"Dulce et Decorum est" is a poem writtern by Wilfred Owen in the first World War.
"Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares(2) we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest(3) began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots(4)
Of tired, outstripped(5) Five-Nines(6) that dropped behind.
Gas!(7) Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets(8) just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime(9) . . .
Dim, through the misty panes(10) and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering,(11) choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud(12)
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest(13)
To children ardent(14) for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.(15)"
The poem is a description of a battle in the war, it's sad and very inspiring because it's written in a way you really experience everything. The writer talks about froth-corrupted lungs and a man who is choking an drowning because of a gas explosion. Rhyme is a stylistic device used in this poem, the rhyme scheme is abab and this doesn't change. I couldn't find a really good alliteration sentence in this poem, however a sentence like 'his hanging face' can be alliteration. The writer does use a lot of similes. 'Obscene as cancer', 'bitter as the cud', 'like a devil's sick of sin', and these are only a few examples. I think he uses these to exaggerate a little.
I think the poem is very inspiring. It's sad and when you read it it feels like you experience it yourself. I find it hard to analyse the poem because to me it's just a description of a battle, but I found some similes and a rhyme scheme so that's good I guess.
