Dulce et Decorum Est Flashcards
Poet?
Wilfred Owen
About?
Marching away from battle
Attacked with chlorine gas
He sees a man die and it haunts his dreams
Context?
Chlorine gas was a weapon used by both sides in the war, it caused breathing difficulties and eventually death
Form:
Alternate (ABAB) rhyme scheme shows relentless suffering
Irregular stanza length shows he unpredictability of war
Structure:
Serious Tone raises the horrors of war and how they still haunt him to this day
At the end he adapts an ironic tone
Q - Start of poem, loss of identity/masculinity
‘Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, knock-kneed, coughing like hags,’
Q - exhaustion and inability to function
‘drunk with fatigue’
Q - Repetition and change of pace
‘Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!’
Q - panic
‘An ecstasy of fumbling’
Q - Extremely graphic imagery
‘froth-corrupted lungs, obscene as cancer’
Q - Last line, irony
‘The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.’
Capital L for lie shows the immensity of the lie
Q - Po3, verbs inescapable
‘He plunges at me guttering, chocking, drowning’
