Page "Dulce et Decorum est" Paragraph 2

Formally, the poem can be understood as the combination of two sonnets, though the spacing of the stanzas is irregular.

The text presents a vignette from the front lines of World War I ; specifically, of British soldiers attacked with chemical weapons.

In the rush to equip themselves against the gas, one soldier is unable to get his mask on in time.

The speaker of the poem describes the gruesome effects of the gas on the man and concludes, despite Horace's pronouncement, that were one to see firsthand the reality of war, one might not repeat mendacious platitudes about the nature of war.