Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est

The Lie Heard Round the World

Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est?is the best-known anti-war poem of the first world war. It is meant to convey a powerful idea and image about the obscenity of war. The poem begins with the words “bent –double? describing soldiers hiding “under sacks.?
Owen states that they are “like old beggars? The soldiers are like tired, old, and weary bums. They march through “sludge? deep dirty puddles worse then mud. The environment is one of filth. Their knees are deformed and abnormally close together from all the marching. They cough like the diseased and elderly. They use profanity.
Behind the soldiers there are bright, glaring rockets that light up the sky. While marching, some men literally “marched asleep? They march laboriously, heavy footed, and some even bare footed. In “fatigue?their senses began to fade. The soldiers become deaf to the sound of gas shells “dropping?behind them. The third stanza begins with the soldiers...