Another simile that Owen uses is - "coughing like hags" that quotation shows that the men are like old women with a harsh hacking cough, being ill and too weak. ... We can feel the mans pain and agony as his flesh is burning. Owen uses an extended metaphor - "Dim, through the misty pains and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning." Owen compares a man dying in an attack to a man drowning in the sea; the clouds of green gas are like the sea surrounding the soldier. ... Another comparison is the green sea is meant to be a cloud of gas. ...

• Word Count: 1068
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Many of these men including Owen were hardly 21 years old, yet they were expected to give their lives without question. ... In lines 12, 13 and 14 Owen shows us the panic the men were feeling "And flound"ring like a man in fire or lime Dim, though the misty panes and thick green light, as under a green sea, I saw him drowning". ... Just reading this part I can see this man dying. ... He must have been a very observant man. ... In our day and age I don't think that old lie is true. ...

• Word Count: 996
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

He refers to the soldiers as 'hags', 'old beggars', who are 'bent double' and 'knock-kneed'; creating an impression of tired, filthy, unshaven, pitiful people. ... "As under a green sea, I saw him drowning", links directly back to the impression created by "flound'ring", of someone struggling to stay alive, but is going to die regardless - quite like someone drowning. ... The dying man is treated like chunk of meat. Owen uses gruesome imagery to portray the man's death. ... "My friend, you would not tell with such high zest, to children ar...

• Word Count: 988
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Owen depicts the men as "bent double, like old beggars under sacks.... Furthermore, the comparison of the soldiers and the "old beggars" is important because the adjective 'old' helps depict how the men have aged prematurely by their experiences. ... The suffering of an individual soldier who failed to get his gas mask on in time, "flound'ring like a man in fire or lime" depicts the harsh realities of what it is like to be a 'decorated hero.' The term flound'ring suggests that the man is having an absolute panic attack set on by somethi...

• Word Count: 966
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Calling the readers "my friend," Owen discourages the "children's" beliefs in the old lie. ... Images in the second stanza, "Green Sea," and "like a man in a fire and lime" give the intense color of the scene, green. ... These words helped to achieve the image and struggle of a man dying in gas. ... The poem bears strong emphasis of an irony to the old lie "Dulce Et Decorum Est." As an educated man Wilfred Owen was able to recognize the lie and propaganda by the government towards the soldiers. ...

• Word Count: 837
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

In the first stanza, Owen opens up by giving phrases such as "like old beggars under sacks", "men marched asleep", and "drunk with fatigue", which strongly provides the readers with vivid pictures of soldiers pushing forward in slow and controlled pace despite of deplorable conditions they are in. ... "As under a green sea I saw him drowning. ... In the end of the four lines, usage of the words such as "with such high zest" implies that "once the sentiment of dulce et decorum was once held by either the speaker or the dead man who he now sees on the wagon." ...

• Word Count: 708
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The soldiers are "bent double, like old beggars" which is contrary to the popular image of soldiers being strong and able. ... He illustrates the tragic event metaphorically by comparing the man choking on the gases to someone "drowning " in a "green sea. " This comparison serves to emphasize the explicit hazard troops face during war which in turn brings to the fore front the misconception that there is minimal danger involved while deployed. ... One example of this is when the wounded soldier is described as thrashing around "like a man in fire or lime. " The association of choking and being...

• Word Count: 974
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The composer's use of similes illustrates to us the unimaginable, horrific scenes of war in a way we might be able to fathom "Bent double, like old beggars under sacks". ... For example, it is displayed when Owen says, "Under a green sea, I saw him drowning" and "Blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs". ... Owen refers to the Latin phrase "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" meaning it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country, as "the old lie" suggesting that Horace, the man who composed the saying over 2000 years a...

• Word Count: 1027
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

"If anything will rouse him now, The kind old sun will know," The second stanza goes much deeper into the Generals emotions he is saying why did the sun break the earth to create us, if we are going to slaughter each other. ... "And floundering like a man in fire or lime" This line is saying the soldier was panicking too much that he was making mistakes and because of these mistakes the soldier doesn't get his helmet on in time and now he is surrounded by green gas. The last two lines of this stanza describes the soldier dying, "Dim through the misty panes and thick green l...

• Word Count: 983
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School