison: the soldier's face is so corrupted that even a devil would be sickened. Extreme degradation.
Jolt: The wagon bumping and lurching over rough ground, causing the corpse to move.
Gargling: Making bubbling, liquid sounds. Blood mixed with air produces gurgling sounds in the throat and lungs.
Froth-corrupted lungs: Lungs destroyed by poison gas, producing frothy mixture of blood and other fluids. The chemical weapon has fundamentally corrupted the tissue.
Obscene: Morally repulsive, shocking, inappropriate. The death is obscene—it violates human dignity and decency.
Cancer: A disease that slowly consumes the body. Suggests the death is like a consuming illness—prolonged, painful, inevitable.
Bitter as the cud: As bitter as regurgitated food that cows chew. Suggests bitterness, degradation, and forced repetition (cud is chewed repeatedly).
Incurable sores on innocent tongues: Wounds caused by the gas on the mouths and throats of young, innocent soldiers. "Incurable" emphasizes the permanence of damage and death.
High zest: Enthusiastic, eager promotion of war. Those at home promote war with enthusiasm they do not understand.
Children ardent for some desperate glory: Young men eagerly seeking heroic death. They are "children"—naive, innocent, easily manipulated. Their "desperate glory" is false hope.
The old Lie: Owen's direct condemnation: the statement about dying for one's country is a lie—false, deceptive, used to manipulate.
Dulce et decorum est: Latin phrase from Horace meaning "It is sweet and fitting." Part of a famous maxim justifying war and sacrifice.
Pro patria mori: Latin meaning "to die for one's country." The complete phrase justifies dying in war as noble and honorable.
Publication
"Dulce et Decorum Est" was drafted in October 1917 at Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh, Scotland, where Owen was recovering from shell shock (what would now be called post-traumatic stress disorder). The poem was revised between January and March 1918. The earliest known manuscript is dated October 8, 1917, and was addressed to Owen's mother, Susan Owen, with a note indicating it was a "gas poem done yesterday."
The poem was not published during Owen's lifetime. Owen died on November 4, 1918, at age 25, just before the armistice ending World War I. The poem was first published posthumously in the 1920 collection "Poems," edited by Siegfried Sassoon, Owen's mentor and fellow war poet. The poem has since become one of the most famous anti-war poems in English literature, widely taught in schools and universities.
The late publication is significant: Owen could not promote or defend his work before his death. Sassoon's editorial decision to publish Owen's anti-war poetry gave voice to a silenced soldier and established Owen as one of the major literary figures of the First World War.
Context
Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) was a British poet born in Oswestry, Shropshire. He came from a middle-class family and showed early literary talent. Owen enlisted in the British Army in 1915 and served in the Manchester Regiment. He participated in the Battle of the Somme (1916), one of the deadliest battles in human history, where he was wounded and suffered shell shock.
In 1917, after recovering from his initial wounds, Owen was sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital, a hospital treating officers with shell shock. It was here he met Siegfried Sassoon, an established war poet and fellow officer recovering from psychological trauma. Sassoon became Owen's mentor and encouraged his writing. Under Sassoon's influence, Owen developed his distinctive poetic voice and anti-war perspective.
"Dulce et Decorum Est" was written during the later stages of World War I, a conflict that had already killed millions and showed no sign of ending. The introduction of chemical weapons—especially mustard gas and chlorine gas—represented a new horror in warfare. These invisible, deadly weapons caused prolonged, agonizing deaths and psychological trauma far beyond traditional combat wounds.
The poem reflects the disillusionment of soldiers with the war effort and with the propaganda promoting the war. Pre-war rhetoric had portrayed war as glorious and heroic; soldiers' actual experience was degradation, suffering, and meaningless death. The contrast between propaganda (represented by the Latin maxim) and reality (the gas attack and soldier's death) became the central concern of Owen's poetry.
Owen's anti-war stance was not pacifism but rather a demand for truth and accountability. He believed young men deserved to understand the actual cost of war before being sent to fight. His poetry aimed to shatter romantic illusions about military glory and force civilians to confront the horrors experienced by soldiers.
