Exemplification Of Dulce El Decorum Est

3 Pages 711 Words

On September 11, 2001, our world as we knew it changed forever. We were
attacked by terrorist. Hundred’s of innocent people died on that day for no apparent
reason. The terrorist had expected to shatter our defenses, yet all their attempt fell short.
Americans united like never before. Some people ran home to their family and friends
while others fell to their knees with prayer for answers. For the past year we have
searched for revenge against our enemies who were accountable for that day. Today, as
our search nears an end, we are faced with the threat of war. Many friends and family
members have been deported overseas to fight for our country and our freedom. War is a
deeply moving and unsettling thought. Some soldiers are killed while others survive,
haunted with the memories of the gruesome events they have witnessed. When Wilfred
Owen wrote “Dulce et Decorum Est,” she captured the feelings and visions of a solider
who watches a fellow solider die on the battlefield. Through Owen’s use of imagery,
rhyme, and figures of speech, she communicates her theme that war is not just glory it is
also gory.
The name Dulce et Decorum Est means it is sweet and right to die for your
country. As the narrator begins her story about a fallen solider, she portrays the setting
with the use of rhyme and similes. She tells her listener, “Bent Double like old beggars
under sacks, knock-kneed , coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, till on the
haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest began to trudge”. The
phrases like old beggars and coughing like hags creates images of the physical condition of
the soldiers. Trudging indicates that the soldiers were moving through thick mud with
great difficulty. The soldiers may be moving away from the battlefield in order to revive
themselves from exhaustion. In the last four lines of the stanza, she continues to paint the
tainted picture of the sold...