Andrew's Wiki
Dulce Decorum

Content

• His best known poem, it summarizes his “no heroics” attitude towards war
• On a march back to base camp from battle, a cloud of poison gas descends, and one man can’t get his mask on in time.
• The poem describes his death and says that if everyone could see that image, they wouldn’t glorify war.

Style

• Metaphors show how war changes these young men
  • Into “old beggars”
  • Into “hags”
• Title: Latin quote
  • “It is sweet and meet to die for one’s country.”
• Visual imagery accounts for perspectivalism in a neat way
  • “Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, / As under a green sea, I saw him drowning”
  • The gas mask makes its own interpretation, provides its own atmosphere