Dulce et Decorum est

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1920

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Poem Analysis

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Further Reading & Resources

Related Poems

“Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen (1920)

Like “Dulce et Decorum Est,” this poem details the waste of young men’s lives in battle. The speaker talks of the “monstrous anger of the guns” (Line 2) and the “stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle” (Line 3), which, like the gas attack, show the new weapons of war. The elegiac effect of the end as “each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds” (Line 14) is more mournful than angry. Unlike the more loosely constructed “Dulce et Decorum Est,” this poem is in strict sonnet form.

“Strange Meeting” by Wilfred Owen (1920)

This poem also features a soldier who dreams of war, however, this poem takes place within the dream rather than just recounting it. Here, the first-person speaker seems to escape battle, and after traveling down a “profound dull tunnel” (Line 2), encounters the “enemy [he] killed” (Line 40). While the speaker says there’s no reason to mourn, the other soldier notes, “save the undone years, / The hopelessness” (Lines 15-16), sentiments that also appear in “Dulce et Decorum Est.”

“The Last Laugh” by Wilfred Owen (1920)

This poem shows soldiers dying on the battlefield as in “Dulce et Decorum Est.” Death has the last laugh as the dying soldiers in each of the three stanzas call to Christ, a mother and father, and a beloved, respectively. Owen’s speaker personifies the weapons of war: The “[m]achine-guns chuckled” (Line 4) while “the Gas hissed” (Line 15). Once again, the speaker condemns the waste of human life.

Further Literary Resources

The Wilfred Owen Association (2022)

This website by the Wilfred Owen Association features his biography, a timeline, family history, photographs, and virtual tours of the places he visited or lived. Of particular interest for further study are the draft preface Owen wrote for his books of poems and the analyses of his poems, including “Dulce et Decorum Est.”

“How deadly was the poison gas of WWI?” by Marek Pruszewicz (2015)

This article for the BBC World Service details different types of gas used by German and English forces as weapons. Chlorine gas was a ghostly green color and “react[ed] quickly with water in the airways to form hydrochloric acid, swelling and blocking lung tissue, and causing suffocation.” Mustard gas, which contained blistering agents, was also used. The article includes photographs of soldiers from World War I in gas masks, and John Singer Sargent’s famous painting, “Gassed.” Pruszewicz directly addresses “Dulce et Decorum Est.” While Pruszewicz suggests Owen did not live through a chemical gas attack, he clearly was aware of them.

“Gender, Politics, and the Fighting Soldier’s Song in America during World War I” by Christina Gier (2008)

Early in this academic article for Music and Politics, Gier mentions Sergeant Edward Dwyer and his experience singing “We’re Over Here Because We’re Here.” This was recorded as audio in a 1916 speech that Gier also links. Dwyer was killed in action a year later, the same year Owen composed “Dulce et Decorum Est.” The repeating lyric shows how troops often felt trapped in their situation, which could be endless and frightening.

Listen to Poem

Michael Stuhlbarg reads “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen

In “Anything But Sweet,” recorded for “Poetry Off the Shelf” from the Poetry Foundation, Curtis Fox and Bonnie Costello discuss Owen’s poem. Actor Michael Stuhlbarg reads the work at time stamp 3:02. The podcast aired September 18, 2013.