Why is imagery so important in Wilfred Owen’s Poem?
The statement Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori, means “it is good and fitting to die for one’s country”. Wilfred Owen is arguing against this statement through his poem. Imagery is important for this because it helps portray to the reader or “the friend” the horror of war. The soldiers of the poem are described as “boys” not men, they are not described as heroic, they instead are described as “bent double, like old beggars under sacks”, and as ill, “knock kneed, coughing, marching asleep”. Normally soldiers are displayed as inspirational, as strong, Wilfred’s imagery goes against this. He uses metaphor to convey this using “drunk with fatigue”, invoking a strong image of them exhausted and weak. When the gas actually comes the soldiers do not react with training, but instead are described as fumbling, and just putting their helmets on just in time. The earlier imagery of exhausted and overworked soldiers shows how they are not prepared for the gas, or any danger of war, therefore they are likely to die. This again highlights that they are they’re not the soldiers that the Latin phrase refers to, strong and heading to worthy deaths, they are weak, and ill prepared for death, and their health is not valued, they are there to fight and die. The use of gas instead of conventional or seen enemies, shows the reader the faceless nature or mechanism of death in war. Death can come from anywhere, and it does in the poem, when the gas appears without warning. The death of soldiers through the gas is described horrifically and, imagery helps with this by portraying the emotion. The way Wilfred Owen tells this story through the poem shows that his view of the war was that the soldiers have no comprehension of a justifiable cause, or a meaning behind their sacrifice.
Wilfred Owen used many literacy devices including imagery in his poem to illustrate a straightforward point, that the statement “Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori”, is a lie. According to Kohl Linsberg who wrote literacy analysis on the poem quoted “Owen uses these literary devices and others to reach a single end. A sensory image of watching a man, in service of his country, dies a terrible death. These include, the images of hunched men traveling through mud, hearing gas shells and putting on masks, a man drowning in gas, and the horrible ghastly death of that man. Owen incorporates sound with "the blood come gargling" which enhances the horror felt by the reader”. The literacy devices are central to the poem, Wilfred Owen uses alliteration, assonance, repetition, consonance and sibilance throughout the poem to increase the effectiveness of the messages that he is trying to get across to the readers. One of the first devices he uses in the poem is a simile “bent double, like old beggars under sacks”. This allows the readers to imagine a group of soldiers hunched over, to malnourished and beaten to even stand up straight.
Wilfred Owen does succeed in his use of imagery throughout the poem, he makes it feel real to the readers, and how horrible death is even when in service of your country. This statement “Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori”, means “it is good and fitting to die for one’s country”. The statement is in fact a lie, Wilfred Owen describes and portrays this well throughout the poem.