📝 Dulce et Decorum Est – Wilfred Owen
📌 Poet Bio:
Wilfred Owen (1893–1918) was a British soldier-poet of World War I, renowned for exposing the brutal realities of trench warfare. He died in battle shortly before the Armistice.
📌 Summary:
This poem shatters the illusion that dying for one’s country is glorious. Owen describes exhausted soldiers retreating when a gas attack hits. One man fails to put on his mask in time, and the speaker is haunted by his suffering and death. Owen ends by denouncing the phrase “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” as a “lie.”
Owen uses shocking imagery and bitter irony to confront readers with the physical and psychological horrors of war. Far from romanticizing battle, he exposes its dehumanizing effects and critiques the propaganda that glorifies it.
📌 Themes: War’s brutality, disillusionment, trauma, anti-heroism
📌 Style: Vivid imagery, irony, harsh diction, broken rhythm, realism