Dulce et Decorum Est quotes

• The simile "as under a green sea, I saw him drowning"


  This compares the man to a drowning man as he would be sinking under the cloud of gas and again uses the extended image of sea, fish and drowning.
• "like a devil's sick of sin" 


  This simile suggests that there has been so much death and destruction that even the devil is sick of the suffering and lives lost as a result of the war."Sick of sin" is an example of alliteration that really helps to grab the readers attention.
• When Owen is describing the soldier who is being lifted into a wagon he uses the word-choice of "flung" 


  This implies that the soldier is no longer being handled with care but like he is rubbish. This horrifying image suggests that there has been so much death that the soldiers have ceased to care; they become desensitised.
• It is clear that Owen never fully recovers from watching the man die when he writes "in all my dreams"


  These words highlight that the poet has recurring nightmares and cannot forget this traumatic experience.
• He emphasises how he feels useless and out of control when he writes "before my helpless sight"


  The word-choice of "helpless" highlights that he can't do anything to make the situation better. He can only replay the horrors in his mind.
• Owen states "you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory"


  When he uses "you", he is referring to teachers, politicians and people like Jessie Pope who were trying to influence young men and convince them that they should join up. The word-choice of "children" reminds the reader of the young age of many of the soldiers and makes the reader feel sympathy for them.
• By calling the original lines from the poem "the old lie"


  Owen is suggesting that the original lines from the poem are false and that there is nothing sweet or glorious about dying for war. In the poem Owen strips the glorified image and idealised war away to reveal the bitter and vicious truth.
• My Gran Was Eating Maggots formula 


  My- men at start \Gran- gas attack \Eating- effect on the poet\ Maggots- message