EXPLORING THE EFFECTS OF WAR FROM POETS TO CIVILIANS IN THE WORK OF WILFRED OWEN, DULCE ET DECORUM EST

ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 244 EXPLORING THE EFFECTS OF WAR FROM POETS TO CIVILIANS IN THE WORK OF WILFRED OWEN, DULCE ET DECORUM EST Ms. KE. Geethu II M.A. English, Department of English DR. N.G.P. Arts and Science College, Coimbatore [email protected] Dr. M. Kavitha Assistant Professor, Department of English D.R. N.G.P Arts and Science College, Coimbatore [email protected] https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17283516 Abstract War is defined as a military conflict between states and nations that significantly affects the lives of those who reside in the vicinity of the battlefield. Salter, Wilfred Edward Owen's poems on war-related subjects gained him widespread recognition. His service in World War I as a soldier captured the agonies of war on humans in his poem Dulce et Decorum est. The globe is currently dealing with a conflict between Russia and Ukraine in the twenty-first century. In India, the war between the two nations was ready to break out. This struggle claimed the lives of many Indian citizens. Many youngsters in nations like Iran and Iraq struggle to meet their necessities. Owen recounted his early life experiences in 1914; he encountered the battlefield, much like many people today are dealing with comparable wartime and life-saving situations. Will the Third World War be sparked by these movements that we all encounter, or will they inspire several poets like Wilfred Edward Salter Owen? This poetry will inspire new artistic creations and be read by future generations. Keywords: war, struggle, conflict, battlefield, poetry, Generation “Dulce et decorum est ” is a Latin term that explains, “ It is sweet and proper to die for one’s country.” War is defined as a conflict between many different countries and nations. The author shares his experience on the battlefield of the First World War in 1914, stating that he witnessed the struggles that all the citizens faced during the war. The soldiers lost their lives in the war. In this poem, Owen shares the mental and physical struggles that the soldiers faced during the war. He visited his grandfather's house in his childhood days, as he witnessed the war experiences that he shares that the soldiers would bend their backs to carry the weapons on their backs and wear masks that barely visualized their faces, and they could not breathe when soldiers wore their masks. Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest, we began to trudge. After the war, the soldiers faced struggles that he mentioned as looking like old men. He bends due to his age, but soldiers bent twice compared to the old man, and his appearance symbolizes that of a beggar. Owen shares that this happened to them because of instability due to extreme tiredness. They cough like an old man who is not well; they will always face many health problems. Incentives such as economic strain and national domination have caused even hideous (inkind) war conflicts for many nations across the 21st century. Due to those conflicts as a nation, widespread distress is endured, such as loss of lives and basic needs that are lacking in their ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 245 lives. In the ancient period, as described in the poem, when Owen describes what war was like, they struggle through muck, which, as soldiers, is not standing from fielding into battle. Owen describes the title as an old lie, as instructed to young men as they reinstate the glory of the glorious of war. World War II was battles taking place on a world stage, where major world powers dominated through multiple oceans; however, the Iran-Iraq War was a regional dispute of neighbouring Middle Eastern nations, although a greater geopolitical context was present. Both wars experienced horrible trench warfare and chemical weapons use, which Owen described in his poem, "Dulce et Decorum Est." Chemical weapons were used extensively in the Iran-Iraq War, most notably by Iraq against the Iranian enemy and Kurdish civilians, similar to the gas attacks Owen wrote about in World War 1. Both wars involved savage attrition warfare that resulted in millions of casualties and small territorial gains. World War 1 cost approximately 15-20 million deaths, while the Iran-Iraq war incurred somewhere between 500,000 and 1.5 million casualties, of which it ranked as one of the deadliest wars as a conflict of the late 20th century. World War 1 introduced modern mechanized warfare, with tanks, air resources, and chemical weapons. The Iran-Iraq War utilized modern military technology (missiles, aircraft) and combined that with World War 1 human wave attacks, mainly by Iranian forces. Many writers have written about World War I and World War II, but only a few writers have shared their traumatic experiences about the Iran-Iraq wars. In both wars, many soldiers have lost their lives, but only a few writers have written about different countries. This happened because of the popularity of the land of the Rising Sun, and in their country, the Sun never sets. Owen witnessed soldiers dying from chemical gas attacks in trenches - a horrific but "conventional" warfare death among combatants. The Pahalgam attack was fundamentally different: five armed terrorists deliberately targeted and killed 26 civilians, mostly Hindu tourists, representing terrorism against innocent people rather than military combat. Owen's poem focuses on soldiers - young men who enlisted (willingly or through conscription) and faced death in battle. The Pahalgam victims were "twenty-six civilians, mostly Indian tourists" who were simply visiting Kashmir for leisure, making their deaths particularly cruel and senseless. Owen experienced prolonged warfare over the years with millions of casualties. The Pahalgam attack was a single, short terrorist action that lasted for one hour, yet its effects caused an international crisis and military action, where India struck nine targets in Pakistanadministered Kashmir. Kashmir and Pakistan." Owen's poem emerged from direct experience of combat, written by a soldier who saw the horror. The Pahalgam attack, like most modern terrorist attacks, was documented