Sound Imagery in Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est"

The sound imagery in Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est" helps to create a very disgusting picture of a World War One battlefield. To begin with, the men are "coughing like hags" and cursing as they march off the battlefield to their "distant rest." Hags are old, witch-like women, and their coughing is usally hacking, body-wracking, and very prolonged; and the cursing -- well, what these soldiers are muttering is bound to be distressingly obscene. Soldiers in battle don't go around saying "gosh, golly, gee!" Another unpleasant sound is the panicky screaming when the poison gas shells start falling near the men: "Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!" The worst and most disturbing sounds, however, come from the soldier who was too late getting his gas mask on. He is screaming like a man "in fire or lime," and he is "guttering" and "choking" on the foaming mess that used to be his lungs, and he is making "gargling" noises as blood and foam and carbonized lung tissue flow out of his throat. Coughing, cursing, screaming, and the noises made by a man strangling to death -- indeed, the disgusting sound imagery of the poem plays a very important part in creating a feel of what the actual horrors of war were like.

The paragraph above is a good sample of a short essay answer. (It's only 175 words long.) It has a clear topic sentence that makes definite point, that is, sound imagery is important to creating the disgusting picture of World War One. Then there are three supporting examples: the sound of coughing and cursing, the sound of men screaming, and the sound of a man strangling to death. Finally, the last sentence of the paragraph restates the topic idea about sound imagery being important in the poem.

Also, there are two other important points to notice about the little paragraph above. First, the author of the paper quotes exact words and phrases from the poem as evidence to support his topic idea. Second, the title of the paper makes it very clear what the paper is about, that is, the role of sound imagery in Owen's poem.