Dulce et decorum

1. Dulce et decorum By: Wilfred Owen

2. Dulce et Decorum est Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,Till on the haunting flares we turned our backsAnd towards our distant rest began to trudge.Men marched asleep. Many had lost their bootsBut limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hootsOf disappointed shells that dropped behind.GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;But someone still was yelling out and stumblingAnd floundering like a man in fire or lime.--Dim, through the misty panes and thick green lightAs under a green sea, I saw him drowning.In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.If in some smothering dreams you too could paceBehind the wagon that we flung him in,And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;If you could hear, at every jolt, the bloodCome gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cudOf vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--My friend, you would not tell with such high zestTo children ardent for some desperate glory,The old Lie: Dulce et decorum estPro patria mori.

3. Author’s biography • Wilfred Owen was born in 1893 to a middle-class family in Oswestryin the North of England. • Owen's parents had to move after Owen's grandfather died. • They rented a home in the more urban area of Birkenhead. • Owen began to read and write poetry as a child. • He followed his mother’s religious views and read the Bible daily. • His family was to poor to send him to public school and also wasn’t able to win a scholarship to attend the University of London. • In 1911, he moved south to the village of Dunsden, looking for work. • He worked as a lay reader (an assistant to a clergyman) until 1913. • He then started studying part time at the University of Reading

4. Even with the help of the head of the English program and Reading he wasn’t able to get the Scholarship. • In 1913, he got sick and changed his profession and became a private teacher. • He traveled to France, where he worked until 1915. • In 1915, Owen returned home and enlisted, in October, in the Artist's Rifles. • In March, 1916, he began an officers' training course and in June, 1916, the 2nd Manchester Regiment commissioned him. • Just after Christmas 1916, on 29 December, he shipped out to France. • Beginning in January, 1917, he spent almost four months with his regiment moving in and out of the front line. • After only a few days in the front line, Owen wrote to his mother, "I can see no excuse for deceiving you about these 4 days. I have suffered seventh hell. I have not been at the front. I have been in front of it.“ • On the 2nd of May, Owen returned home, diagnosed as suffering from shell-shock and unfit to lead troops. • In June, he arrived at Craiglockhart Hospital, just outside Edinburgh, in Scotland, where a small team of doctors treated those suffering from the psychological trauma of modern warfare.

5. Owen published his work in the hospital journal, The Hydra and he met, through Sassoon,(a good friend he met in the Hospital and showed his work to) several other writers and poets, including Robert Graves. • In 1915, Owen wrote that the only thing that would hold him together on the battlefield would be the "sense that I was perpetuating the language in which Keats and the rest of them wrote.“ • Sassoon was the strongest of Owen's wartime influences. • Sassoon encouraged Owen to explore the symptoms of shell-shock - flashbacks, recurrent and repetitive nightmares. • In 1917, he wrote to his mother talking about the war and France because he couldn’t get those images out of his head. • He couldn’t get  "...the revelling of the Scotch troops, who are now dead and knew they would be dead“ out of his head. (he wrote that to his mother) • Owen returned to his regiment in November, 1917 but did not return to France until the middle of the year. • He wrote extensively during this period, revising and rewriting poems already begun, and beginning many new works. • In September,1918 he returned to the front line, where he won the Military Cross for bravery. • He was preparing his first collection when he was killed on November 4th. • On 11 November, the telegram informing his parents of his death arrived • The day the signing of the Armistice ended the war

7. The structure of the poem • The style of “Dulce et Decorum est.is similar to the French poetic form. • By referencing this formal poetic form and then breaking conventions of pattern and rhyming, Owens accentuates the disruptive and chaotic events being told. • The poem separates into two parts, both of 14 lines. • First part (the first 8 line and the second 6 line stanzas) is written in the present as the action happens and everyone is reacting to the events around him. • Second part (the third 2 line and the 12 line stanzas), Owens writes as though at a distance from the horror: he refers to what is happening twice as if in a “dream”, as though standing back watching the events or even recalling them. The second part looks back to draw a lesson from what happened at the start the two 14 parts of the poem again echoes a formal poetic style, the sonnet and again it is broken and unsettling version of this form.

8. The first stanza of the poem lays out a neat eight-line pattern: ABABCDCD rhyme scheme divides the stanza nearly in two. • Going into the second and third stanza, things begin to fall apart. • Stanza two keeps the same rhyme scheme but changes the tone of the poem and goes deeper to a horror type poem and only has six lines. • The tone is going so deep he uses a strong word twice to end the 2nd and the 3rd stanzas with “drowning”. • Once you get to the forth and final stanza, it goes even darker and puts more emphasis in the horror of the poem. • The poem stays in pentameter up until the end while getting the feel of the though of the horrifying war the writer was in. • The reason the poem got so long was because Owens saw it necessary to put every bit of graphic detail in it for a better feel of the war. • Although it felt like the poem was all over the place due to the change in the middle of the poem with the tone and the diction of the poem the rhyme scheme stayed with a typical: ABABCDCDEFEFGHGHLJLJKLKLMNMN • I found this poem to be a Lyric poem due to the Regular rhyme scheme and the deep thoughts the writer was portraying.

