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Ken Marken
Boyd 2A
MYP English 9
March 10, 2014
In the early 1900s, war was rampant. People would write patriotic poems to describe war
heroes and tell of epic battles. One British poet, Wilfred Owen, strayed from this path, and
instead wrote poems depicting the horrors of war. The methods used in Owens poems show the
style and reasons poetry was written the way it was during the World War I era.
In Owens Dulce Et Decorum Est, there is a great irony presented through his
unorthodox message. In comparison to Shakespeares nationalist, pro-war play, Henry V,
Owens title, when read before the actual poem, leads a reader to think that the poem will be in
a vein similar to Henrys speech at Harfleur, but by the end of the poem, the title becomes (like
many other moments in the poem) ironic and bitter (Moran). The terrible events that the soldiers
experience are far from the grand adventures people in the homeland imagine.
Owen is able to portray this bitterness magnificently through his writing. What is most
effective about this poem . . . is that Owen does not merely turn to realism to combat the literary
images of the past because he does not need to do so; his ability on the level of creating poetic
devices to suit his needs is at the state in which new and different imagery is crafted (Lutz). One
of the most memorable lines refers to a soldier who was floundring like a man in fire or lime,
showing how a gas attack would cause a sort of confusion of the senses, especially during a state
of panic, and one would, through Owens words, feel a bit of the pain and strife experienced in
the trenches (Dulce Et Decorum Est, line 12). A dramatic critic comments how Owen angrily
wishes that his reader could be haunted by dreams like his own, to feel drowned and smothered
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with guilt and horror as he does over the gassed soldier that had been under his command
(Miller).
As a soldier, the war had a very large impact on both Owen and his poetry. There were,
of course, enjoyable and profitable times while at war, such as when Owen greatly enjoyed the
circumstances of physical activity shared with large numbers of fit young men, and the homo-
eroticism already present in his pre-war poetry looked for and found worthy (and as it were
legitimate) subjects in the army (Kerr). However, the atrocities were simply too terrible to let
the bloody victories mask them completely, and Owen needed to use his talents to inform
Britain. Critics who have read Owens previous works have noted that when the army became
available to Owen as a literary subject it gave his writing a field of material observation and at
the same time a new quality of terseness, where before he had tended to luxuriance (Kerr).
The theme of inescapable death is a common one throughout his works. Another of his
poems, Anthem for Doomed Youth, also showed a similar style and purpose, but
unfortunately, Because Owen never published the poem himself, it is difficult to know which, if
any, of these versions he preferred, which changes he might have undone, and whether he
considered the poem to be finished (ONeal). One of the few known intended revisions is when
Owen changed the title from the original form of Anthem for Dead Youth to the more recent
Anthem for Doomed Youth by suggestion of a friend. This showed that no matter what the
soldiers did, they were going to die anyways, and that they were merely expendable pawns
thrown onto the battlefield to die without a second thought. The theme is made clearer in this
revision (ONeal).
In addition to the emotional content, Owen also augments his message through his style.
These pieces are written like elegies, depicting deaths of helpless soldiers. The unpleasantness is
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even in the way the poem is read. When Dulce Et Decorum Est talks of the ecstasy of
fumbling, the reader would find that, There is an ecstasy of fumbling to the ear here as well,
when the verse sounds as clumsy as the soldiers trying to get their masks on before the gas
grasps their lungs (line 9; Moran). Knowing that Owen has served in the military ensures that
he has written no hyperboles. They also both have a strict rhyme scheme of ABAB. The shared
patterns show that these poems go hand in hand, and this symbolizes that war is such a strong
topic, many works must be written to demonstrate anything about it effectively.
As seen in the various criticisms of these two poems, one can easily find Owens work
substantially different from the common war poet. There is no hope, no glory, no pride, and no
chance for the soldiers. Only death awaits them, holding its sinister weapons, waiting for the
most traumatic moment to strike. With an arsenal of imagery, Owen is able to make very
powerful messages about the war during this time through poetry.

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Works Cited
"Anthem for Doomed Youth." Poetry for Students. Ed. Sara Constantakis. Vol. 37. Detroit: Gale,
2011. 1-18. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
"Dulce et Decorum Est." Poetry for Students. Ed. Michael L. LaBlanc. Vol. 10. Detroit: Gale
Group, 2001. 108-124. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
Kerr, Douglas. "Anthem for Doomed Youth." Poetry for Students. Ed. Sara Constantakis. Vol.
37. Detroit: Gale, 2011. 15-17. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.
Lutz, Kimberly. "Dulce et Decorum Est." Poetry for Students. Ed. Michael L. LaBlanc. Vol. 10.
Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. 121-123. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
Miller, Tyrus. "Dulce et Decorum Est." Poetry for Students. Ed. Michael L. LaBlanc. Vol. 10.
Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. 119-121. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
Moran, Daniel. "Dulce et Decorum Est." Poetry for Students. Ed. Michael L. LaBlanc. Vol. 10.
Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. 116-119. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
O'Neal, Michael J. "Anthem for Doomed Youth." Poetry for Students. Ed. Sara Constantakis.
Vol. 37. Detroit: Gale, 2011. 10-13. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.

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Anthem for Doomed Youth
By: Wilfred Owen

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
5 No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
10 Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.





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Dulce Et Decorum Est
By: Wilfred Owen

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.
5 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 tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!An ecstasy of fumbling,
10 Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundring 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.

15 In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
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Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
20 His hanging face, like a devils 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,
25 My friend, would you not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.