immediately through the media and witnessed by survivors without the sustained literary reflection that Owen's poem affords contemporary readers on the reality of warfare. Owen specifically attacked the "old Lie" "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" (it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country). The Pahalgam attack represents a different kind of lie - terrorist groups justifying the murder of innocents for political goals. Both expose the gap between noble rhetoric and brutal reality. Owen's poem aimed to prevent future wars by revealing their horror. The Pahalgam attack triggered escalation, showing how terrorist violence perpetuates cycles of retaliation rather than serving any noble purpose. Both events demonstrate how violence destroys innocent lives, but Owen's poem addresses the romanticization of war itself, while Pahalgam represents the deliberate targeting of civilians, a different but equally devastating form of violence. Owen was brought in from off the battlefield? Well, he brings in one of the most horrifying things of the war, the gas attack that “paralyzed and attacked” the soldiers “like a man in fire or lime.” The poet portrays a soldier gassed, the death-flavoured memory of eating, the whites of ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 246 eyes closed eyes, blood juddering through famine lungs. There’s something deep and grotesquely visceral and lingering about this kind of suffering. It conveys the general industrial brutality of the First World War and how new technologies, such as chemical weapons, transformed the battlefield into a hellscape. India launched the strike, dubbed Operation Sindoor, at midnight on 7 May 2025, targeting nine sites in Pakistan’s Punjab province and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir with missiles and aircraft. The operation was designed, in the terminology of military experts, as a calibrated force — a way to display capability and determination to resist without provoking a major conflict. Operation Vermilion is intended violence that Owen watched transform into suffering and chaos. The key difference is the temporal span. Owen experienced four years of brutal, intense war in which millions died in the trenches across Europe. By describing the fatigue of soldiers as “double-bent like old beggars in sacks,” his poem highlights the long-term psychological and physical effects of continuous war. An entire generation was caught up in a never-ending cycle of violence, of which the gas attack he described was only one example. Despite its major strategic implications, Operation Vermilion lasted only a few hours during the four-day crisis. This brevity illustrates the intensity of contemporary conflict; while technological advances can have a sudden, devastating effect, nuclear deterrence prevents the kind of prolonged carnage Owen saw. Owen's poem discusses the widespread sacrifice of young soldiers, highlighting how "children eager for some hopeless glory" were sent to die because of the "old lie" that it was honorable to give their lives for their country. Millions of warriors died in horrific conditions in the First World War, which was a full-scale conflict involving entire populations. The strategic focus in modern warfare, rather than total destruction, can be seen in Operation Sindoor, which targeted specific military and terrorist infrastructure targets. Based on the early reporting coming from Pakistan, at least 26 lives were lost and 12 were injured; this appears to be a very small number - the lowest number of casualties in one day of World War I. Owen's poem was not necessarily targeting the number of people casualties on the battlefield, but rather the loss of terrorist capabilities, and to show national and international commitment. Owen's poem specifically targets the Latin 'Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori', 'it is sweet and fitting to die for your country'. Owen states that if an individual could honestly perceive the real circumstances of war, the prospect of military service romanticized by patriotic rhetoric would never sway young people to enlist. Owen's critiques are focused on nationalism and patriotic propaganda that celebrate military sacrificial labour. A new moral narrative and framework were advanced after the Pahalgam attack, which caused the deaths of 26 civilians, for counter-terrorism operations called Operation Sindoor. India positioned these attacks as legitimate retaliation against terrorist and insurgent infrastructure, and backed away from patriotic nationalistic justification towards a security posture. Owen claimed that war is inherently dehumanizing, but viewed Operation Sindoor as a potential act of terrorism that prevented further acts of terrorism - this poses distinct moral questions with regard to a standard of effectiveness and proportionality, as they each pertain to Owen's interpretations of war. Owen's writings are undoubtedly authentic, as they are based on his personal experiences as a combat soldier. His poetry was inspired by watching friends die horribly, which made his critique of the horrors of war all the more poignant and powerful. The poem describes about the description of the psychic and physical wear of war is what gives as an effect after the war. Significantly, Operation Sindoor occurred at a time of competing discourses and instant social media, influencing the people in the society after the war. At the time of Owen, when the "truths" ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 247 of war were hidden from the general public, we shared a war in progress through press reports, news, articles, journals, and social media. While it provoked this operation provoked a diplomatic and tension everywhere, there was not the kind of longer-term operation that accompanied the end of World War I. Operation Sindoor illustrated the extent to which technology has advanced the conduct of war with the use of smart weapons, satellite data, and new command and control structures; all that executed by the women as navy and merchant officers operators must still make decisions and one must always be aware of observation though in warfare that is fought today the forces using the equipment are often at a