Often, poets use various elements such as images, sound and rhyme, symbols, meter, and many others to help the reader better grasp his or her ideas and understand the theme of his or her work. Via his excellent use of imagery as well as metaphors and similes in his work Dulce et Decorum Est, Wilfred Owen decries war as a gruesome and morbid dispute rather than as glorified patriotism to one’s country.
As imagery may be defined as language that appeals to the senses, Owen’s images in Dulce et Decorum Est cause the reader to feel as though they themselves are present at the scene of action. Owen sets his poem at the scene of a battle and views the fight as well as the departing soldiers. As the men turn to leave, the bombs exploding in the sky behind them are described as “haunting flares,” lights and noises that will never be forgotten (886 line 4). The bootless soldiers are termed “blood-shod”, providing a mental image of swollen feet covered in blisters and abrasions, leaving trails of blood as they trudge along (886 line 6). “Drunk with fatigue,” one pictures men stumbling to and fro with no semblance of order, all trying to get away from the horrors that they have experienced, but to intoxicated with shock and exhaustion to have much control over their bodies (886 line 7). As the soldiers fasten on their “clumsy helmets” at the gas alarm one begins to see the ridiculous nature of their task (886 line 10). The gas comes in as “misty panes and thick green lights,” causing one to picture of a dirty stained-glass window or thick fog in eerie light (887 line 13). As the speaker looks around, he realizes that one of their number did not secure his mask quickly enough, and he watches as the lone soldier is “guttering, choking, drowning”- the sounds of death by poison gas (887 line 16). The soldier’s “white eyes writhing in his face” tell the story of his pain to anyone looking on (886 line 19). “The blood come{s} gargling from froth-corrupted lungs” as his life grotesquely drains out onto the ground with the sound of his flowing blood (887 line 21-22). Although Owen uses primarily visual and auditory imagery, he also uses taste imagery when he describes the soldier’s death as “bitter as the cud ( 887 line 23). Owen ends his gruesome poem by describing how the soldiers have received “vile, incurable sore on innocent tongues” (887 line 25). One visualizes and feels how the soldiers, who are young and innocent, have seen experienced horrendous pain and have been unalterably affected by it. They came in as zestful youth in search of “some desperate glory” only to trudge painfully away, disillusioned by their former idea of the glory of war and changed by the horrible sights which they have seen (887 line 27).
In addition to an abundance of imagery in his poem Dulce et Decorum Est, Owen uses metaphors and similes throughout this work. As the men traipse away from the battlefield, they look “like old beggars under sacks” (886 line 1). This portrays a picture of men dressed in tattered clothing, hunched over under torn sacks in an attempt to either keep warm or shield themselves from whatever may come falling from the sky. To instill
empathy within the reader, the men are “coughing like hags,” providing a still stronger image of a grotesque old woman who is probably terribly ill and should be in bed, but instead is attempting to go about her life (886 line 2). Later, as the helpless soldier inhales the poison gas, Owen describes him as “flound’ring like a man in fire or lime” (887 line 12). Most are taught from and early age that the simple formula for extinguishing fire is: stop, drop and roll. From this simile, readers receive an image of a man falling to the ground screaming in pain and desperately rolling around in an attempt to get away from his unavoidable death. Owen next says that the dead man’s “hanging face like a devil’s sick of sin” (887 line 20). Generally, people do not have a beautiful picture in their head when the devil comes to mind, therefore Owen’s comparison of the awfully monstrous face of the devil if he were to be angry rather than glad about the worst of sins to the face of the dead soldier, is an accurate and effective simile. Owen goes on to further describe the death of the soldier, saying that it was “bitter as cud,” food already digested that certain animals spit back up and chew before swallowing and digesting again (887 line 23). The man’s death is also depicted as “obscene as cancer” (887 line 24). Most people today know or have heard of someone who has experienced what it is like to battle cancer. It is a hopeless battle, with only slight chance of an ultimate cure, and that only at great expense both monetarily and physically to the patient. Often, cancer completely wastes away at the body. In merely comparing the unfortunate soldier’s death to cancer, Owen indubitably evokes feelings of pity and hopelessness from the reader for the lone soldier.
As is seen by the numerous examples above, Wilfred Owen has an amazing ability to use imagery as well as similes and metaphors to allow the reader to truly feel and experience the point that he making. In Dulce et Decorum Est he paints a gruesome picture of war, pointing out the negative and lasting effects that the events of merely one battle have on the soldiers. He openly criticizes the antique idea of war being glorious patriotism and service to one’s country, and depicts the reality of bloodshed and trauma through exceptional imagery, metaphors and similes.
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