Themes

The main theme of “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen is the horrors of war. Connected themes are those of suffering and patriotis…

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The horrors of war

As you have seen, the poem depicts the cruel realities of war inflicted wounds or deaths, such as those caused by chlorine gas. Furthermore, the poem also depicts the overall state of soldiers, both physically and mentally. Through his realistic descriptio…

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Human suffering

The poem is both about the physical suffering of the injured soldiers and about the physiological suffering the survivors experience.

The pain of the soldier affected by chlorine gas is horrible and excruciating. The poet gives an abundance of details from visual images to auditory details and then to sensorial ones, making the depiction of the soldier’s pain very …

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Patriotism

The poem shows that soldiers do not act with courage and without fear when facing death for their country, as idyllic images of war depict it. On the contrary, when a gas bomb is thrown, everybody reacts with panic, trying to save their own lives and not those of others or the honour of their country: 

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But som…