College Classwork: Communications 2 Owen, Wilfred. "Dulce et Decorum Est"
The title of this poem,
“Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, simultaneously intrigues and draws in
the reader to decipher its meaning. If the reader is fortunate enough to
understand Latin, he is aware that it means “it is sweet and fitting.” If that
same reader is also blessed by being a scholar; being a war historian; being a
war veteran; having family that were war veterans or historians that he is
close to; or if the reader is a senior citizen (only because this generation is
extremely knowledgeable about much of their era) would he likely know the rest
of this phrase. Taken alone, “it is sweet and fitting,” might have connotative
meanings. Phrasing the title in the Latin language gives images of scholars,
physicians, government, or military. “Carpe Diem (seize the day),” “Veni Vidi
Vici (I came, I saw, I conquered),” “E Pluribus Unum (out of many, one),” and
“et cetera (and other things),” are phrases that many Americans who do not
speak Latin readily are familiar with.
The reader’s eyes flow
through the first four lines in a state of ambiguity. The setting might be
indoors or out as sludge is underfoot and might accumulate in a stone cottage
or concrete bunker. As the reader begins to ingest lines 4-8, he gets a clear
picture of military men marching with boots, struggling to get away from the
battle as stated in line 8, “Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped
behind.”
Lines 9 - 17 change in
diction from sympathy for the marching men to serious action and surprise as
these lines begin with a mustard gas cloud and scrambling among the men to
protect themselves from it with masks. All but one has secured coverage and the
further lines in this section portray the gruesome physical symptoms of a man contaminated
and melting. The first person narrative Owen uses creates a persona to tell the
tale. This man is in the group and one of these trudging men who witnessed the
scene. Owen creates, through this persona, a disturbing visual in lines 18 – 24
as the men toss this gassed body into the wagon, relaying the fleshly mutations
as they appear. The tone of this poem deepens darkly throughout these center
lines with one of the milder examples of this description of gas on flesh in
line 23, “Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud.”
The conclusion in lines
25 – 28 warns those who spin heroic war tales to young people for the purpose
of instilling “it is sweet and fitting to die for your country” to curb their
enthusiasm in the telling with reality and even calling “Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori” an outright lie as if he (as a child) was also lied to in this
way. The heartbreak of this inner child brought on by the realization that a
trusted adult had spun a lie resonates concretely in the tone of the
conclusion.
Works Cited
Owen, Wilfred. "Dulce et Decorum Est" The Bedford
Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 9th Edition Boston: Bedford/St.
Martin’s, 2011. 802-853. Print.