distance, mentally as well as physically, from the effects and consequences that happened in pagalam Kashmir. It’s a far cry from Owen’s intimate experience of death and suffering, between the war soldiers, and one that’s mediated by tech-speak. The nuclear dimension that Owen could not have anticipated is perhaps the most dramatic difference. now technology played a huge role earlier, it was only with the soldiers' struggle. The only qualification is the concept of rationalization, not that there is any. Contemporary times are outfitted with noted in the war with advanced geo-political tools that deal with all the missiles that were launched in the war field and justifications built around international law, and Terrorism policy, than the previous period's questioning over commonsensical patriotic answers. In either case, in this construction of a distance between civilian casualties, they are means, if many civilians suffered brutally because the terrorist parties attacked. Though precision strikes are a lot better than Operation Sindoor (and, although more humane in ramifications than the chemical attacks of World War I, as nuclear bombs), they nevertheless call upon a decaying human apparatus to kill another human as deemed by certain strategic intentions. While there's an idea of technological know-how to use in the hands of the younger generation that seems more humane than Owen's senseless violence towards a conflict adversary, the use of violence is still alien, as many new weapons as missiles, and violent destruction of places and acceptance remain permissible. Ironically, technological knowledge to use that reduce human costs tends to complicate violence, due to the idea of psychological and physical separation that is inflicted. Moreover, to Owen's previous experience, national strategy, legislation, and nuclear dimensions of clearer calculations add layers of reasoning. Here, Operation Sindoor was set to unfold within a highly constrained space of controlled escalation, enabling the participants to transmit the messages they sought while eluding a catastrophic consequence. Owen’s poem discusses all the war life of soldiers that they face, and the struggles that happen in the war field can never be justified. There are all the struggles that they face, he explains that they are a double beggar who holds a sack on their back. Both wars experienced horrible trench warfare and chemical weapons use, which Owen described in his poem, "Dulce et Decorum Est." Chemical weapons were used extensively in the Iran-Iraq War, most notably by Iraq against the Iranian enemy and Kurdish civilians, similar to the gas attacks Owen wrote about in World War 1. Both wars involved savage attrition warfare that resulted in millions of casualties and small territorial gains. World War 1 cost approximately 15-20 million deaths, while the Iran-Iraq war incurred somewhere between 500,000 and 1.5 million casualties, of which it ranked as one of the deadliest wars as a conflict of the late 20th century. World War 1 introduced modern mechanized warfare, with tanks, air resources, and chemical weapons. The Iran-Iraq War utilized modern military technology (missiles, aircraft) and combined that with World War 1 human wave attacks, mainly by Iranian forces. ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 248 The similarities between Operation Sindoor and Owen's own experience offer several enduring lessons. In the period of World War 1, all were using the normal guns and bombs that would affect nature, but in the present scenario, all were dealt with using technology-related things that make things different as killing more people in that society or destroying their entire landscapes. Precision weapons reduce casualties; the new technology missiles are not questioned, but they will be fully involved in destroying the places where the terrorists stayed. Owen’s strength was his ability to use direct narratives to force readers to confront the psychological and physical realities of war. Despite their tactical and technological sophistication, modern wars, such as Operation Vermilion, ultimately involve human beings making decisions to kill other real people. A hundred years after writing “Dulce et Decorum Est,” Owen’s central question remains relevant. More focused, limited, and strategically sustainable than the industrial carnage Owen saw, Sindoor forced society to accept that violence can be used for political ends. Owen’s lasting contribution lies not in providing easy answers about when war is justified, but in demanding that such decisions be made with full awareness of their human consequences. Whether we are dealing with the gas attacks of World War I or the precision strikes of our time, Owen’s question remains the same if we cannot face the realities of war head-on, we have no right to accept its use. Methods may change, but technological advances will not affect the moral imperative to be honest and transparent about the effects of violence. Works Cited All references to the poems are from Jon Stallworthy's two-volume edition The Complete Poems and Fragments of Wilfred Owen (London: Chatto and Windus, 1983, revised in 2013), 166, 165, 124, 169, 178, 140, 123. Hereafter abbreviated as CP&F https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/18/us-labels-the-group-accused-of-pahalgamattack-a-terrorist-organisation https://www.britannica.com/event/Iran-Iraq-War https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-the-iran-iraq-war-will-shape-the-region-fordecades-to-come/ Owen, W. (n.d.). Dulce et decorum est. Composed sometime between August 1917 and September 1918. Published posthumously in 1920. Latin title taken from “Ode to Valor” by Roman poet Horace, meaning it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.” Retrieved from http://ww1lit.nsms.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/db/object/ww1/3303 https://www.newsonair.gov.in/china-condemns-pahalgam-terrorist-attack-calls-on-regionalcountries-to-enhance-counter-terrorism-cooperation/ https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2128747 Sigmund Freud, ‘Infantile Sexuality’, The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume VII, translated by James Strachey (London: Hogarth, 1953), p. 203.