Analysis of Dolce et Decorum est, by Wilfred Owen.

Dolce et Decorum est:


Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, 
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, 
Till on the haunting flares(2) we turned our backs 
And towards our distant rest(3) began to trudge. 
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots 
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; 
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots(4)  
Of tired, outstripped(5) Five-Nines(6) that dropped behind.
Gas!(7) Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling, 
Fitting the clumsy helmets(8) just in time; 
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, 
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime(9) . . . 
Dim, through the misty panes(10) and thick green light, 
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. 
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, 
He plunges at me, guttering,(11) choking, drowning. 
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace 
Behind the wagon that we flung him in, 
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, 
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; 
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood 
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, 
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud(12)  
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, 
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest(13)  
To children ardent(14) for some desperate glory, 
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est 
Pro patria mori.(15)




Analysis:
Wilfred Owen used a lot of words describing exactly what he sees, in such a way that you feel like you were there yourselve. He describes the scene, the soldiers, and the actions very well. He tells us about a man who's choking due to a gas explosion, and uses a typical kind of words, which makes it sound realy painful. (Which ofcourse it was!) 
He uses words like;
 'He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.' 
'His hanging face.' 
He even compares him to a devil's sick of sin.
 He tells us about the sound of the man choking, using the following words; 
'The blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud.' This sounds so horrible!
At the end of the poem he says that it's NOT a good thing to die for your country, if you have to die like the described soldier. 
I think the poem is very sad.


Wilfred Owen uses a very obvious rhyme scheme, which makes it sound very pretty.
Rhyme scheme; ababcdcd and so on.
He also used a little bit of alliteration.
 Examples; 
Knock-kneed. 
Men marched asleep, many had lost their boots.
But someone  still  was yelling out and stumbling.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace.


I think this poem is very 'inspiring'. (I don't know the good word for it) But it describes everything so detailed, and it makes me kind of sad. I think it was the poems intension to make us feel sad, and to agree on his last sentences.