Dulce Et Decorum Est - Critical Analysis

“Future years will never see the seething hell and the black infernal background, the countless minor scenes and the interiors of the secession…the real war will never get in the books”. This Walk Whitman quotes shares a similar theme with Wilfred Owens' poem, “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori”. The ironically titled poem depicts the gruesome truth of engaging battle in war. The poem is a far cry from the glorifying propaganda that …

…the soldiers. In the last Stanza, the author uses alliteration in such lines as, “white eyes writhing”, “incurable sores on innocent tongues”, and “devils sick of sin” to demoralize the apotheosis of going to war and becoming a hero. Owen Wilson use of the proposition “If” fastidiously illustrates to adults the corruption and despicable qualities of war, and to propose his final view that war is not “sweet and fitting to die for the fatherland”.