Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen

Transcription

1 Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen 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. Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound'ring 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. 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.

2 Stanza One Meaning: Stanza 1 begins with a description of the shocking condition of a group of soldiers retreating from the battle field. Owen is the observer of another incident of misery and the horror of trench warfare. The detail used to describe the men s wretched state is in marked contrast to the glorified image of war suggested by the title. There is nothing military about the soldiers in this description. The men are so exhausted they fail to notice a gas shell falling close by. Note how the description of the men builds to suggest how they have been totally degraded and demoralised by war. Style: Stanza 1 is heavily punctuated, slowing the pace of the opening of the poem to suggest the slow, staggering movements of the tired soldiers.

3 Stanza 1 Analysis Dramatic opening through use of power visual image. Pain and moving awkwardly. Not fit, healthy and glorious like propaganda posters showed. Alliteration for emphasis, a hard, staccato sound to echo the harsh mood of theses lines and soldier s misery. It stresses echo the brutality of the soldiers destruction, their transformatio n from healthy young men into beggars and hags.. Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Soldiers have lost weight due to malnutrition uniform hanging off them. Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, Personification suggests death is haunting the men. They live in peril. It is a constant presence wherever they go; they have no rest. And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Simile undermines stereotypes image of soldiers as young and fit. Suggests they are filthy and weak. Simile conveys how men have become unrecognisable, their masculinity and youth destroyed. Compares men to sick women showing how they are unrecognisable; they have lost their masculinity, youth, health and are now outcasts to society. Onomatopoeia implies how heavy and difficult the ground is to cross Word choice emphasises how exhausted and depressed the men feel.

4 Stanza One Analysis Continued: Sacks, Backs, Hags - Owen unifies the first three lines of the poem through his use of assonance. The short, staccato a s suggest the hacking sound of the solder s coughing. Cursed - Look at the use of the word 'cursed.' Owen does not say 'struggled', or 'marched' or any other word suggesting movement: he uses a word that describes a way of speaking, usually violent and unsophisticated, often used in moments of anger, or passion, or grief, or distress. We not only see the movement, but we sense the state of mind behind it, and almost hear the men's march like a soundtrack to the next lines of the poem. Opening lines of the poem describes the wretched physical state of the soldiers-conveys how the have been transformed by war. Opening- immediate impact on reader-subverts stereotype of soldier as romantic hero.

5 Stanza One Analysis Continued: Metaphor conveys the men s exhaustion, they are so tired they are barely aware of what they re doing or their surroundings. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, The poor physical state of the men is clear, their feet Repetition of all are caked in mud and blood. The phrase has echoes of emphasises bloodshed. Tone is bitter and sarcastic. every man suffered. But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind; Metaphor suggests how the men are so weary they are staggering and uncoordinated, possibly Connotations of pain and suffering. stumbling or slurring their words. Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of gas-shells dropping softly behind. Owen develops his description of the soldiers poor physical condition by conveying how they are so exhausted they are unaware they are under attack. Onomatopoeia suggests a warning sound but also that the shells are mocking the men.

6 Stanza One Analysis Continued: Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood shod. All went lame, all blind; In this, and the next two lines, Owen deploys the caesura to pile detail upon detail, each of the six short phrases a sharper and sharper declination into deprivation. The first three describe the men's physical appearance, the last three a total destruction of physical propulsion and perception: lame, blind, drunk and deaf. It is as if the speaker is deliberately smashing the lyrical music of the full line to catalogue the death of the body, sense by sense. Yet the regularity of the placing of the caesura, in the middle of each line, also drives home the formality of the men's marching, the plodding regularity of left after right, left after right.

7 Stanza Two Analysis Series of short exclamations conveys panic - a sudden Words implies madness. contrast to verse 1. This is what is in Owen s mind at this point. Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! An ecstasy of fumbling Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, Transferred epithet conveys how the men struggle to put on their gas masks in time. But someone still was yelling out and stumbling Word choice tells us how the man is thrashing about in agony and distress as it burns his skin and enters his lungs. And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime. Reader sees event from Owen s perspective - makes poem more immediate and emotive Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. Green sea is green gas swirling about. Gas literally caused them to drown in their own blood so the word is appropriate. Simile emphasises the pain the man is in- as if he was being burned alive. The image also has connotations of hell. An extended metaphor describes the man choking to death- unable to breathe, he falls about. Owen describes having flashbacks to the death of his comrade highlighting how the impact of war lasts over many years and across generations.

