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Comparison between 'Dulce et Decorum Est' and 'The Soldier'
Old 01-27-2002, 10:34 AM   #1
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Default Comparison between 'Dulce et Decorum Est' and 'The Soldier'

I thought this would interest some of the members that were 14-15 years old. I wrote this coursework approximately 6-7 years ago...

Comparison between Wilfred Owen’s ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ and Rupert Brooke’s ‘The Soldier’


‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen and ‘The Soldier’ by Rupert Brooke are poems about war which treat their subjects differently. Both poems are examples of the authors’ perceptions of war; Owen’s being about its bitter reality and Brooke’s about the glory of dying for one’s country. The poets express their sentiments on the subject matter in terms of language, tone, rhyme, rhythm and structure. ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ has very effective language by using diverse methods such as alliteration, onomatopoeia and diction. The tone is unyielding and vivid imagery is used to reinforce it, primarily by means of compelling metaphors and enduring similes. The rhyme scheme is regular with very little change and helps establish the rhythm. The poem is divided into four stanzas, the first two of which set and develop the scene, while the third and fourth convey the abiding memory and offer a commentary on what has preceded. ‘The Soldier’ is a Petrarchan sonnet divided into two stanzas. The initial octave lays out Brooke’s thoughts and feelings regarding his subject, with the sestet offering a definitive final comment. The tone along with the rhyme is very regular, helping to convey the poet’s attitude. It has a continually lilting rhythm which reinforces the latter.

There are a number of similarities between ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ and ‘The Soldier’. The titles of each poem are misleading, in the sense that what they suggest is contradicted in the content of the poem. ‘The Soldier’ evokes and conjures up melancholy, or a wasted life. But the poem itself revels in the fact that fighting in war for the sole purpose of defending one’s country is memorable, hence encouraging the act “And think, this heart, all evil shed away, A pulse in the eternal mind, no less Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given”. On the other hand, ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ brings about jingoism, that it is sweet and seemly to die for one’s country. Though the poem in itself reveals the cold truth about war with resentment, therefore discouraging the act “My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori”.
Alliteration is used in both poems effectively to establish rhythm and reinforce the tone. The rhyme scheme each poet uses are identical in that they are regular and have alternate rhymes. This helps to emphatically set the rhythm and lays the foundation for the nature of the tone. Moreover, another similarity is that both poets have employed a structure whereby the level of detail in terms of imagery and language relating to their subject intensifies as the poems progress. This is proceeded in both poems with a definitive commentary that forcefully conveys their point.

Dulce et Decorum Est is a lucid protest against the unspeakable horrors of war. This poem tells of the true effects war has on soldiers by graphically recounting their barbaric slaughter to present a clear and irrefutable depiction of horror to the people who still believe that sacrificing ones own life was tolerable. Among those people the poem was targeted at was the government, tabloid pro-war poets, particularly Jessie Pope, who were unmindful of the outrageous situation in which young men were being sent and practically sacrificed. Truth is an extremely powerful tool, one that Owen uses through his personal experiences to present an incredibly realistic image, and sets out to shock his readers.
In the first stanza of ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’, the reader is drawn in with “Bent double”. This gives the piece a sense of immediacy which is deeply rooted in the detailed description of the experience that follows. There has been no prior introduction or scene setting, just these short, sharp words that have an instant impact, almost like a gunshot. The whole stanza is conveying the scene by the use of vivid imagery. The similes of battle weary soldiers “like old beggars under sacks… coughing like hags” convey the restrictive movement within the soldiers and the suffocating environment they are experiencing throughout war. The term “...under sacks” also gives the reader an inkling of the fact that they are filled with trepidation of what lies ahead. Though discomforted by the suffering war inevitably involves, and their bodies withered by the harsh brutality of battle, thinking war was behind them, they still kept guard… “Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs… Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on”. Yet again the reader is drawn in the graphic war scene, made more vivid by his own involvement… “we cursed through the sludge”. Fatigue is emphatically reinforced by language such as “trudge” and “lame”, likewise “Drunk with fatigue” is a vivid image, illuminating the scene as they struggle through and endeavour to put war behind them. Onomatopoeic words such as “sludge and “trudge” help to capture the anguish which is experienced by the soldiers, furthermore these help to reinforce the rhyme scheme, which is as regular as a drum beat. The alliteration in “Knock-kneed” reinforces this drum beat rhythm emphasising the battle weariness of the soldiers, and intensifying the memory of war. Aside from this alliteration, the way Owen creates rhythm most effectively is through the pauses which litter the stanza. We can see this in “All went lame; All went blind; Drunk with fatigue; death even to the hoots Of tired…” This pause effect has a staccato feel about the stanza, but unrelenting. As the soldiers become “deaf” to the eternal racket of “Five-Nines”, this is ominous of the fact Owen prepares the reader for a pre-cursor to a shift in rhythm which forms the basis for a shift in tone.

