“Dulce et Decorum Est” deals with the
idea that it is not honorable to die in war for your country. Owen tries to say
that those people who go to war are just there to meet the needs of their
leaders and not to defend their country as they claim. The title itself is a
Parodic twist taken from Horace, a Roman poet. Starting with it, it clearly
shows Owen’s point of view about war. It means that it is sweet and honorable
to die for your country as Horace’s phrase states: “ Dulce et decorum est pro
patria mori”. Wilfred Owen used it to say the opposite. His whole poem circled
around showing the merciless heart of war and how soldiers are more like
animals. He uses that just to prove that it is nor honorable nor sweet to die
for your country.
Owen's poem gives a metaphorical soldier's account
of the reality of war that sharply contrasts the ideas and images that army
recruiters illustrate. Through this imagery, and the real soldier's account,
Owen makes his reader experience war. This poem is about teaching others the
foolishness of war, and the unavoidable psychological and physical suffering it
causes.