Setting
The setting of "Dulce et Decorum Est" is the Western Front of World War I, specifically the trenches and areas behind the lines during the late years of the war (1917-1918). The poem depicts both the marching area where soldiers move toward rest and the trench system where a gas attack occurs. The setting is muddy, dark (nighttime suggested by the flares), and characterized by the constant danger of chemical and artillery attack.
The physical setting is deliberately dehumanizing. The mud, the darkness illuminated only by flares, the gas itself—all combine to create a hellish landscape. The contrast between the "distant rest" the soldiers trudge toward and the reality of continued danger and death emphasizes the hopelessness of their situation. There is no safe place, no actual rest, only the illusion of escape.
The setting is also temporal: the poem moves from a marching scene to an immediate gas attack to haunting memories and dreams. The setting encompasses both physical space and psychological space—the speaker's traumatized mind haunted by memories of witnessed death. The trench warfare setting is synonymous with the psychological trauma of war; they cannot be separated.
Title
"Dulce et Decorum Est" is a Latin phrase from the Roman poet Horace's Ode 3.2. The complete phrase is "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori," meaning "It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country." This maxim has been used for centuries to justify war and inspire soldiers to accept death as noble and honorable.
Owen's use of this title is ironic and accusatory. By choosing this famous Latin phrase as the title and final lines of the poem, Owen directly challenges the maxim. He forces readers to hold the romantic, elevated Latin phrase in their minds while simultaneously presenting the horrific, degrading reality of a soldier dying from chemical weapons. The irony is devastatingly effective: the classical phrase about dying for one's country becomes a bitter condemnation of war propaganda.
In the final stanza, Owen explicitly calls this phrase "the old Lie," revealing that he views the maxim not as timeless wisdom but as a deception used to manipulate young men into military service. The title, therefore, functions as both a reference to the false rhetoric of war and a direct accusation against those who promote this rhetoric.
Form and Language
"Dulce et Decorum Est" is written in a modified sonnet form. Traditionally, sonnets are 14-line poems with specific rhyme schemes associated with romantic love or philosophical meditation. Owen's poem has 28 lines (two sonnets) but with modifications to the traditional form. The poem consists of four stanzas of varying lengths (8, 8, 8, 4 lines).
By using the sonnet form—traditionally associated with romantic themes—for an anti-war poem depicting graphic violence, Owen creates a jarring contrast. The formal structure suggests classical beauty and order, while the content describes chaos and horror. This formal-thematic contradiction emphasizes Owen's critique: the beautiful form cannot contain the ugly reality of war.
Owen's language is deliberately vivid and visceral. He uses concrete, sensory details rather than abstract statements: specific descriptions of mud, blood, gas, dying soldiers. The language is Anglo-Saxon (Germanic) rather than Latinate, creating a stark contrast with the Latin phrase of the title. The common, blunt English language is more powerful and authentic than the classical Latin maxim.
The poem uses extensive simile and metaphor to make the abstract concrete. The soldiers are compared to beggars and hags; the gas is compared to a green sea; the soldier's death is compared to drowning, burning, disease. These comparisons force readers to visualize the horrific reality of chemical warfare.
Meter and Rhyme
"Dulce et Decorum Est" uses a modified sonnet rhyme scheme. The first and third stanzas follow the ABAB CDCD pattern (octave of a Petrarchan sonnet). The rhyme scheme creates sonic cohesion while the modified form undermines traditional sonnet expectations. By fracturing the traditional 14-line structure into 28 lines across four stanzas, Owen mirrors the fragmentation of bodies and minds caused by war.
The meter is generally iambic pentameter (ten syllables per line with alternating unstressed and stressed beats), the traditional meter of English sonnets and dramatic verse. However, Owen frequently disrupts this regularity with stressed syllables in unexpected places, creating a halting, disjointed rhythm that reflects emotional disturbance and physical trauma.
Key rhymes include: sacks/backs/flares/rest (stanza 1); fumbling/stumbling/time/lime (stanza 2); dreams/seams/sight/drowning (stanza 3); zest/glory/tongues/mori (stanza 4). Many of these rhymes are between dramatically different types of words: "fumbling/stumbling" are active verbs, while "ecstasy of fumbling" juxtaposes abstract feeling with concrete action, forcing readers to feel the contradiction.
