In Wilfred Owen’s poem, “Dulce et Decorum Est,” Owen tells a story of his horrific and gruesome experience fighting in World War I and how it has since haunted him. Owen describes a day on the battlefield that has left the soldiers mentally and physically broken and bloodied. As the soldiers are returning to the base for the night, there’s an awful gas attack and the soldiers scramble to put on their gas masks.

Tragically, Owen helplessly watched as one of his fellow soldiers choked to death from toxic fumes. Owen is haunted by the excruciating death of his comrade. He addresses the people at home who promote war and urges them to stop encouraging young men to go to battle for personal and national glory. He wonders how they can keep advocating for war without ever experiencing the horror of it. In his poem, “Dulce et Decorum Est,” Owen reveals the idea that lofty patriotic ideals lead to disastrous consequences through his use of imagery, caesuras, and symbolism.

Owen uses imagery to show how powerful patriotic ideals preached from home can lead to disastrous consequences for millions of youth who have to go to war. Owen uses imagery in the first line of the poem to show how the soldiers are “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks.” (1) At the beginning of the poem, Owen does not introduce the soldiers as strong and mighty warriors, instead, he refers to them as “old beggars.” (1) Owen shows how the soldiers have suffered vast horrific events during the war by creating the image of beaten-down, haggard old men.