‘Dulce et Decorum est’ by Wilfred Owen emphasises the horrors of war through the trauma and agony the soldiers experienced. The message of the poem is illustrated through many themes. Each theme is centred around war and the antiquated beliefs associated with it. These include war, propaganda, politics and patriotism which are portrayed through the language, poetic devices, tone, mood and imagery used by Owen.
In the first stanza, Owen speaks in the first person with the soldiers resembling “hags” and “old beggars”- the men have lost their semblance of humans. The quote “blood-shod” dehumanises the soldiers and proposes a parallel with horses. This, coupled with the fact that the soldiers were “lame” and “Drunk with fatigue” suggests that the trauma of war had inebriated the soldiers. These grotesque descriptions heighten the clarity of the scene and show Owen’s aim of the poem- to condemn the horrors of war. He aims to publicise the reality of war in a time where the general public thought of war as a fine and noble act. This view had been shared by many, including Latin poet, Horace, with the ending of the poem “Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori” coming from one of his texts. Owen’s sarcastic tone can be seen as emphasising the wrongness that politics and the British Imperial ideology were the cause of war however, the politicians did not fight but rather manipulated men through propaganda to fight. Furthermore, the last line of the poem does not follow the iambic pentameter seen through the stanzas creating an awkward pause replicating the silence of death. This emphasises the erroneous decisions made by the politicians and the detrimental effects they had. Moreover, in the fourth stanza, Owen criticizes those who publicise going to war as a glorious act. He shows a dying soldier with wounds “obscene as cancer”. The man is a violation of innocence with his face like a “devil’s sick of sin”. Owen tries to further emphasize the fact the reality of war should not be glorified.
Language and imagery are also heavily used in the poem to object the idea of the ‘strong and patriotic soldier’ stereotype. The quote “All went lame, all blind” shows how the men had lost their way both physically but also in their objectives of the war. Owen illustrates the fact that the war had descended into pure hatred of each side. The poet is also seen to emasculate the soldiers by focussing on their weaknesses and faults thereby conveying the reality of war and emphasising that the soldiers have not been trained in combat but are only ordinary men who have been forced into fighting in the war through conscription. There is also a contrast between the tempo of the first and second stanzas. Whilst the first is lethargic and describes the men similarly through phrases such as “trudge” and “men marched asleep”, the second is injected with a sense of fear and panic. The stanza starts with, “Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!” drawing the reader into a frenzy of action, panic and madness. The use of the word “ecstasy” shows that Owen is drawing upon apocalyptic language showing that the experience of the rest of the war was dull and monotonous. The phrase “ecstasy of fumbling” emphasises the sarcastic tone of the poem which is illustrated through the combination of elevated language with chaos, creating a lack of appropriateness from Owen. The poet also uses the present participle form of many verbs such as “guttering, choking, drowning”. The use of the present tense shows that the poet is reliving these grotesque horrors to this day. These verbs show that the dying soldier cannot be part of the past because he still plays a large role in the speaker’s present.
Rupert Brooke’s tone in ‘The Soldier’ heavily contrasts that of Owen’s. Brooke can be criticized for his ignorance about the reality of war. The mass murder of millions of soldiers is not mentioned in the poem but instead the poet suggests that dying for one’s country is a noble, heroic act in which the soldier will enter a joyful “English heaven”.
The speaker also implies that England is a maternal figure to him. His adoration for England and his willingness to die for his country can be compared to a child’s love for his mother. This is seen through the quote “A dust whom England bore, shaped”. This shows that the remnants of the dead soldier were made and formed by England like a mother who gives birth to a child. The soldier also illustrates a sense of beauty of his country which is part of his identity. The speaker says that he is “Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of hope” indicating that the nature and countryside of England has a religious significance for him and suggests that the “rivers” symbolised the purification of baptism. This idea of religion and jingoism is carried through to the sestet but is on a spiritual degree- the first stanza refers to the soldier’s thoughts of England whereas the second is about laying under an “English heaven”. The speaker addresses his transformation through death from a physical state to a spiritual one. This indicates that dying for England is the definite route to reach salvation as shown by the speaker’s thoughts of reaching an “English heaven” after “all evil” sheds away. Brooke is seen to express patriotism in the poem with the death of the soldier reaching salvation through the most desirable of all fates, dying for England. This can be seen as Brooke romanticising the ‘honour’ of dying for England. Also, his tone throughout the poem does not reflect a sense of fear or horror but rather glorifies dying for England as the soldier will die in a “foreign field” making that piece of land “for ever England”. This desire to die for England suggests a death cult
Brooke chose to write the ‘The Soldier’ in a sonnet form. The octave introduces an idea of the possibility of the soldier dying which is resolved in the sestet when the soldier shifts his thoughts to an afterlife in heaven. The poem is written in iambic pentameter which is the most common meter, rooting from Shakespeare. Brooke chooses the English-type sonnet over the Italian style to celebrate patriotism. This is because the sonnet form is closely associated with England.
In both stanzas, imagery and praises of England are present. The first stanza shows that the sounds, dreams, friends and kindness England offered the speaker was enough for him to thank the country and die for it. In the second stanza, the poet elaborates on the gifts England has given him such as “sights and sounds”, all of his “dreams” as well as “laughter” and “friends”. The poet also characterises England by “eternal”, “peace” and “gentleness”. According to the speaker, these qualities cause England’s ‘dust’ to be “richer” than all other places. This suggests a sense of jingoism
In conclusion, Wilfred Owen’s ‘Dulce et decorum est’ and Rupert Brooke’s ‘The Soldier’ contrast each other greatly through their different outlooks on war and their differing opinions on themes such as death, war and patriotism. Whilst Brooke glorifies the act of dying for one’s country to reach an “English heaven”, Owen is convinced that these beliefs are antiquated. Instead, Owen focusses on the horrors of war which cause the unnecessary deaths of millions of innocent soldiers. Brooke, however, feels that dying for one’s country is a noble and patriotic act through which the soldiers can achieve salvation. The tone of each poem can also be contrasted. Brooke can be criticized for his tone in ‘The Soldier’- his ignorance of death and the horrors of war show a lack of realism and perhaps naivety.