Dulce Et Decorum Est Flashcards
Context
Wilfred Owen was a soldier in the First World War and a highly acclaimed poet:
In 1916 he sustained injuries in battle and remained trapped in a shell hole for 12 days, close to the dead body of one of his comrades. Following this traumatic experience, he was diagnosed with shell shock before being transferred to Edinburgh for treatment.
It was there that he formed a friendship with another World War I poet, Siegfried Sassoon.
Based on his own experiences on the battlefield, Owen wrote ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ a year before he was killed in action in 1917.
The Latin lines Dulce et Decorum Est/Pro patria mori (it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country try) come from the Roman poet, Horace.
A propaganda poem called ‘Who’s for the game?’ by Jessie Pope was published in a British newspaper during the First World War promoting patriotism, which presented the war as a game — “the biggest that’s played” — and fighting as “fun”
Themes
Death
War
Conflict
Loss of Innocence
“Bent double, line old beggars under sacks.”
Simile: Comparing soldiers to “old beggars” strips them of their dignity, strength, and youth.
Diction: “Bent double” suggests physical pain and exhaustion, as if the war has literally crushed them.
Contrast: Soldiers are usually seen as upright, proud warriors, but Owen immediately challenges this ideal.
Writer’s Intention: Owen sets the tone for the poem, showing war as dehumanising and brutal rather than glorious.
“Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge”
Alliteration: “Knock-kneed” mimics stumbling and weakness, reinforcing the soldiers’ exhaustion.
Simile: “Coughing like hags” continues the theme of premature aging, suggesting that war has made the soldiers frail and diseased.
Verb Choice: “Cursed” expresses anger and resentment, showing the soldiers’ disillusionment.
Imagery: “Sludge” evokes the thick, clinging mud of the trenches, emphasising the harsh and filthy conditions.
Writer’s Intention: Owen wants to destroy the idea that war is noble, highlighting its misery and suffering.
“Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs”
Personification: “Haunting flares” gives the flares ghostly, sinister qualities, symbolising the ever-present danger of war.
Diction: “Turned our backs” suggests numbness and detachment, as if the soldiers have stopped reacting to danger.
Irony: Flares usually illuminate battlefields, but here they feel ominous, reinforcing the idea that war is inescapable.
Writer’s Intention: Owen highlights how war desensitises soldiers, turning them into emotionless figures.
“And towards our distant rest began to trudge”
Irony: “Rest” could mean sleep, but it also foreshadows death, adding a double meaning as to how brutal war can be.
Diction: “Trudge” suggests slow, painful movement, showing how war has physically drained them.
Writer’s Intention: Owen suggests that even hope (rest) is distant, reinforcing the endlessness of suffering in war.
“Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots”
Hyperbole: “Marched asleep” conveys extreme exhaustion, making the soldiers seem like zombies, barely aware of their surroundings.
Diction: “Lost their boots” highlights deprivation, emphasising how war strips soldiers of even basic necessities.
Contrast: Soldiers are often depicted as strong and well-equipped, but Owen presents them as weak and lacking even essential gear.
Writer’s Intention: Owen wants to show how war deteriorates men, turning them into mindless, suffering figures.
“But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind”
Metaphor: “Blood-shod” - harsh visceral imagery. Creates the impression they are covered entirely in blood.
Repetition: “All went lame; all blind” makes suffering seem universal, affecting every soldier.
Irony: Soldiers are meant to be fit and capable, yet they are crippled and blind, highlighting the devastation of war.
Writer’s Intention: War does not make men strong and noble - it cripples and destroys them.
“Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots”
Metaphor: “Drunk with fatigue” suggests a loss of control, showing how exhaustion has overpowered them.
Aural Detail: “Deaf even to the hoots” implies that the soldiers are so drained and numb that they cannot even register the sound of nearby shells.
Contrast: Soldiers are expected to be alert and responsive, but here they are beyond exhaustion - almost zombie like.
Writer’s Intention: Owen highlights the sheer physical and mental toll of war, showing how it erases individual consciousness.
“Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.”
Juxtaposition: The verb “dropping” and adverb “softly” create an uneasy contrast between the gentle motion and the lethal danger of the gas-shells. This makes the gas attack seem eerily quiet and deceptive, rather than loud and explosive.
Effect: War is not always loud and dramatic sometimes, death arrives silently and unexpectedly.
Personification: The shells appear to fall naturally, as if they are choosing their victims. This removes human control from the scene, making death seem inevitable and impersonal.
Effect: Reinforces the cruel randomness of war—no one can predict who will survive.
Imagery: The phrase evokes a disturbing image of shells landing quietly but lethally. Unlike traditional explosive bombs, gas-shells spread an invisible, creeping death.
