An analysis of symbolic elements in the war poem 'Dulce et Decorum est' by Wilfred Owen - An attempt to express the inexpressible

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject Didactics - English - Literature, Works, grade: 2,3, University of Duisburg-Essen (Anglophone Studies), language: English, abstract: This term paper focuses on the Modern war poem 'Dulce et decorum est' by Wilfred Owen. Although the majority of his poems became popular after the Second World War, Owen is considered as one of most influential war poets of his times as he set the tone for an entire generation. This paper will show that Wilfred Owen wrote his poem under the influence of French symbolism. The main goal of this paper is to analyze how Owen used symbolic elements in his poem in order to picture the experience of the First World War as so extremely cruel that it does not seem real, but like a nightmare in which the speaker is trapped.