Dulce et Decorum Est

1
Dulce et Decorum Est

• Wilfred Owen

2
Good Morning S3!

• In todays lesson we will...
• Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum
  Est.
• Talk about poetic techniques.
• Think about the context of the poem.

3
WW1 Poetry

• Enthusiastic response to war and volunteering at
  first.
• Propaganda posters and war movies.
• A wish for glory and adventure.
• Patriotism
• But then...

• Disillusionment
• Heavy number of casualties.
• Conscription
• An end to the illusion that problems could be
  solved peacefully.

4
Early poetic response to war

• Romantic sense of patriotic duty.

His war sonnets were written in the first flush
of patriotism and enthusiasm as a generation
unused to war rushed to defend king and country.

• If I should die, think only this of meThat
  there's some corner of a foreign fieldThat is
  for ever England. There shall beIn that rich
  earth a richer dust concealedA dust whom
  England bore, shaped, made aware.(from war
  sonnets- sonnet V. the soldier)

Rupert Brook
5
Early poetic response to war
England, in this great fight to which you
goBecause, where Honour calls you, go you
must,Be glad, whatever comes, at least to
knowYou have your quarrel just.
Owen Seaman
6
Background

• Since ancient times it has been considered heroic
  to die in war.
• Homers epic poem The Illiad celebrates, among
  other things, the nobility of dying on the
  battlefield.
• This view continued well into the 19th Century
  (and even the 20th Century), and Tennysons
  popular poem The Charge of the Light Brigade
  gives us an idea of how poets and people in
  general thought about the valour of fighting
  and dying for ones country

7
Tennyson

• Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them,
  Cannon behind themVolleyd and thunderd When
  can their glory fade? O the wild charge they
  made! All the world wonderd. Honour the charge
  they made! Honour the Light Brigade, Noble six
  hundred

These lines by Tennyson may be well written and
rousing, but they are not very realistic.
8
War Poets

• Poets such as Sassoon and Owen changed all that
  with their efforts to give us an accurate
  representation of trench warfare.
• Wilfred Owen fought in some of the major battles
  of World War I and the reality and horror of war
  shocked him.
• In the face of the desperate suffering he saw
  around him, it was no longer possible to pretend
  warfare was adventurous and heroic.

9
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 backs
• And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
• Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
• But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame all
  blind
• Drunk with fatigue deaf even to the hoots
• Of tired, outstripped Five Nines that dropped
  behind.

10
Dulce et Decorum est

• GAS! Gas! Quick, boys! An ecstasy of fumbling,
• Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time
• But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
• And floundering like a man in fire or lime.
• Dim, through the misty panes and thick green
  light
• As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
• In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
• He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

11
Dulce et Decorum est

• If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
• Behind 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 blood
• Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
• Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
• Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
• My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
• To children ardent for some desperate glory,
• The old Lie Dulce et decorum est Pro patria
  mori.

12
Theme

• The theme of Dulce et Decorum est is that
• there is neither nobility in war, nor honour in
  fighting for your country.
• Instead there is tragedy, futility and waste of
  human life.

13
Theme

• Wilfred Owen fought in some of the major battles
  of World War I and the reality and horror of war
  shocked him.
• In the face of the desperate suffering he saw
  around him, it was no longer possible to pretend
  warfare was adventurous and heroic.

Instead Owen recorded in his poetry how shocking
modern warfare was and he sought to describe
accurately what the conditions were like for
soldiers at the Front
14
Theme

• Owen wanted people who were not in the trenches
  the people at home in England to see the
  reality and misery of war.
• He also wanted them to stop telling future
  generations the old lie Dulce et decorum est
  pro patria mori (It is sweet and fitting to die
  for ones country.).
• It is worth noting that these lines were written
  by the poet Horace, two thousand years earlier.

15
Techniques and Effect lines 1-8

• What is actually happening in this section of the
  poem?
• Why is it important to the theme of the poem that
  the soldiers are marching away from the fighting?
• Owen uses a simile to describe the soldiers-
  "like old beggars". Pick out all the other words
  ("imagery") from section 1 which could also be
  used to describe beggars.
• Effect. Given that the soldiers are probably very
  young men, what does the imagery mentioned above
  suggest about them?