9. Analysis • Dulce Et Decorum Est • The poem was written in 1917 by Wilfred Owen, a soldier in the First World War also a poet. World war one was horrible because of how they fought, soldiers would fight from trenches filled with mud. And they would fight with trench warfare and by using chemical warfare as well. The main idea of the poem is to show the reality of war to the people who are blinded by governments. He wants people to stop joining the war because it is not what is seems. The poem is made up of twenty eight lines and is a Lyric poem. The poem has a conventional rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF. A majority of the poem is written in iambic pentameter but in some stanzas it breaks up and changes. • The theme of the poem is how Owen is against war. He wants to expose war for what it really is, to show how gruesome and dreadful it is. He wants the people to know that war is not as great as it glorified. He shows how against he is of war by putting the phrase “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.” Which in Latin means “It is sweet and glorious to die for one’s country.”

10. Now what the poem is revealing the true face of war by the type of diction being used, words like sludge, guttering, choking, drowning, thick green light to explain to the readers how horrible war is. These words are also used to put emphasis on how much violence and death is involved in war. Also the words used are very graphic, telling the reader that war is not what it seems to be. The government hides the ugly side of war so more people would join. These words also help the tone of the poem, so people can picture all the misery and pain soldiers are going through. So he uses the diction to help explain what he wants the readers to know. • The tone of the poem is very horrendous we know this because of the diction as was already explained. He is very straightforward with the readers so they capture all the truth of war. For example “men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots but limped on, Blood shod. All went lame” all blind; the tone of that part of the poem is very depressing and you can feel how tired and beat up they are from the war, and most of the poem is the same way. In part of the poem the tone shift, “Gas! GAS! Quick boys!” That part of the poem shifts the tone from pain and exhaustion to urgency and panic. After that part of the poem it returns to the pain of war by “Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, as under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

11. Now to interpret the poem, the first quatrain tells the readers how soldiers in the war are exhausted from the effects of the war and are hurt or beat up they almost seem old. “Coughing like hags” symbolizes that the soldiers are not as young or as good in shape as they government shows the public. Then “We cursed though sludge,” shows the readers how muddy the trenches are, since they fought from trenches. Then the poem continues by telling us that the fight has ended for the day and went back to their camp, lines three and four. Lines six through eight tell us again how tired they are “men marched asleep.” And also the poem explains how beat up their bodies are, “All went lame, All blind” Again “drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots” saying that the war has taken a toll on their abilities to hear. In lines nine through fourteen the poem suddenly changes from depressing to urgency and panic. They soldiers has suddenly been attacked by mustard gas, very common in World War One. The soldiers run for their lives but the speaker notices that someone has inhaled the gas. First we know its mustard gas because it is made out of sulfur and appears green “Thick green light, as under a green sea.” And we know someone has inhaled he gas because the speaker explains someone “flound’ring” and also “drowning” is appears as if they are drowning because of the blistering. The blistering causes bleeding and when there are blisters on the lungs you can drown from all the blood. Now the speaker tells us that every night he sees the soldier who was dying from the gas, and the sight of him is in all his dreams. What he sees is “He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.” And now the speaker tells the readers that you would have to have been there to see the full effect of death, just imaging it is not enough.

12. The speaker continues to describe how bad his dream his because he is looking at the soldier who just died. He goes into detail about the soldiers face “Watch the white eyes writhing in his face.” Once again the speaker really wants for people to see how much death there is in war, he paints the picture of a man dying from mustard gas. Blood is coming out of his mouth and “gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs.” He does not hold back, he wants to be as graphic as he can so people see what war is. He also explains the body of a young man turns into a body covered with sores and blisters “obscene as cancer,” tells us that his body is horrible it looks like he has cancer. After the speaker shows us all he has gone through in war, he finally blames the people who started the war. He is blaming the government “my friend you would not tell with such high zest, that they would not show how bad war is and lie to the young people who want to join the war “children.” He continues by explaining that the government wants the young people who are excited about war and devoted to go to think war is glorifying. Finally he ends the poem by saying that “The old lie: Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori.” It is not sweet and glorious to die for one’s country.

13. Literary Devices • “bend double” –hyperbole • A soldier may be bent over because of the lack of sleep or running with all his gear • Alliteration • “knock- kneed” • “men marched asleep” • “and watch the white eyes writhing in his face” • Use this to grasp your attention so you will continue to read

14. “Gas! Gas! Quick boys” • The use of the capital letters and exclamation marks break metrical structure and show the reader panic and urgency • Simile • “bent double, like old beggars under sacks knock-kneed coughing like hags” • Used to contradict the propaganda of the war because it most people saw good looking 20 year olds on posters , but in reality were older.

15. Quiz Questions • 1. Describe IN YOUR OWN WORDS two things the soldiers suffer from as they return to base. • 2. What do you think “Five-Nines” (line 8) are? Explain your answer briefly. • 3. Owen uses very graphic language to show the effect of a gas attack, like in lines 21–22 (“blood / Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs”). Describe, IN YOUR OWN WORDS, what is happening to the soldier in these lines? • 5. Owen uses alliteration to make his account more vivid. Write down one example and explain its effect. • 6. Why do you think the author has capitalized the word “Lie” (line 27)?

16. 7. The author uses a number of literary techniques to make his account more engaging. Name a technique the author uses and give an example from the text for each one. • “Quick, boys! – An” / “fire or lime…” • 8. Does Owen want to shock or warn the reader? Explain. • Shell-shock: • 9. What is the name of the guy who inspired him to write about the war? What kind of trauma did Owen suffer? • 10. TRUE or FALSE. Owen has described the reality of war because he fought on the front line during WWI?