Dulce et Decorum Est– Themes
Theme 1: The Horrors of War—Graphic Reality vs. Romantic Illusion
The central theme is the unbridgeable gap between the romantic, heroic image of war promoted by propaganda and the horrific, degrading reality experienced by soldiers. Owen graphically depicts dehumanization (soldiers like beggars), suffering (soldiers coughing, bleeding, dying from gas), and psychological trauma (nightmares haunting the speaker). The poem insists that war cannot be romanticized; its reality is too horrible.
Theme 2: The Lie of Patriotic Propaganda
Owen explicitly condemns the use of patriotic rhetoric to justify war. The Latin maxim "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" (it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country) is revealed as "the old Lie." Those who promote war from a distance—politicians, journalists, propagandists—use beautiful, noble-sounding language to manipulate young men into military service. Owen demands that the truth replace the lie.
Theme 3: The Loss of Innocence and Corruption of Youth
The poem repeatedly emphasizes youth: soldiers are called "boys" and "children" being seduced by promises of "glory." These young men are innocent—they have committed no crime—yet they are forced to participate in horror and death. The poem reveals how war destroys youth and innocence, replacing them with trauma and knowledge of human cruelty.
Theme 4: The Individual Soldier's Suffering and the Witnessing of Trauma
The poem focuses on one soldier's death, giving individual identity to anonymous war deaths. The speaker witnesses this death and is traumatized by it, haunted by recurring nightmares. The poem emphasizes the psychological cost of war—witnessing others' suffering creates lasting trauma in the observer.
Theme 5: The Failure of Communication and Understanding
The final stanza reveals a communication gap: those who have not witnessed war cannot understand its reality. Owen invites the reader to "pace behind the wagon" and witness the death, suggesting that only direct experience can convey truth. Words and even poetry may be inadequate to the horror of war.
Theme 6: The Dehumanization Caused by Modern Warfare
The poem emphasizes how industrial warfare reduces humans to objects. Soldiers are compared to beggars, their bodies are "flung" into wagons, their individuality is lost. Chemical weapons are particularly dehumanizing—there is no honor in dying from gas, no glory in choking to death. Modern mechanized warfare destroys human dignity.
Dulce et Decorum Est– Major Symbols
Symbol 1: The Mud
Mud represents the miserable physical conditions of trench warfare and the general degradation of soldiers' circumstances. Soldiers "curse through sludge," their boots are lost, their feet bleed. The mud is not merely dirt but a symbol of filth, degradation, and the literal grounds of suffering.
Symbol 2: The Flares
The "haunting flares" that illuminate the battlefield at night symbolize the inescapable nature of danger. Soldiers cannot rest; even in darkness they are hunted. The flares represent the mechanized, technological nature of modern war where human bodies are exposed to technological violence.
Symbol 3: The Gas
The poison gas symbolizes modern warfare's inhumanity and invisibility. Unlike traditional weapons, gas is invisible, unavoidable, and causes lingering, agonizing death. The gas is described as a "green sea," suggesting drowning in a liquid element—an apt metaphor for chemical suffocation.
Symbol 4: The Green Light and Sea
The thick green light of the poison gas and the comparison to "drowning under a green sea" symbolize an alien, nightmarish environment. The color green suggests something unnatural and deadly. The sea metaphor emphasizes the soldier's helplessness—he cannot swim to safety from gas any more than one can swim away from an ocean.
Symbol 5: The White Eyes
The "white eyes writhing in his face" symbolize death itself—the eyes rolled back in death, the final moment of consciousness leaving the body. The white eyes haunt the speaker's dreams, representing the permanent image of witnessed death.
Symbol 6: The Wagon
The wagon in which the dead soldier is "flung" symbolizes the indignity of death in war. Bodies are treated as cargo, not as human remains deserving respect. The wagon carries not glory or honor but waste.
Symbol 7: The Helmet/Gas Mask
The "clumsy helmets" and gas masks symbolize the inadequacy of human protection against mechanized warfare. Despite these protective devices, one soldier still dies. Technology cannot protect soldiers from technology; survival is a matter of chance.
Symbol 8: The Latin Phrase
The Latin phrase "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" symbolizes false, romantic rhetoric used to justify war. It represents the voice of propaganda and those at home who send others to die. By calling it "the old Lie," Owen reveals that this beautiful, classical language masks a fundamental deception.
