The Horror of War in Dulce et Decorum Est "Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen is a magnificent, and terrible, description of a gas attack suffered from a group of soldiers in World War 1. One of this group is unable to put on his helmet and is in terrible pain. Through his shifting rhythms, dramatic description, and rich, stark imagery, Owen seeks to convince us that the horror of war far surpasses the patriotic clichés of those who glamorize war. In the first of four stanzas, Owen presents the deadly calm before the storm of the gas attack. Alliteration and onomatopoeia combine with powerful figurative and literal images of war to produce a pitiful sense of desperation. “Bent beggars,” “crooked knees,” coughs, and “curses” like “hags” through “mud.” All this contained in just two lines! The third line places the poem's speaker with this plodding group. In the simple phrase “Men marched asleep,” the three beats mimic the falling rhythm of these exhausted men. The pun "bloody" slowly takes its toll on us. We also imagine that "blind" and "lame" suggest different levels of debilitation. The verse ends with the ironic, silent sounds of "shells" falling "softly behind." In contrast to the first verse, the second verse is full of action. The oxymoron, “ecstasy of groping,” seems strange at first glance, but then perfect, as a way to describe the controlled panic—immediately awakened with heightened sensitivity—of men with only seconds to find a gas mask. “But…” tells it all. A man arrives too late and is seen only through the "green sea" of mustard gas, "screaming... stumbling... drowning... dripping... choking." The short two lines of the third stanza underline the nightmare of these events. they continue to be so for our speaker. In the last verse, Owen becomes more insistent as he drives the ato with the steady rhythmic beat of iambic pentameter. We feel the "jolt" of the chariot, we see the "white eyes twitching" in this "dangling face," and, most horrifyingly, we hear the "gargles" of the blood-choked lungs. The surprising sound similarity, "like a devil sick with sin", testifies, together with everything else, the overwhelming truth of this experience. It's not "if" we could see the horror of this scene.