Owen, Wilfred. "Dulce et Decorum Est".

Summary and Analysis

- an ironic poem contrasting the horrors of war x "the old Lie: Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori" (= Latin for "It is sweet and appropriate to die for one's country.")

- the speaker graphically describes the miserable procession of exhausted soldiers (himself included) marching behind a wagon with the dead or dying

- the horrible condition of the survivors: many lose their boots and continue limping on their bleeding feet, all become dumb and blind to the dropping shells, alert only to the danger of gas

- the image of the "GAS!" = a transition between the living and the dead in the poem

- the horror of death by gas: the speaker's fellow clinches on him before he sinks and is thrown on the wagon with "white eyes" and sounds of blood "gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs"

- conclusion: addresses the reader as "My friend" and asserts that if he experienced the war, he would never teach his children "the old Lie" of the title