Owen suggests in this poem that only the soldiers that experienced war first hand can understand the hardship and trauma of fighting for their country and losing a fellow soldier feels like. The lines “in all my dreams, before my helpless sight, he plunges at me,” puts the reader in the same position of the soldier (1st person), and shows that the speaker’s dreams are as real as his waking experience; the war becomes more of a mental battle. As well as this the first two lines, “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks” creates two similes; the soldiers are ‘like’ ‘old’ ‘beggars’ and ‘hags,’ which Owen suggests that their reality is so surreal that he needs to find comparative ways to describe it so that the readers can understand how gruesome his experience has been. Therefore, the use of reality in Dulce Et Decorum Est creates a sharp and deeply ironic line between the civilians who prop up war efforts, and the men who fight their battle, thus being glorious towards
Owen suggests in this poem that only the soldiers that experienced war first hand can understand the hardship and trauma of fighting for their country and losing a fellow soldier feels like. The lines “in all my dreams, before my helpless sight, he plunges at me,” puts the reader in the same position of the soldier (1st person), and shows that the speaker’s dreams are as real as his waking experience; the war becomes more of a mental battle. As well as this the first two lines, “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks” creates two similes; the soldiers are ‘like’ ‘old’ ‘beggars’ and ‘hags,’ which Owen suggests that their reality is so surreal that he needs to find comparative ways to describe it so that the readers can understand how gruesome his experience has been. Therefore, the use of reality in Dulce Et Decorum Est creates a sharp and deeply ironic line between the civilians who prop up war efforts, and the men who fight their battle, thus being glorious towards