Dulce et Decorum Est

Question 1

form

Answer 1

• an anti-war protest poem
• could almost be seen as two sonnets or a french ballade -> war is disruptive - the poetry is disrupted
• a combination of french and english poetic forms -> allied forces

Question 2

rhythm and rhyme

Answer 2

• inconsistent rhythm
• alternate rhyme scheme - mirrors the soldiers marching

Question 3

structure

Answer 3

• focused on 2 line stanza at the heart of the poem - separated stanza
• death is at the heart of war
• emphasises that seeing fellow soldiers die or drown is something which stands out in his mind

Question 4

enjambment

Answer 4

• continuing the lines without a break
• mirrors the long journey ahead of the soldiers
• tired

Question 5

caesurae

Answer 5

• inconsistent pace - stop-start journey of the soldiers

Question 6

‘Gas!Gas!’

Answer 6

• repetition
• sense of urgency and panic
• brutal

Question 7

short lines

Answer 7

• reflective of the lives that were cut short

Question 8

finish the quote: ‘bent double..

Answer 8

…like old beggars under sacks’

Question 9

‘bent double like old beggars under sacks’

Answer 9

• creates the possibility that the soldiers have become 2 people now
• the people they were before vs now
• effects of war
• similes portray a negative, yet realistic view of war

Question 10

finish the quote: ‘knock-kneed..

Answer 10

..coughing like hags’

Question 11

‘knock-kneed, coughing like hags’

Answer 11

• they are young men and have been compared to old hags
• women
• war has emasculated and dehumanised them
• emphasis on how weak and broken war has left the soldiers

Question 12

finish the quote: ‘like a man..

Answer 12

..in fire or lime’

Question 13

finish the quote: ‘as under..

Answer 13

..a green sea’

Question 14

‘like a man in fire or lime’
‘as under a green sea’

Answer 14

• triadic structure of similes amplifies the sense of suffering

Question 15

finish the quote: ‘clumsy..

Answer 15

…helmets’

Question 16

‘clumsy helmets’

Answer 16

• personification
• soldiers weren’t expecting a gas attack - presenting the unpredictability of war

Question 17

finish the quote: ‘white eyes..

Answer 17

..writhing’

Question 18

finish the quote: ‘froth-corrupted…

Answer 18

..lungs’

Question 19

‘white eyes writhing’
‘froth-corrupted lungs’

Answer 19

• graphic, violent imagery

Question 20

finish the quote: ‘blood-

Answer 20

…shod’

Question 21

‘blood-shod’

Answer 21

• feet are bloody
• soldiers are wearing shoes made out of their own dried blood
• brutality of war

Question 22

finish the quote : ‘he plunges at me..

Answer 22

…guttering, choking, drowning’

Question 23

‘he plunges at me guttering, choking, drowning’

Answer 23

• present continuous verbs
• this event is repeatedly playing out in the narrator’s imagination
• cannot be escaped and effects him in the present

Question 24

title

Answer 24

• ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’
• the title expresses a patriotic pro-war sentiment
• expect the poem to be positive of fighting in war
• Owen subverts expectations and uses the phrase in an ironic way -> first hand experience of horrors of war

Question 25

finish the quote: ‘my friend..

Answer 25

..you would not tell with such high zest’

Question 26

‘my friend, you would not tell with such high zest’

Answer 26

• pronoun use
• ‘you’ vs ‘we’ -> directed to the pro-war supporters at home and soldiers fighting
• intended audience
• Jessie Pope - brutal language of the poem suggesting that war is not a “game” - it is deadly

Question 27

finish the quote: ‘we..

Answer 27

..flung him in’

Question 28

‘we flung him in’

Answer 28

• loss of respect
• dehumanised

Question 29

finish the quote: ‘gas shells..

Answer 29

..dropping softly behind’

Question 30

‘dropping softly’

Answer 30

• oxymoron
• highlights their exhaustion - the world makes no sense

Question 31

finish the quote: ‘all went lame;

Answer 31

all blind’

Question 32

‘all went lame; all blind’

Answer 32

• widespread suffering

Question 33

‘trudge’
‘marched asleep’
‘limped’
‘lame’
‘drunk’
‘fatigue’

Answer 33

• semantic field of exhaustion
• to reject traditional images of heroism found in war poetry
• realistic depiction of war

Question 34

‘lame’
‘blind’
‘deaf’

Answer 34

• extreme disability
• universal - ‘all went lame;all blind’ -> no one escapes

Question 35

finish the quote: ‘an ectasy of..

Answer 35

…fumbling’

Question 36

finish the quote: ‘yelling out..

Answer 36

..and stumbling’

Question 37

finish the quote: ‘flound’ring..

Answer 37

..like a man in fire or lime’

Question 38

‘fumbling’
‘stumbling’
‘flound’ring’

Answer 38

• they were unprepared

Question 39

finish the quote: ‘the old Lie…

Answer 39

… :Dulce et Decorum est Pro Patria mori.’

Question 40

‘the old Lie : Dulce et Decorum est Pro Patria mori.’

Answer 40

• Owen rejects the pro-war sentiment with authority - he has seen people die for their country and is aware of how excruciating and horrific it is
• uses Latin - men had no idea what this was about - working class didn’t know Latin

Question 41

mood and tone

Answer 41

• critical - ‘the old Lie’
• negative - war is difficult - ‘cursed through sludge’ ; war is deadly - ‘drowning’ ; war is disgusting - ‘bitter as the cud’
• ominous tone - in ‘all my dreams’ - the determiner ‘all’ -> haunting - it plagues ‘all’ of their dreams - they cannot escape
• Wilfred Owen experienced shell-shock - ‘smothering dreams’ - violent and suffocating