Analysis of Owen Wilson’s poems "Dulce et Decorum Est" and “The Sentry”

Many texts in poetry, regardless of their form, have presented conflict in some way. Whether that being conflict with self, with others, with the environment or with the supernatural. Countless people ruminate that conflict is mainly focused on negative aspects, however, while conflict can be challenging it can also be transformational and prepossessing. In Owen Wilson’s poems "Dulce et Decorum Est" as well as “The Sentry”, the composer successfully communicates the idea that conflict can be challenging nevertheless transformational. In both Owens's poems, he uses a multitude of language devices in order to empathise with sensitivity, sadness and grief, whereby at the end of the poem, it is shown to be extremely transformational yet challenging for not only the soldiers but everyone that revolves around them. In addition to that, Owen touches on his diverse personal experiences during the war which form the backbone of the poem. Owen Wilson explores and explains the deep pain, loss, longing, and sadness that soldiers went through during the war which in the end expresses just how the dramatic conflict in itself was transformational.

Owen Wilson employs sensitivity, sadness and grief in his poems to express just how emotive, challenging and transformational his poems are. In “Dulce et Decorum Est” the readers get the presentiment of misery when reading the emotional poem. Owen uses descriptive language to make his poems emotional and deep. “In all my dreams before my helpless sight, he plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.” in this imperative line, there is onomatopoeia in the words “guttering, choking and drowning”, to make readers hear what they read. Owen uses these techniques to convey the feeling of being in the text themselves. The only metaphor line in the poem, “Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots.” presents the idea of the physical state of the men as well as the physical challenges the soldiers faced during the war. The author also uses techniques such as imagery and emotive language to make the readers perceive things with their five senses. Owen has successfully used a lot of imagery to create a horrific picture of war, pain and grief. “His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin” and “white eyes.”  Both express the incredible imagery put into Owen’s poems.

The Sentry by Owen Wilson is a very vivid poem about World War I inspired by Owen’s actual experience. Conflict is shown constantly in the text through the war. However, the conflict ends up being transformational as the poem shows a deeper meaning to war and advises people if they are really willing to go fight for their country. Owen concentrates on making us share the trauma of the trenches through his use of sound. We see conflict evolving into the dimensions of human experience during the war where Owen uses onomatopoeia of words such as “burst, thud, flump, thud” throughout his text. Owen Wilson also uses rhyming techniques such as “the smell of men, left in the den” which gives an uncomfortable feeling for readers to communicate the extreme hardships faced by the men.

In both of Owen Wilson’s "Dulce et Decorum Est" as well as “The Sentry” it is shown that both texts have many similarities when it comes to conflict shown throughout both poems.

In the words ‘burst, thud, flump, thud!’ shown throughout ‘The Sentry’ as well as “guttering, choking, drowning”, in ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ we see that similarly in both poems there is lots of onomatopoeia and many other language techniques shown throughout the texts. Owen uses these techniques to make the readers realise the reality of what war conflict and how it can be incredibly transformational when thinking about going to war or even the traumatic experience.

By studying both of these two texts, "Dulce et Decorum Est" as well as “The Sentry”, it is evident that whilst conflict is hard it is also very beautiful and transformational. Both Owen’s texts make people think about going to war, which expresses just how transformational his poems are throughout the conflict. With Owen’s use of language devices such as metaphors, similes, onomatopoeia, imagery and rhyming lines, we see just how effective they are to express the transformational beauty of conflict.