Dulce et Decorum Est– Major Literary Devices
Literary Device 1: Vivid Imagery and Sensory Detail
Definition: Concrete sensory language that creates mental images and engages multiple senses.
Example: "Bent double, like old beggars under sacks," "Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs," "His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin."
Explanation: Owen's visceral descriptions force readers to visualize and feel the horror of war. The graphic details create emotional impact far beyond abstract statements about war's evil.
Literary Device 2: Simile
Definition: A comparison between two things using "like" or "as."
Example: "Bent double, like old beggars," "Floundering like a man in fire or lime," "As under a green sea, I saw him drowning."
Explanation: Similes help readers understand unfamiliar experiences (gas attack, chemical death) by comparing them to known experiences (drowning, burning, poverty). The comparisons emphasize the degradation and suffering of soldiers.
Literary Device 3: Metaphor
Definition: A direct comparison between two things without using "like" or "as."
Example: "Blood-shod" (wearing blood instead of shoes), "Drunk with fatigue," "The green sea" (poison gas as an ocean).
Explanation: Metaphors condense complex ideas into striking images. "Blood-shod" encapsulates the suffering and degradation of soldiers in two words.
Literary Device 4: Irony
Definition: Meaning contradicted by context or expectation.
Example: The famous Latin phrase about dying for one's country being "sweet and fitting" is ironic when applied to a soldier dying from chemical poison. The romantic maxim becomes grotesque when contrasted with graphic death.
Explanation: Irony creates the poem's central critique: what is called "sweet" and "glorious" is actually horrific and degrading. The gap between rhetoric and reality is the poem's main point.
Literary Device 5: Tone
Definition: The attitude or emotional stance of the speaker toward the subject matter.
Example: The tone shifts from descriptive-clinical in the first stanza to horrified in the second, haunted in the third, and finally angry and bitter in the fourth. The final accusation—"The old Lie"—is filled with rage.
Explanation: The shifting tone reflects the speaker's emotional journey from observing soldiers to witnessing death to finally condemning war propaganda. Readers feel the speaker's growing anger.
Literary Device 6: Personification
Definition: Giving human characteristics to non-human things.
Example: The flares are "haunting" (suggesting ghostly presence), the gas-shells "drop softly," the gas is compared to drowning in a sea.
Explanation: Personification makes the natural/mechanical world seem alive and malevolent—weapons and environment are enemies actively killing soldiers.
Literary Device 7: Allusion
Definition: An indirect reference to another text, historical event, or person.
Example: The reference to "lame" and "blind" alludes to biblical conditions that Jesus heals; the comparison of the corpse to "a devil's sick of sin" alludes to religious imagery; the Latin phrase alludes to Horace's classical poetry.
Explanation: Allusions add layers of meaning. The biblical references suggest that God provides no salvation in war; classical references highlight the contrast between romantic poetry and brutal reality.
Literary Device 8: Paradox
Definition: A seemingly contradictory statement that may contain truth.
Example: "An ecstasy of fumbling"—ecstasy normally means joy, but here describes desperate panic. Soldiers "marched asleep"—moving while unconscious.
Explanation: Paradoxes capture the contradictions of war: soldiers experience both mechanical routine and intense terror, both heroism and degradation, both consciousness of what is happening and numbing unconsciousness.
Literary Device 9: Repetition and Anaphora
Definition: Repeating words or sounds, especially at the beginning of lines or clauses.
Example: "Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!" repeats "Gas" for urgency; "drowning" is repeated multiple times in stanza II; "If...If" begins two clauses in stanza III.
Explanation: Repetition emphasizes key concepts and creates rhythmic intensity. The repeated "Gas!" captures panic; the repeated "drowning" emphasizes the soldier's prolonged death in the speaker's memory.
Literary Device 10: Assonance and Consonance
Definition: Repetition of vowel sounds (assonance) or consonant sounds (consonance) for sonic effect.
Example: The "oo" sound in "sludge," "trudge," "blood"; the "s" sound in "sacks," "sludge," "smothering."
Explanation: Sound repetition creates emotional resonance and makes language memorable. The repeated "s" creates a hissing sound suggesting danger and poison.