Horror in Dulce Et Decorum Est Essay

Dulche et decorum est pro patria mori. It is sweet and alright to die for your country. When is it ever sweet and alright to die? While fighting for ones country is an honorable thing to do, dying, even for ones country, is not sweet. Wilfred Owen portrays the horrors of war through his poem Dulche Et Decorum Est. The detailed descriptions in this poem, through the similes and metaphors Owen includes, exposes the lie that it is sweet and alright to die for your country.

One of the ways Owen describes the horrors of war in his poem is by using similes. He compares the soldiers to deprived people who suffer. He uses similes to describe these soldiers by saying that they were like old beggars under the sacks and coughing like hags. By comparing these strong, fit, and young soldiers to these underprivileged people, Owen portrays how dreadful it was fighting in the war. These tough soldiers who were fighting for their country were so worn down that they were reduced to feel like they were nothing but a beggar or a hag thus, showing it is not sweet to die fighting for ones country.

Owen also uses metaphors to expose the conditions the soldiers endured while fighting in war. Owen writes that the soldiers all went lame; all blind; /Drunk with fatigue, deaf even to the hoots. The environment that the soldiers faced was so harsh; they felt as though their senses had been stripped away from them. They lost their basic everyday functions like seeing, hearing, and walking! It was as though these soldiers were dead, even though they were still breathing and their hearts were still pumping. By describing the terrible plight these soldiers had to undergo, Owen portrays how difficult it was to be a soldier fighting in war, thus enforcing the idea that it is not sweet and alright to die fighting for your country.

Death and gore are always inevitable in war. While it is patriotic and honorable to fight and even die for your country, it is not sweet. Soldiers experience horrific and dangerous things even if they are not killed, and Owen portrays only a few of them in his poem. The last sentence, "The old Lie: Dulce et Decorum est/ Pro patria mori" exposes and clarifies that it is not "sweet and alright" to die for ones country.