How Does Wilfred Owen Show the Horrors of the First World War in His Poem Dulce Et Decorum Est?

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How does Wilfred Owen Show the horrors of the First World War in his poem Dulce et decorum est? Wilfred Owen was the author of “Dulce et decorum est”. He was born on 18th march 1897. He started writing his poems of which only five were published in a field hospital after doctors had encouraged him to as part of his shellshock treatment. His aim was to shed light on what the conditions of were like in “War to end all wars” and its trench-warfare. He didn’t live to see his poems published and the fame they wrought him as he was killed not long after recovering and returning to the front six days before the treaty of Versailles came into effect on the western front on November 4th 1918. Wilfred Owen laid out his poem “Dulce et decorum est.” with details about the men and their state of mind first, with the pace building and the action unravelling. In the second stanza the action is at full pace with gas shells (or Five-nines) dropping behind and around them, the fumbling and panic of fitting a gas mask and eventually the effects of gas on someone unfortunate enough to have not been able to fit his mask in time. The third stanza starts with the man being thrown into a wagon and driven away. He then talks in deeper detail about the gas and how vile it is. The stanza ends with how young men and children alike should not be told “the old lie” Dulce et Decorum est.” The rhyming scheme Wilfred Uses is AB ab and is effective because it uses the layout of the poem to help exaggerate the sadness and depravity of the men. It starts calm with men trudging back to base and this is effective because it builds tension which in the second stanza is released to create a fully-fledged war story with death and explosions surrounding him and the men. The third stanza starts with the loading of dying or injured men into wagons to be carried away to hospitals or mass graves if they
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