Effect: Highlights the uniquely horrifying nature of chemical warfare—you don’t hear death coming.
Irony: Normally, the word “softly” is associated with comfort, safety, or peace. Here, it describes deadly weapons, making it an ironic contrast between expectation and reality.
Effect: Undermines the idea that war is heroic it is not always loud and dramatic; sometimes, it is quietly cruel.
Writer’s Intention: Owen exposes the inescapable horror of modern warfare.
He challenges the reader’s perception of war as action-packed—sometimes, death creeps up silently.
He emphasises the helplessness of soldiers, the gas approaches without warning, and there is no time to react.
“Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling”
Repetition and Capitalisation: “Gas! GAS!” mimics panic, creating a sense of urgency and fear.
Juxtaposition: “Ecstasy of fumbling” contrasts excitement with desperation, highlighting the chaotic nature of war.
Sensory Detail: “Fumbling” shows how the soldiers struggle in blind terror to put on their gas masks.
Writer’s Intention: Owen captures the immediacy and horror of a gas attack, making the reader feel the chaos and fear.
“Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time”
Diction: “Clumsy” suggests that the gas masks are awkward and difficult to wear, reinforcing the desperation of the moment.
Irony: Soldiers train for war, but in the moment of crisis, they struggle to protect themselves.
Writer’s Intention: Owen emphasises the fragility of life in war, where survival depends on seconds and luck.
“But someone still was yelling out and stumbling”
Contrast: While most soldiers survive, one does not, shifting the focus to personal suffering.
Present Continuous Tense: “Yelling” and “stumbling” make the suffering immediate and ongoing.
Writer’s Intention: Owen forces the reader to witness the horror of a single dying soldier, making war deeply personal and tragic.
“And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime”
Simile: “Like a man in fire or lime” likens the gas attack to being burned alive, emphasising its excruciating pain.
Ellipsis: Creates a pause, allowing the reader to absorb the full horror of the image.
Writer’s Intention: Owen wants the reader to visualize the agony of gas warfare, making it impossible to ignore.
“Dim through the misty panes and thick green light”
Referees back to the gas attack. Soldiers vision is becoming impaired due to the panes of the gas masks and the actual gas attack.
“As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.”
The verb “Drowning” evokes a sense of inevitability, yet abruptness about death through war. Personal pronoun ‘I’ evokes a feeling of tragedy, as he has seen his companion die in front of him.
“In all my dreams before my helpless sight”
The speaker describes his recurrent, haunting nightmares of the gas attack, showing he can never be a peace, even is his sleep. He recounts the feeling of helplessness as he watched his partner suffocate.
“He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.”
Listed verbs emphasise a slow, drawn-out death, that still haunts him. Pronouns “He” and “Me” create visceral imagery, suggesting that the deceased soldier is almost infuriated that the others are still, alive.
“If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace”
The speaker addresses the reader directly. He feels that if those back home had experienced the horrors of war first-hand,
they would not convince men to go to war.
“Behind the wagon that we flung him in,”
Flippant nature of death - “Flung”
The verb ‘flung’ shows that there is no time or space for dignity in death at war, and no burial for its victims.
“And watch the white eyes writhing in his face”
The grotesque image of the man’s eyes rolling back in his head suggest that he is still alive when he is ‘flung’ into the wagon.
“His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin”
Creates the impression of a distorted reality. Links to both death and impressions of war. Due to death, the solider has become unrecognisable. False impressions of war have lead the soldiers to their doom.
“If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood”
Direct address again. Speaker tries to connect with their readership on a personal level. Grotesque imagery discourages people to sign up.
“Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,”
Owen continues to use gruesome imagery to emphasise the horrific consequences of the gas attack. “Corrupted” may also refer to how the soldiers lives have been taken over by war, snatching their freedom and other aspects of life.
“Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud”
More imagery to convey the brutal effects of the gas attack. Highlights the impact on soldier of one singular attack.
“Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,”
Juxtaposition of “innocent” and “incurable” utilised to highlight the false narrative around war. Evokes a feeling of disillusion.
“My friend, you would not tell with such high zest”
Owen perhaps addressing Jessie Pope, a controversial propaganda poet who wrote many poems glorifying war. Through this line, Owen may strive to refute this notion.
“To children ardent for some desperate glory,”
The word ‘children’ shows Owen’s belief that war is wasteful of young lives. Owen feels that impressionable young men are lured to war by the false promise of ‘glory’, and he
is blaming the attitude back at home that serving your country is glorious.
“The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.”
The Latin used at the end of the poem
means, ‘It is sweet and honourable to
die for your country’. Owen rejects this
as an ‘old lie’, and highlights that war is
cruel, degrading and horrifying
