Literary Devices in Dulce Et Decorum Est Essay

Wilfred Owens makes use of many devices, but one of the first ones used in the poem is a simile. "Bent double, like old beggars under sacks." This allows one to imagine a group of people hunched over, to malnourished and beaten to even stand up straight. Another example is "flound'ring like a man on fire or lime." The man described has been poisoned by gas, but he looks as though he is running around trying to put out a fire on himself. The simile illustrates the suffering of the man and his hopelessness.

The author also utilizes words that have definite negative connotations in order to give the reader a feeling of unease and malady. Words such as "sludge," "fatigue," "guttering," "froth-corrupted," "vile," and "incurable," all have negative connotations. The words taken from the context of the poem still do not and likely could not have any possible positive images or ideas associated with them. By choosing such words Owen condemns his poem to being sorrowful, sad and ugly. This is likely the author's intent as he sees war, sorrowful, sad, and ugly.

Owen uses these literary devices and others to reach a single end. A sensory image of watching a man, in service of his country, die a terrible death. These include, the images of hunched men traveling through mud, hearing gas shells and putting on masks, a man drowning in gas, and the horrible ghastly death of that man. Owen incorporates sound with "the blood Come gargling" which enhances the horror felt by the reader.

Wilfred Owen uses all these techniques to illustrate a simple point, that the phrase "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori," or translated to English, it is sweet and right to die for your country, is a lie. His poem tries to make real to the reader how horrible death is even when in the service of one's country. The statement is often made to children in search of adventure, but Owen makes clear that it is indeed a falsehood.