Dulce et Decorum est

Wilfred Owen

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1920

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

Content Warning: The section features references to and descriptions of war and its effects on the human body, physical descriptions of the effects of chemical warfare, and discussions of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The 28 rhyming lines of “Dulce et Decorum Est” initially resembles a Shakespearean double-sonnet, with two groups of 14 lines in iambic pentameter and the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. It does employ exact end rhyme—such as “boots” (Line 5) and “hoots” (Line 7)—which creates a songlike quality. However, the poem doesn’t follow the sonnet rhyme scheme, using quatrains throughout. Owen also breaks his iambic beat, varying lines from six to 12 beats. This, along with the stanza breaks and the use of dashes, creates a poem that undercuts the rigidity of form. A line like “Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling” (Line 9) also employs all caps and a dash to allude to the sensation of the dire quickness of the events. This suggests a growing fragmentation and destabilization, which adds to the sense that order cannot be adhered to when warfare occurs. The use of six syllables in the final line, shorter by half than the other lines, indicates the finality of what it means to die for one’s country.

The Use of Action Verbs to Create Mood

Owen’s speaker often employs the use of the “-ing” verb to creates the sensation that the experience of war is ever-present, particularly during the gas attack, both as it happens and within the speaker’s later dreams about it. The use of the “-ing” verb is prevalent where the men are “fumbling” (Line 9) for their masks and the unprotected soldier is seen “yelling out and stumbling” (Line 11) then “flound’ring” (Line 12). These verbs suggest actions that are continuing, conveying that the young man’s torture by the gas seems never ending. Later, the use of “-ing” verbs enhances the idea that the speaker is continually haunted by thoughts of the soldier “guttering, choking, drowning” (Line 16) in front of him. He wants the audience, too, to see the soldier's “eyes writhing” (Line 19), the “hanging face” (Line 20) and to hear the “blood / [c]ome gargling” (Lines 21-22). They, too, should understand the unrelenting nature of the speaker's “smothering dreams” (Line 17). By using verbs of continuing actions, the speaker enhances his point.

Consonance

Consonance is used consistently throughout the poem but particularly at the beginning to encourage a feeling of doom. The use of the hard consonant sounds of c, k, and g create a feeling of dissonance even as the soldiers seem to be moving quietly toward “distant rest” (Line 4) and the battle seems to be going on “softly behind” (Line 8) behind them. This makes the reader subliminally aware that the troops’ safety is illusory through the ticking danger inherent in the harsh word choice. The hard c and k sounds in words like “sacks” (Line 1), “[k]nock” (Line 2), “coughing” (Line 2), “cursed” (Line 2), and “backs” (Line 3) work in tandem with the hard g sound of “beggars” (Line 1), “hags” (Line 2), and “began” (Line 4) to create a sound of guttural hacking, suggesting a pervading sickness. It also alludes to the sound of a ticking clock either in the passage of time, or the presence of a bomb. It is subtly pursued further in the word “[d]runk” (Line 7) to describe their tiredness, before the danger is fully released by the awareness for the word “gas-shells” (Line 8) at the end of the first stanza. The danger breaks in the next stanza where the sounds are in the shout of “Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!” (Line 9). In this way, the sounds precipitate the eventual explosion of the gas canister.