Analysis

Question 1

Line 1-2:
“Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags”

Answer 1

Similes comparing soldiers to unheroic things (old women and sick beggars)

Question 2

Line 2:

“cursed through sludge”

Answer 2

Word choice: not marching in glory - And worse than just mud… what’s in it?

Question 3

Line 4:

“our distant rest”

Answer 3

Double entendre/metaphor. Does he mean rest… or death? Creates a sense of being doomed.

Question 4

Line 4:

“trudge”

Answer 4

Word choice: not heroic, just exhausted. Not marching like glorious soldier image.

Question 5

Line 6:

“All…all”

Answer 5

Repetition of “all” emphasises the completeness of their suffering.

Question 6

Line 6-7:

“lame; all blind; drunk…deaf”

Answer 6

Word choice “Lame,” “blind,” “Drunk” and “deaf” continue to stress their physical destruction.

Question 7

Line 8:

“tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.”

Answer 7

Personification of the shells falling on them. “Hoots” suggests derisive laughter taunting them. “Tired, outstripped” suggests that even the machines are sick of war.

Question 8

Line 9:

“Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!”

Answer 8

Use of dialogue and exclamations - change of pace and sense of immediacy.

Question 9

Line 10:

“the clumsy helmets”

Answer 9

Transferred epithet. The soldiers are clumsy with the helmets, although the helmets are also difficult to use (suggesting ill-designed for emergencies). Again - unheroic.

Question 10

Line 11-12:

“yelling…stumbling…flound’ring”

Answer 10

Trio of inglorious verbs. ‘Floundering’ suggests flapping about in an ungainly way, but also has connotations of desperation, failure, confusion and death.

Question 11

Line 12:

“like a man in fire or lime…”

Answer 11

Simile comparing him to someone being burnt alive. Suggests an incredibly painful death. Ellipsis suggests continued replaying of this image in Owen’s mind.

Question 12

Line 13:

“Dim…misty…thick green light.”

Answer 12

These nightmarish descriptions give the incident a surreal, dream-like horror (through glass of gas mask).

Question 13

Line 14:

“As under a green sea,”

Answer 13

Simile: we now compare the man’s death to another horrible end (drowning).

Question 14

Line 14:

“I saw him.”

Answer 14

First person point of view: vivid sense of truth and horror. Not glorious!

Question 15

Line 14-16:

“drowning…drowning”

Answer 15

Repetition of “drowning: “ rather than a proper rhyme (the only slip in the rhyme scheme) emphasises Owen’s horror at this image.

Question 16

Line 15:

“In all…dreams”

Answer 16

Word choice: “all” suggests the severity of the mental scars.

Question 17

Line 16:

“Plunges at”

Answer 17

Again, nightmarish impact of this violent verb choice. Almost as if he’s attacking Owen - survivor’s guilt.

Question 18

Line 16:

“guttering, choking, drowning”

Answer 18

Trio of horrible onomatopoeic verbs creates vivid image of the man’s death.

Question 19

Line 17:

“Smothering”

Answer 19

Word choice: he feels suffocated by these memories, just as the gassed man suffocated.

Question 20

Line 17:

“You too”

Answer 20

Use of the second person: in this stanza he directly challenges Jessie Pope and all those who perpetuate “the Old Lie.”

Question 21

Line 19:

“Watch”

Answer 21

Coupled with “hear” in two lines’ time - use of senses makes the nightmare very vivid.

Question 22

Line 20:

“like a devil’s sick of sin”

Answer 22

Simile comparing the man to a devil, tired of doing evil. Reminding us of the horrific things soldiers have to do, as well as see - a fact omitted by those who glamorise War. Suggesting Owen’s own feelings of guilt and trauma.

Question 23

Line 21:

“My friend”

Answer 23

Ironic. He is not feeling friendly - he’s angry

Question 24

Line 22:

“Children”

Answer 24

Emotive word choice. These are the “innocent” he referred to two lines earlier. And they’re also the boys being killed.

Question 25

Line 23-24:
“The old lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.”

Answer 25

The poem’s knockout punch, and he uses every technique available to emphasise it. Capitalisation of “Lie”. Use of monosyllabic words and caesura to put stress on both “old” and “Lie”.
Use of the Latin phrase adds gravitas to his final lines, but calling it a lie would be shocking: as well as its use in propaganda this is carved on memorials and graves.