Dulce et Decorum est

Content Warning: The section features references to and descriptions of war and its effects on the human body, physical descriptions of the effects of chemical warfare, and discussions of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Owen’s speaker is a soldier in a regiment for the Allied Forces. His goal is to make sure that those on the home front, whom he directly addresses later in the poem, understand the realities of the soldier’s burden and the circumstances he faces. These are no glorified warriors in shiny uniforms, but young men “[b]ent-double, like old beggars” (Line 1) by the weight of their equipment and the ceaselessness of battle. Placing the narrative post-battle, the speaker notes how they “trudge” (Line 4) wearily toward some “distant rest” (Line 4). Some are sick and “coug[h] like hags” (Line 2) while others have “blood-shod” (Line 6) feet from having lost their boots.

Besides being ill, overburdened, and without proper footwear, which could expose them to gangrene, they are fatigued to the point they “marc[h] asleep” (Line 5). This makes them vulnerable as they are desensitized to their surroundings due to their growing somnambulance. The men are described as “lame” (Line 6), “blind” (Line 6), and “deaf” (Line 7) as they can no longer pay attention to the warnings of enemy fire. They ignore the “haunting flares” (Line 3) and the “hoots / [o]f gas-shells dropping softly behind” (Lines 7-8).

The sudden realization that there is a cloud of gas around the men is a surprise, which the speaker conveys with the jolting line: “Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!” (Line 9), with the second reference all in capital letters to indicate shouting. Gas, a chemical weapon, was used prevalently in World War I. Chlorine gas, which appeared as a green cloud, was used primarily before 1917. It penetrated unprotected lungs and caused death by suffocation. Contact with the eyes could cause permanent blindness. Gas masks kept men from breathing in the poison and offered celluloid lenses that protected the eyes. The speaker acknowledges their importance as an almost holy tool to save their lives. The soldiers immediately begin “[f]itting the clumsy helmets” (Line 10) in an “ecstasy of fumbling” (Line 9), a frenzy nearly religious in fervor.

Unfortunately, a lone soldier does not get his gas mask on in time. The speaker sees him “flound’ring like a man in fire or lime—” (Line 12). As the gas invades his body, he is seen “yelling out and stumbling” (Line 11). The speaker realizes from the safety of his own mask that the soldier is starting to “drown” (Line 14, Line 16), suffocating as the gas corrodes his lungs. The speaker emphasizes that through the condensation of his mask’s “misty panes” (Line 13), he can see the man as if he is “under a green sea” (Line 14).

He then emphasizes this moment as a memory he must face later “[i]ne all my dreams” (Line 15). Again and again, he sees his fellow soldier “guttering, choking, drowning” (Line 16). This violence directly contrasts scenes of military pageantry in other poems popular at the time. Owen’s speaker portrays the soldier’s death as a visceral nightmare that never goes away. This horrible incident is what motivates the speaker’s anger with the “you” (Line 17, Line 21, Line 25) who he subsequently directly addresses.

Originally, Owen’s poem was dedicated to Jessie Pope to address her motivational and patriotic pieces written for children. This direct reference was edited out for a wider condemnation of anyone who frivolously discussed war without knowing its realities. The speaker wishes that his “smothering dreams” (Line 17) could be experienced by such propogandists and naïve supporters. He wants his audience to imagine the soldier’s dying moments. He makes sure to describe how the young man’s “white eyes [were] writhing in his face” (Line 19) and how his face “hang[s]” (Line 20) slack. He believes the audience should “hear […] the blood / Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs” (Lines 21-22) and realize that “vile, incurable sores” (Line 24) caused by the gas littered an “innocent tongu[e]” (Line 24). These realities go unheard in poems like Pope’s.

The speaker passionately believes that his fellow soldier’s death should be seen as “[o]bscene as cancer” (23). If more people were aware of the true horror of warfare, they would be far more circumspect in what they told “children” (Line 26). The speaker is finished with anyone simplistically perpetuating “[t]he old Lie” (Line 27) first written down by Horace: “Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori” (Lines 27-28), which translates to “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.” The speaker records his realistic account so this false idea will cease to be considered truth.