Dulce et Decorum Est and The Solider Analysis Coursework
‘The Soldier’, written by Rupert Brooke, is a classic
example of an Italian sonnet. Its structure has a total of fourteen lines split
into two halves of eight (two stanzas and a sestet) and six lines, it uses
iambic pentameter and a fairly regular rhyming scheme. An Italian sonnet is
usually associated towards love and romantic poems; in this sense, ‘The Soldier’
is a love poem towards England. The tone throughout this poem is patriotic, and
infers that, for a soldier, to die in war for one’s country should be a man’s
greatest honour.
The love and patriotism towards England is shown in this
poem through the constant repetition of the idea and words “England” and
“English”. This repetition of proper nouns gives a sense that England is highly
important for the soldiers, and that even though they are abroad in a foreign
land, they are always spiritually and physically connected to their country.
One example of these soldiers being connected both physically through nature
and spiritually can be found in the first stanza; “if I should die, think only
this of me: that there is some corner of a foreign field that is forever
England”. These first few lines suggest that if a soldier is to die in action
of war, his English body and Englishness will forever remain buried in that
spot of land.
Being English or coming from England is also described to be
more important, god like and powerful than other countries is in the following
line “in that rich earth a richer dust concealed”. The soldier is imagining
himself as physical nature, the dust, and if he should die, the Land where the
soldier’s body lay and became dust is considered to be spiritually richer than
the same land of earth that was there before; it is somehow consecrated. Being English is something to be proud of; it
is not a duty to go to war and fight for the country, it is a privilege.
The poem has a harmonious, calming and gentle atmosphere
that is increased in the second stanza through the image of rivers, streams,
flowers and fields. The tone is also very uplifting and paradoxically optimistic,
for example “A body of England’s, breathing English air, washed by the rivers,
blest by the suns of home.” This imagery refers to the soldier being a true, purified
English man. Him being the body of England suggests that the soldiers are
somehow linked to the body of Christ, as they are representing both England and
God. They are very proud of this and honoured to be English. They are literally
and metaphorically the body of England.
England is personified as a mother-like figure, ‘her flowers
to love’, ‘her ways to roam’ these phrases are portraying and comparing England
to a Mother, who nurtures and provides for the Soldiers. There is an idea than
the soldier’s souls and spirits are cleaned when they dedicate their lives to
fight for their country. This type of spiritual imagery can be seen in the
phrases ‘washed by the rivers’ and ‘blest by the suns of home’. This imagery of
England’s nature and of a mother figure, that provides and supports the
soldiers connotes and describes England in a positive manner.
‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is a poem written by Wilfred Owen. Is
a brutally realistic poem focusing on death and explains the veracity of trench
life and warfare as gruesome, ugly and violent. This is a contrast from ‘The Soldier’,
as it had a positive focus on warfare being a privilege and something the
soldiers were happy to be take part in. The Diction and word choices used in Dulce
et Decorum Est are discomforting and painful, words such as stumbling,
fumbling, drowning, choking and guttering. These are present continuous tense
and have the effect of that it is forever ongoing; the struggle will continue. Throughout the whole poem there is no sight of
a positive tone; it is all violent and negative. The poet Wilfred Owen had
actually experienced war for 3 years, therefore Dulce et Decorum Est focuses on
the real pain and gruesome, haunting sights that he witnessed and that still
haunt him. The diction is a true reflection of the horrors and toughness of war
life.
Much of the diction used in this poem is associated with helplessness.
There is a global idea that soldiers are mentally tough, physically strong and
like machines, they can get through anything. The reality is that it
incapacitates even the fittest of men, turning them into ‘old beggars’ who
‘cough like hags’, that war was not easy and even the physically and mentally
toughest of people struggled; unlike ‘The Soldier’ which suggests that war was
not a pleasant event to be in, it was physically draining and tough, with tough
conditions. Not a lovely, calm, heaven-like land that ‘The Soldier’ made it out
to be. There is a difference in presence of the soldiers; they are not the same
during and after war, as they were before they joined. The use of the word ‘if’
at the start of the final stanza shows how, if the reader had been present to
witness these horrors, they would never be the same but would suffer from
‘smothering dreams.’
The idea of helplessness runs throughout the whole
poem. The voice of the poem starts off
as “we” and “us”. There is a sense of unity and that the soldiers are along the
same tough path, feeling the same exhaustion. The first stanza describes and
furthers the physical exhaustion of Owen and his unit as they leave the
trenches to the rear. Word phrases such as “blood-shod”, “drunk with fatigue”
and “trudge” denote the idea of the extreme physical exhaustion that the
soldiers were going through. The assonance of “blood-shod” literally explains
and illustrates how the soldiers were wearing shoes of blood, they had lost
their boots and were continuing to fight regardless of having no shoes, in the
futile conditions. The soldiers became physically exhausted, mentally drained and
helpless towards their situation. The word choice of “trudge”, which means to
walk slowly and heavily from extreme exhaustion and/or conditions, building on
the idea of ‘drunk with fatigue’ allowing the gas shells to drop without them
being aware.
The pace of the poem changes matching the panic and pace of
the soldiers marching as well as the panic that would ensue with a gas attack
happening. The first stanza of the poem sets the scene, mood and movement of
the soldiers. As the second stanza begins the pace has an instant change,
becoming faster paced. The use of short syntax’s; “Gas!” which is used twice
followed with exclamations, used in quick succession and the phrase “quick,
boys!” all have no syllables which also contribute to the change in pace. This speeding
up of pace is to match the reality of how sudden and quick gas attacks occur and
how the soldiers would have to put their gas masks on or they would die. A
sense of panic and pandemonium is created by this sudden change. Wilfred Owen
made this change of pace in the second stanza to show and draw in the reader
into the sheer panic and pressure that the soldiers felt at this present time,
whilst feeling nothing but hopelessness as there was nothing they could do.
Wilfred Owen uses direct address in the fourth stanza to
speak to the reader, by using the second person pronoun ‘you’. He is speaking
to the British people back home with no experience of the war and to the people
who romanticise war, anc asks them to experience and feel the horror of war
that he once too witnessed. He is asking them to imagine if they too could
physically and mentally bare the action of war, as it is not as sweet and
honourable as the title expresses, ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ meaning it is sweet
and honourable and the ending of the poem ‘pro patria mori’, to die for one’s
country. This whole idea of the poem is of war being exhausting, violent and
painful is contradictory to the title of it being an honour and joy.
To conclude, ‘The Soldier’ by
Rupert Brooke and ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen are both war poems
discussing the authors different views of how the war is perceived. These two
poems are similar as both have a sense of unity and war, and deal with the idea
of fighting and dying in war for your country however they are written from the
authors perspective of war and this is where the contrast can be noticed. ‘The
Soldier’ is a poem about dying in war for your country and how it is an honour
and a great achievement. It is written from a patriotic, idealist point of
view, whilst ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ has the complete opposite idea. It’s about
the harsh reality of war and that dying for your country is not at all
honourable; it is violent and brutal and is written in a realist point of view
discussing the reality of war and the conditions a soldier had to go through
was no heaven.
As a young girl growing up in Europe
in the 21st century, I am far away from war so I cannot relate to
the poem the way a young man could during World War One, for example. Nowadays,
the only way most Westerners can view war is through television, newspapers and
other media forms. These emissions can be biased to only show a certain side of
a story, which means that most people can only view war in the way that the
media wants them to. Most people obviously view war as a horrific event, but
they do not get a personal view that real soldiers do. This could make it hard
for some people including myself to relate to the poem.
WORD COUNT: 1666
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