"Dulce et Decorum Est," written in 1917 by Wilfrid Owen, is an anti-war poem, while Brooke's "The Soldier," written in 1914, before World War I had bogged down into the horror it would become, glorifies war. Five contrasts would be as follows:
In "The Soldier," death in battle is depicted as beautiful and purifying: "this heart, all evil shed away." In "Dulce," death in battle is ugly and painful: "White eyes writhing in his face."
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"Dulce et Decorum Est," written in 1917 by Wilfrid Owen, is an anti-war poem, while Brooke's "The Soldier," written in 1914, before World War I had bogged down into the horror it would become, glorifies war. Five contrasts would be as follows:
In "The Soldier," death in battle is depicted as beautiful and purifying: "this heart, all evil shed away." In "Dulce," death in battle is ugly and painful: "White eyes writhing in his face."
In "The Soldier," it is sweet and right to die for England:
think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England.
In "Dulce" to say that it is good to die for England is a "lie" and the title of the poem, which means it is sweet and good to die for your country, is bitter and ironic, an idea to reject.
In "The Soldier," the dead soldier brings the beauty of England to the battlefield with him:
A body of England's,/ breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
In "Dulce," the living soldier brings only in the misery of the present moment with no thought of England: "bent double, like old beggars under sacks."
In "The Soldier," soldiers bring gentleness with them to death in battle: "laughter ... gentleness ... hearts at peace"; in "Dulce," death from gassing is a slow horror, "obscene as cancer."
In "The Soldier," death in battle brings happy dreams: "dreams happy as her day"; in "Dulce" warfare brings nightmares: "in all my dreams ... he plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning."
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