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Elizabeth Gukasyan

Professor Batty

English 102

09 December 2017

Modern Heroes: An Analysis on Military Patriotism

Throughout history, mankind has constantly been in conflict among different societies.

Wars are started for many different reasons whether it is political or social, and has always lead

to armed conflict. Ultimately, the purpose of a war is so that one group will gain power over

another. It is reasons like these that events such as World War I and II occurred. Due to the

nature of war, people often do their best to support their country like going to fight in the army or

helping by rationing. Societies patriotism for their own countries ends up glorifying war to the

point where most people forget just how gruesome and terrible it is to actually fight in one. In

Wilfred Owens poem Dulce Et Decorum Est, the narrator witnesses another soldiers death

which haunts him for the rest of the poem, causing him to reconsider the glory of dying for ones

own country. Although many may argue that Owens poem is only about the suffering caused by

war, I am suggesting that the poem is against military patriotism because of the imagery used to

describe a characters death and the authors own experiences during World War I.

One of the poems most defining characteristics is the way Owen used imagery to convey

the depressing and horrific tone of the poem. The poem starts off by comparing the soldiers to

old beggars under sacks...coughing like hags (1-2), which lets the reader picture how tired the

men are from fighting. This somber mood quickly changes to fear and panic, as the next stanza

starts off with them being attacked by gas shells. As everyone tries to put their gas masks on the
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narrator witnesses, And floundring like a man in fire or lime. / Dim through the misty panes

and thick green light, / As under a green sea, I saw him drowning (12-14). This helps the reader

imagine the eeriness of seeing someone they might have known dying right in front of them.

This event was so traumatic for the narrator that he had dreams about the man dying , His

hanging face, like a devils sick of sin; / If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood / Come

gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, / Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud (20-23). The way

Owens portrays the soldier remembering the characters death, is a harsh reminder for the

audience of the true nature of war and provides an understanding of how PTSD can develop in

soldiers. The narrator describes the mans death by making the reader picture death in the most

vicious way possible and serves as a reminder of how much he was affected by that sight.

Towards the end of the poem, the author adds his own personal opinion on patriotism

regarding the military by connecting it to a phrase coined by a Roman poet. In the final lines of

the poem, the speaker reveals his distaste for Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori (27-28),

which means It is sweet and fitting to die for ones country. As a soldier, the speaker

experienced firsthand how deadly war is, so the people who have never witnessed an actual

battle do not understand the trauma that soldiers suffer through. These are the same people who

glorify soldiers fighting to death for glory and, supposedly, for their country, when in reality they

are only trying to survive. The purpose of the quote was to make the reader aware of Owens

perspective on war and the overall irony of war.

Through a New Historicist perspective, Wilfred Owens background as a soldier during

World War I explains the reason why he wrote this poem and how most of his poems deal with

themes of war and suffering. His poems went against society's perceptions on patriotism at the
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time, since most of those were geared towards promoting a soldier's life, while his are about

telling the truth about the nature of war. In The Death of Patriotism: Wilfred Owens Dulce Et

Decorum Est as an Anti-War Manifesto, it describes how as a soldier Owens hated fighting and

he saw the war as, the emptiness of these stances and the impracticality of his inherited

Victorian elitism. As a poet who would soon find himself recovering from shell shock, he sought

to replace these values with an under-standing of an alternative and personal purpose for the

fighting (Agir). In other words, Owens became disillusioned with the war that he, and many

others, were fighting, since it seemed to be going on for a long time. He realized that the trauma

which he went through was only for the defense of meaningless politics. As a result, he started to

write poetry as a way to express his opinions on the war.

More importantly, Wilfred Owens personal history as a soldier contributed towards his

own hate for warfare and lead him to pursue writing instead. According to A War Poet or A

Poet At War: Wilfred Owen and the Pity of War, Owen used to pretend he was ill to get out of

battle which are doubtless indications of Owens hatred for war as well as his soldierlessness,

that is, lack of the courage of a soldier, yet this reveals his spoken and written choice of peace

and reconciliation as opposed to war and destruction (Ngide). His experiences as a military

personnel caused him to dislike combat with such a passion that he would try to get out of

fighting, which goes against how society often pictures a soldier acting. For decades, society has

constructed the image of a soldier dying on the battlefield as a heros death, but according to

Owen that viewpoint could not have been further from the truth. He wrote this poem to show

how believing in such values is idealistic because most soldiers deaths are accidental and nobody

actually wants to die a gruesome death.

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In conclusion, Wilfred Owen was against military patriotism because of his own personal

experiences with war and in his poem Dulce Et Decorum Est, he used a lot of descriptive

imagery to convey the true horrors of a soldiers life. Owens poem can directly relate to modern

times since there are a lot of tensions among countries, which could result in a potential war.

Currently, in America there is a divide among people who believe that going to war with certain

countries would be a good decision and others who disagree with that sentiment. This poem

serves as a reminder that a lot of soldiers have no choice in that matter and are forced to fight to

the death, potentially dying for meaningless conflict among two nations. People view soldiers as

heroes and believe that by fighting in a war they are courageous but this is a harmful expectation

that gets placed on people who serve in the army, since most do not get to choose their battles.

Society should be careful about how much they praise combat, since most people have never

witnessed what actually happens on the battlefield in real life.

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Works Cited

Agir, A. Bari. "The Death of Patriotism: Wilfred Owen's Dulce Et Decorum Est as an Anti-War

Manifesto." Journal of History, Culture & Art Research / Tarih Kltr Ve Sanat

Arastirmalari Dergisi, vol. 2, no. 2, June 2013, pp. 212-220.

Ngide, George Ewane. A 'War Poet' or A 'Poet At War': Wilfred Owen and the Pity of War.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, International Journal

of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, Jan. 2016,

www.journals.aiac.org.au/index.php/IJALEL/article/view/1974/1785.

Owen, Wilfred. Dulce Et Decorum Est. Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation,

www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46560/dulce-et-decorum-est.