I have chosen a few lines from the poem that I think sums up the story of Dulce Et Decorum Est and also are the most dramatic lines in the poem . I am going to tell the story I believe is behind them. Firstly I am going to start with 'Gas! Gas! Quick Boys! And ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time'. The way Owen has used this line in the poem shows the fear and nerves in the soldiers. Saying 'clumsy' may represent, the fact that the soldiers hands are shaking whilst they are trying to fit their helmets on their heads are rattling around, because deep down there is a part of them which knows that they could die at any given time if they do not fit their helmets to their heads fast enough. Also the way he used exclamation marks really makes you realize that the men are shouting it out of fear, warning everyone else.

Secondly I am going to tell you what I think the story behind 'Come gargling from froth corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, Bitter as cud'. I think that Owen was trying to tell with this line in the poem , is how brutal and merciless the gas that they used was. By saying that it is'obscene as cancer' then isn't that proof enough to prove that man is wrong by using this. Cancer is something that everyone hates and comparing it to this thick green mist, then it is proof in its self that there is no room for forgiveness when someone uses it. Then Owen leads to tells a story of how he watched his friend choke to death and how his lungs become so full of froth, making him drown even though this seemed not possible.

Thirdly 'Men Marched asleep. Many had lost their boots '. Owen used this to tell a story of how tired him and his fellow soldiers were. Having to march day and night, for hours on end to get to their next destination. How they would of had very little sleep as it was, then they would have had to march from 'A' to 'B', men would be half asleep whilst having to stay in line with the other soldiers, as you can imagine this would of been even more exhausting for them. How they would of had to cross endless mud planes and how some of the men had lost their boots in the thick mud, unable to retrieve them and having to go on with no means of protection on their feet for days maybe even weeks on end.

Fourthly 'The Old Lie: Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori', I think the story behind this final line in the poem in a tale of heartache and represents the horror of what everybody told the innocent men that signed up for the war and how most of them ended up dead. Also I think it shows the disgusts from everybody as it says 'The Old Lie'. Also it is opening our eyes to the truth by saying that it is an old lie, because really it is good to be willing to die for your country, but in the ways that Owen tells the sorry of how they died, it just shows the brutality of man-kind.

Fifthly I am going to tell you the story I think is behind 'We cursed through sludge'. Owen tells you that the soldiers have to make their way through the water, mud and blood of the honorable soldiers who died for their country. Also if you think about it he shows you a story of how they have just given up on what they have to live in, the conditions they had to work in. Also it allows you to imagine what the injured and dying had to pull through in. Imagine you had just been shot and then imagine having to recover in two foot of a mixture of mud, blood and rain water. It makes you want to go there and help them.

Finally 'As under a sea of green, I saw him drowning', the story I think that is behind this is the gas that they used to attack the enemy lines created an effect of the person who had just been hit mentally and physically, because they know that they would be close to death, because they would be choking or they would of gone blind. the mental effect on them would be them thinking about their families and friends, the fact that they might no see their loved ones faces again. Also in the poem he describes him having to watch his friend slowly dying after a gas attack, because he did not move quick enough to place his ill fitting gas mask on his face. And now it looks as if he if drowning under a layer of thick green mist which he represents by saying 'as under a sea of green'.