“Dulce et Decorum est” and “The Sentry” both by Wilfred Owen Essay Example

n The Sentry, which is also set on a battlefield, Owen continues this theme of "the horrors of war." The traumatic event depicted in the poem haunted Owen for eighteen months until he could write it.

The soldiers are seeking shelter in a German trench to protect themselves from the ongoing bombardment. The condition of the trenches illustrates the theme of "the horrors of war" with sludge rising waist-high and stairs covered in thick clay. The soldiers are trapped in filth, unable to escape. One sentry is blinded by shrapnel from an exploding bomb, resulting in his eyeballs bulging like squid. Both poems convey the dreadful reality of war, where innocent souls are afflicted by gas or blinded, as seen in graphic scenes. In Dulce et Decorum est, the aftermath speaks of the horrors of war left behind, saying "the old lie Dulce e