Enter the second stanza, and Owen has recreated the start of a gas attack “Gas! GAS! Quick boys!”(direct speech). The tone dramatically shifts to a completely chaotic nature, with the use of exclamation marks and short words that up the tempo. Notice that “Gas” was called out twice, but Owen did not write those words simply for the visual impact on the page. He shows that the man has to shout “Gas” louder a second time, not only because his fellow soldiers are too tired to hear, his main purpose was to tell us that maybe the first cry was the instant, almost lethargic reaction to something he had seen a dozen times. But that second calling is a bellow, a true warning. He did not mean for the two words to be read in the same way. The frantic scene is established by the very little pauses represented in the words such as ‘ecstasy’, ‘stumbling’ and ‘fumbling’, all of which embody movement in a state of panic and confusion, which perfectly encapsulates the fluctuating nature of war, caught between the first and second stanzas. The word ‘ecstasy’ could really be referring to the soldiers’ inconceivable emotions, the terror, the most heightened of sensations. The ‘fumbling’ truly signifies the soldiers state of panic, while conjuring up an image of the desperation amid the soldiers in reaching for their masks. Owen then writes about the bitter scene of a man who hesitates in putting his gas mask on in time. Owen cannot deliver what mask less man is “yelling out” for, help. The soldier is then consumed by gas, and said to be “flound’ring like a man in fire or lime…” Use of the word fire makes one imagine hell. This man’s life may well be slipping away from him, and experiencing ‘hell’ so to speak. Owen then softens the tone with a dream like passage, the mild consonants and softer sounds of the words create a subdued effect “Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light”. This shift from the callous reality of battle to a state of comfort and back is very effective. This little passage is suggestive of reprieve, soldiers are now seeing the horror from the outside, safeguarded from the infectious green gas. When one is consumed with gas, they are in effect ‘drowned’ as the gas fills their lungs and burns the insides, and so a reference to ‘sea’ (water) is more effective than gas, hence the term ‘drowning’ has more prominence, and indicating the might of the ocean, in a ‘storm’ renders the fellow soldiers powerless to perform their task of rescuing the ‘drowning’ man “As under a green sea, I saw him drowning’.

The third stanza is completely short, to round off Owen’s abiding memory “In all my dreams before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning”. Adjectives ending in ‘…ing’ inadvertently require the reader feel part of Owen’s trauma, as the sound of the ‘g’ is guttural, mimicking the suffering of the soldier caught in the green gas. The structure within the first three stanza’s are important, they are relating to the experience of war through his eyes. Consequently, they are written in first person, in the manner of a letter to give a greater effect. In the first stanza “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks… we cursed through the sludge,” the situation is immediately given, moreover, an instantaneous impact is made so that the effect of their messages is greater. The second stanza shows the ease of dying on the front, the representation of a soldier caught in gas is Owen’s own personal view, again, this personalised view makes the death of the soldier have a far greater result. If the death were described in third person, the reader would be isolated from the action.

Last edited by Shadow_Link : 01-27-2002 at 10:42 AM.
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