The speaker of “Dulce Et Decorum Est” is a veteran who has first-hand experience on the front lines of war. Although the speaker never explicitly identifies himself as male, it’s clear from context that the poem is set either during or after the First World War. Women did participate in the war effort, but not as front-line soldiers. As such, it’s reasonable to assume that the speaker is a man, and quite likely a young man. The speaker’s description of the exhaustion and chaos of war are vivid, and it’s immediately evident that, though he’s speaking of the past, his memories continue to disturb him in the present. Indeed, the speaker remains troubled by a particularly traumatic experience in which a fellow soldier in his unit choked to death from poison gas. The memory of this man’s death haunts his dreams (lines 15–16):

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

The way this past memory remains ever-present for the speaker indicates that he suffers from what at the time was called “shell shock,” but which is now known as PTSD, or “post-traumatic stress disorder.” This troubling condition has led the speaker to understand that war is not glorious or honorable. His overall message is therefore resolutely antiwar.

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