How Sweet and Honorable It Is: A Euphemism of War? Essay

Dulce Et decorousness Est is a poem create verbally by a young British the States s elderier of the World War I turned poet Wilfred Edward Salter Owen. He was once commended as hotshot of the most important figures in twentieth century and known as one of the best poets, he is also called as the Greatest War Poet in English Language as most of his literary pieces tackle stories of war and relevant topics. Owen wrote the said poem on 1917 during the First World War while he was on military service and tells accounts based primarily on his individualal experience and blossoms of debate towards war.However, the poem has made available in public three years after Owen got killed in 1918, years before the ceasing of the same war that he condemned. It was published posthumously to honor the author. Analytically, the meaning of the poem Dulce Et decorum Est has to be a euphemistic narration of war with the purpose of either to promote patriotic full treatment of the soldiers or to condemn the act of war per se.Perhaps, the author wanted the reader to provide the right vindication and/or connotation about the poem itself whether it has intentionally written to comfort the soldier as the old saying tells how noble it is to die for ones own country, or sees the other way around, which is to point out something like it is really useless to end ones life in a battle just like that. The title of the poem alone depicts ironic truth as the Latin phrase Dulce Et Decorum Est has the literal meaning How Sweet and Fitting It Is.Even if it is a commending statement, it could also signifies raillery as he questions how sweet and fitting would it really be to die for something. Originally, the phrase has to be written like this Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori, which has the accurate meaning How Sweet and Honorable It Is to Die For Your Country , as the author excerpted this phrase from Quintus Horatius Flaccus third book among his four books of poem published on 23 B. C. , which empower Odes or Carmina in Latin language.Owens narrative poem all began on the first cablegram of the first stanza Bent double, like old beggars under sacks which gives us descriptions that in real battle, odd sprightliness and uncomfortable situation of the ones involved in the chaos especially the soldiers, who are half-standing and half-lying, truly happens. Being in a chaotic war is never easy, and that is what the author trying to tell us. The word double in it offers a feeling of both the corporal tiredness and emotional numbness at the same time, which the person involved could not just simply be withdrawn from and got nowhere to run.As the first stanza offers physical and emotional torture being in a battle, the second stanza denotes psychological agony. Gas GAS fast boys With this narrative, the author wants the reader to feel the state of panic and the urgency that has inflicted once in the midst of a chaotic ambiance where e genuinelyone struggles to survive. This could be the reason can buoy the usage of capital letters and exclamation points on the first line of the second stanza.The third stanza, though it is the shortest stanza of the poem having only(prenominal) two short lines, illustrates dispatch and dramatic picture of the speakers encounter of a death colleague in his dreams, or should we say nightmare, and how they both felt confounded in the traumatic situation. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. Here, we can see that although the war is over, the tragic familiarity of the speaker still haunts him as a sign of trauma even when hes asleep.Thus, the war creates pain and suffering to the soldiers not only during war but moreso, even when the war is long ended. On the last stanza, the speaker addresses you which denotes direct mesh to the reader. He wishes to personally make an appeal to the public, particularly to the next generation, that the heroic deed o f patriotically dying for the sake of ones country is nothing but purely euphemistic act of wickedness and pointless death because such kind of death could be preventable.He concluded the poem by stating the irony of the title Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori, which he emphasized as an old lie. Wilfred Owen got umteen strong points in this poem that whoever read the text might be involved. Weakness if theres any, has not obviously seen which make Owen surpass the level of being an amateur poet. The poem was simply a silhouette of Owens stand against the ongoing war that his audience would surely agree. Historians and students find this work very significant for the study of History to deeply understand World War I and the people behind it.R E F E R E N C E S Owen, Wilfred. 1997. Dulce Et Decorum Est. Modern History Sourcebook World War I Poetry. http//www. fordham. edu/halsall/mod/1914warpoets. htmlowen21 (accessed October 1, 2008). Barnhill, Candace. 2005. Wilfred Owens Dulce Et Decorum Est. http//people. smu. edu/cbarnhil/ENGLISH/ENGL2327/engl2327. htm (accessed October 1, 2008). Osondu, Emmanuel. 2008. Biography Wilfred Owen. Helium, Inc. http//www. helium. com/items/1167412-biography-wilfred-owen (accessed October 1, 2008).