Dulce et Decorum Est Flashcards
Context + title
Title seems to extol the virtues of war and fit Brooke’s poem but it is a great irony - no understanding that this is an anti-war poem until the last line - it is all an old lie rather than the sentiment of flory through death in war and Owen questions the value of this patriotic ideal through his visceral depiction of war and it’s brutal consequences
Questions patriotism through actual war experience - died in action 1 week before the armistice SOMETHING THAT BROOKE NEVER EXPERIENCED
Suffered from PTSD and went to a mental sanatorium in Scotland in 1942
Strong contrast to the public perception of war at the time - was not repatriated (similar to Brooke “foreign field”)
Stanza 1
“Knock-kneed” / “with fatigue ; deaf even” - use of alliteration and caesura contrasts with Brooke’s usage (which creates a sense of poise and elegance) yet these intensify the poem and symbolises the laborious struggle as they trudged through the trenches with pain and effort
Simile “like old beggars under sacks” - impoverished and stripped off their humanity, physically and mentally sapped off energy and the individual sounds are submerged in the alliterative pattern, just like the men’s individualities are being lost in their common condition of exhaustion
Caesura in the line “men marched asleep” immediately suspends the energy and produces a sense of weary resignation
Adjective “haunting” depicts the flares as eerie but also foreshadows stanza 3
Stanza 2
However - there is a spontaneous change in tempo from the sluggish fatigue of the first stanza to these sharp monosyllables, alongside the repeated exclamation marks to enforce urgency and alarm : “Gas! Gas!”
“Ecstasy of fumbling” - noun “ecstasy” is an oxymoron ; possibly suggesting that the experience of being so close to death (almost tangible) heightens the sense of them being alive and they understand the fine line between death and life
Fricatives of “fumbling”, “fitting” - verbs display an auditory sense of despair
Suffocation is described as drowning through the verb “flound’ring” -> corrosive effect of the gas ; reinforced through verb “drowning” which makes implication of “flound’ring” now explicit
Transition from hopeless men under attack to Owen’s mental state as he feels persecuted at the fact that he is unable to intervene - feels personally responsible for the welfare of his men
Present infinitives - “guttering, chocking, drowning” ; bring the horrors to the present day (triplet) and makes it immediate forefront of poem
Verb “plunges” - sees it as a accusation about his inadequacy and it is a torment for him
Stanza 3
Verb “flung” - nonchalance and casualness accentuates how this agonised soldier who has undergone so much pain has just been thrown on a pile with no commemoration or respectful funeral - it dehumanises him
“Writhing” and “smothering” - emphasises the agony of the soldier and Owen is drowning in his guilty conscience like the soldier died in war
Brooke’s poem has no death - full of denial of the brutality of war
Owen’s does not attempt to hide anything and presents an unflinching visceral image of the man through the verb “gargling” - very graphic and brilliant use of sensual imagery
Verb “corrupted” continues the idea of sin after the introduction of the devil (“devil’s sick of sin”) - war is hell on Earth
“Bitter as the cud” - juxtaposition of natural process and how these men are made to swallow the sin of war
“Children ardent for some desperate glory…pro patria mori” - idea of younger generation, does not want them to be indoctrinated in a similar way, not the same patriotic lie that was told to him
Structure
Architecturally speaking - break between each stanza to recognise the transition from reality to Owen’s conscience and then from the details of a particular death to a more general philosophy
Continuous rhyme scheme - sound all homogeneous and men are given common identity of exhaustion ; also mimics the Labour while they trudge through the trenches
