Dulce et decorum est images W. Owen

In the poem ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen, the images reveal the horror of war. The simile “bent double like old beggars under sacks” suggests that the soldiers were old men with hunched backs when in fact they were young, but grotesquely deformed by war experiences. Owen creates the impression that these soldiers were pushed to their limits. He develops the image of young men as old when he describes them as “coughing like hags”. Later in the poem, Owen focuses on the agony of a gassed soldier’s death with the chilling words “guttering, choking, drowning”.
Sassoon’s imagery is similar, highlighting the struggle and difficulty as the soldier “blundered up the trench, sliding and poising, groping with his boots.” These images are important because they emphasize the suffering of ordinary soldiers. Owen uses concrete language here. This creates a very graphic description of the panic, horror and suffering of the young soldiers. Close your eyes ...