Dulce Et Decorum Est: Key Poetic Devices

Allusion

An allusion (uh-LOO-zhun) is a passing reference to a literary or historical person, place, or event, often made without explicit identification. The key allusion in Owen’s poem appears both in its title and, in a more complete form, in its final lines: “Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mor” (lines 27–28). The Latin phrase that concludes the poem is a quotation from an ode written by the Roman poet Horace. Horace wrote this particular ode at a time when the Roman Empire was still expanding, exerting control over vast swaths of the Mediterranean and Asia Minor. The ode calls for Rome to develop even fiercer martial forces in order to frighten the empire’s enemies and bring an end to all resistance. To clinch his argument, the poet ventures an overtly nationalistic thesis: “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.” When Owen quotes this line from Horace, he clearly does so with ironic intentions that subvert the Latin poet’s original meaning. Furthermore, the fact that Owen quotes Horace in untranslated Latin underscores just how old-fashioned it is to associate fighting for one’s country with sweetness and glory.

Apostrophe

Apostrophe (uh-PAW-struh-fee) is a rhetorical device that occurs whenever a speaker addresses an absent person, an object, or an abstract entity. Owen uses this technique to powerful effect in his poem, primarily by delaying it until the poem’s second half. Indeed, it is only after the speaker has offered a chilling account of the chaotic violence of war that he turns to the present moment and addresses a certain “you” (lines 17–28):

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
. . .
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
. . .
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

With these lines, it becomes clear that the speaker is addressing a particular audience. This audience consists of people who have never experienced war first-hand, but who nonetheless publicly champion the war effort in abstract and idealizing terms. With this concluding address, Owen indicates that the true purpose of his poem isn’t simply to shed light on the horrors of war. It’s also to resist the old-fashioned nationalist rhetoric that uncritically associates war with glory. Such an association is something that comes down to us from the time of the Romans, almost two thousand years ago; it hardly applies to modern warfare.

Cacophony

Cacophony (kuh-KAW-fuh-NEE) refers to a sound effect characterized by dissonance, and it occurs when language sounds rough or harsh. This dissonant effect occurs when individual words or groupings of words have a particularly unmusical sound. The best way to discover cacophony in a poem is to read it aloud and see which lines are challenging to say. In the case of Owen’s poem, cacophony is evident already in the four opening lines:

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

To begin, take note of the profusion of consonants and consonant clusters in this passage. Owen uses a wide-ranging mix of heavy consonant sounds (D, G, DG), plosives (B, T), liquids (L, R), fricatives (F), and sibilants (S), among others. The combination of so many different consonant sounds creates a form of dissonance that reflects the discombobulating effects of war. That said, though the overall effect is cacophonous, the repetition of consonant sounds can also create a competing sense of order. This is particularly true when the same consonant appears at the beginning of sequential or nearby words. This effect, known as alliteration, appears in this passage through the initial B, C, and T sounds that repeat throughout.

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia (AW-nuh-MAW-tuh-PEE-yuh) refers to instances where the sound a word makes suggests that word’s meaning. When you say onomatopoeic words like “clap,” “zip,” and “fizz” out loud, they seem to mimic the very sounds they name. Onomatopoeic words like these appear throughout “Dolce Et Decorum Est,” and particularly in the opening section of the poem, where the speaker uses language to evoke the horrors of war. In the opening lines, for instance, the speaker describes the exhaustion of the men in his unit as they march through the trenches (lines 1–4):

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Words like “knock-kneed,” “coughing,” “sludge,” and “trudge” all sound like what they mean. Similar sound effects appear in the lines that follow, and especially in the chaotic sequence that ensues when a canister of gas explodes nearby. This explosion sends the unit into a panic, causing them to act in a hurried and clumsy way that’s imitated in a series of onomatopoeic words: “fumbling” (line 9), “stumbling” (11), “flound’ring” (12), and “drowning” (14 and 16). These and other evocative words sonically reflect the chaos and confusion of war.

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