16
Lines 1-8

• The poem is built around 3 powerful and
  disturbing images.
• A group of soldiers moves through no-mans land
  in an attempt to get back to the relative safety
  of the trenches.
• Owen wants us to imagine what it was like in the
  trenches to see the detail and reality of dying
  in such a place.

17
Techniques and Effect lines 1-8

• Look at all the punctuation in section 1. There
  are a large number of commas and full stops in
  the middle of lines. What do they do to the pace
  and rhythm of the lines?
• Effect. How do the pace and rhythm of the lines
  reflect how the men are moving?
• Sound effects the writer uses sludge and trudge
  instead of "mud" and "walk". How does the sound
  of these words give a better idea of the scene?

18
Lines 1-8

• Sound effects 2 look at all the s sounds in the
  last 2 lines. Write them down.
• What sound do they imitate? What do we call this?
• Word association many of the men have lost their
  boots and are "blood-shod" what does this mean?
• What two similar words does "blood-shod"
  resemble?
• What does this suggest about what the men have
  been through?
• NOW COMPLETE YOUR TECHNIQUES TABLE.

19
Section 2

• What happens in this section?
• There is much less punctuation in this section.
  What effect does this have on the pace and rhythm
  of the lines?
• How does the pace and rhythm of the lines reflect
  what is happening in this section?
• At the beginning of the section, Owen uses
  capital letters when writing GAS! How does this
  suggest the mens reaction?

20
Section 2

• Look at the last 2 lines. Owen uses an image to
  describe how the gassed man looks to the
  narrator. Explain this image literally.
• What simile does the poet use to suggest what the
  scene appeared like to the narrator?
• Why is this simile appropriate in the light of
  what is happening to the gassed man?

21
Section 2

• The second image (found in the second stanza) is
  more dramatic.
• Notice how the first words of the stanza change
  the pace of the poem, making it more urgent as
  the soldiers come under attack and try to put on
  their gas masks before they choke.
• Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! An ecstasy of fumbling,
  
• Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time
• The poet manages to get his mask on.

22
Section 2

• The last two lines of this stanza change pace
  again.
• They have an almost dreamlike quality as the poet
  watches from behind his gas mask.
• As the thick green smoke washes over the men,
  the poet uses a striking simile of the sea to
  describe the gas.
• But one man fumbles with his mask and is overcome
  by the fumes and drowns in the sea of thick
  smoke.
• NOW COMPLETE YOUR TECHNIQUES TABLE.

23
Section 3

• In this short section, Owen is no longer telling
  the story. What is he talking about?
• Word choice. Another technique the poet uses
  again is employing words that have a number of
  different associations or possible meanings.
• Plunges what kind of dream is suggested here?
  How does plunges relate to the image at the end
  of section 2?

24
Section 3

• Guttering guttering resembles guttural which
  means to do with the throat. How does this relate
  to the noises the gassed man might be making?
• Guttering is normally used to describe a flame on
  the point of being blown out. Given that human
  life is often described as a flame, how is this
  appropriate to the gassed soldier?
• NOW COMPLETE YOUR TECHNQUES TABLE.

25
Section 4

• What happens in this section?
• The narrator starts talking to us. He tries to
  describe the scene to us. What does he achieve by
  using the word flung in line 2?
• What effect is he trying to achieve by the
  following vocabulary? writhing, blood, gargling,
  froth-corrupted, bitter, vile, incurable, sores?
• Contrast look at the motto (written by the Roman
  poet Horace) at the end of the poem. How do you
  think this seems in the light of your answer to
  the previous question?

26
SECTION 4

• Read the whole of section 4 again. Sum-up what
  the poet is saying to us. Show how his use of
  vocabulary and contrast reinforces this idea.
• NOW COMPLETE YOUR TECHNIQUES TABLE.

27
Dulce et Decorum Est

• The motto is ironic. How is this so in the light
  of the following
• they are marching away from the fighting
• the gas-shells were fired from a long way away
• the soldiers death was prolonged and agonizing ?

28
Dulce Et Decorum Est

• Essay Question
• Analyse the techniques used by Wilfred Owen in
  Dulce et Decorum est to make the poem more
  vivid and meaningful.