8 Stanza Two Analysis. Gas! Gas! This line begins with two disruptions; the disruption of the rhythm, with the succession of the four, short, sharp, stressed syllables and the disruption of the telling voice, with the cry of alarm reported in direct speech. So many short, stressed syllables one after the other act like a fast, dramatic cut in a movie: they alert us to a change of pace, a change of situation, a heightening of tension, the imminence of a traumatic event.

9 Stanza Three Analysis Stanza three is structured as two lines only. This indicates a shift in time as the narrator relates how many years after the war he still recalls this traumatic event. This emphasizes how the impact of war is felt for many years, and many generations. Death is described in clinical detail. In all my dreams before my helpless sight He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. These words continue the metaphor introduced in Stanza two and helps us picture the man falling about, desperately trying to draw breathe. Conveys a sense of guilt that he can do nothing to help his friend. Onomatopoeia imitates the soldier s attempts to draw breath. Guttering refers to a candle spitting before it goes out, suggesting coughing and spluttering and symbolising the young man s life being extinguished.

10 Stanza Four. Meaning and tone: In Stanza four the poet changes his narrative perspective as he addresses the reader directly. We are asked to consider our personal response to the atrocities of war and confront the deceit and hypocrisy of pro war propaganda. The tone in the final lines is bitter and angry. Owen uses the patriotic slogan in darkly ironic way to expose the dishonesty of romanticised portrayals of war in light of the horrific account of soldiers experiences he has described.

11 Poet feels suffocated and disturbed by memories. Stanza Four Analysis AlliterationIf in some smothering dreams, you too could pace emphasises the hideous Behind the wagon that we flung him in, sight of the man suffering. And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, Eyes rolling as he s in pain. His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin, Owen directly addresses the reader, forcing them, to imagine the horror of watching the young soldier dying in agony. If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs Bitter as the cud Cud is brown substance cows regurgitate. The gas tastes bitter and causes the man to bring up a brown substance as he coughs up his own lungs. Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, Contrast in this simile highlights how youth and innocence are destroyed by war. Directly addresses reader. Pace behind suggests funeral procession. Emotive word choice implies soldiers are treated with no respect as if disposable. Simile conveys how even Satan would be disgusted by this sight. Word choice suggests sudden movementimplies pain the man suffers.

12 Owen ends the poem with a direct address to the reader, asking them to reconsider the truth of patriotic tales of war. Stanza 4 Analysis 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. Means - Is it right and fitting to die for your country? It is a quote from the Latin poet, Horace.Repetition of title makes us reconsider our attitude to war in light of what the poem has revealed. This means great enthusiasm Owen here directly refers to propaganda that portrays war as a heroic adventure Owen ends the poem with a damning criticism of war and those who support it. He makes it clear that anyone who knew the truth of war could not view it as war as an act of heroic patriotism. He employs an ironic tone here to create an anti-war feeling.

13 Is this right? Is this fitting? With mustard gas the effects did not become apparent for up to twelve hours. But then it began to rot the body, within and without. The skin blistered, the eyes became extremely painful and nausea and vomiting began. Worse, the gas attacked the bronchial tubes, stripping off the mucus membrane. The pain was almost beyond endurance and most victims had to be strapped to their beds. Death took up to four or five weeks.

14 Is this right? Is this fitting? I wish those people who write so glibly about this being a holy war and the orators who talk so much about going on no matter how long the war lasts and what it may mean, could see a case -to say nothing of ten cases--of mustard gas in its early stages -could see the poor things burnt and blistered all over with great mustard-coloured suppurating blisters, with blind eyes... all sticky and stuck together, and always fighting for breath, with voices a mere whisper, saying that their throats are closing and they know they will choke. For Practice: Essay Questions are on the next page.

15 Answers to questions on Poetry should refer to the text and to such relevant features as word choice, tone, imagery, structure, content, rhythm, rhyme, theme, sound, ideas Choose a poem in which the poet creates a particular mood or atmosphere. Show how the poet creates this mood or atmosphere by his or her choice of subject matter and use of poetic techniques. 2. Choose a poem which arouses strong emotion in you. Describe how you feel about the poem, and explain how the poet leads you to feel this way. 3. Choose a poem which could be considered as having a powerful message. Show how the poet effectively conveys this message through his or her use of poetic techniques. 4. Choose a poem which features an encounter or an incident. By referring to appropriate techniques, show how the poet s development of the encounter or incident leads you to a deeper understanding of the poem s central concerns