Dulce et Decorum Est

Question 1

When did Wilfred Owen die?

Answer 1

• Wilfred Owen returned to fight and was killed in the last week of far
• So close to salvation yet was killed

Question 2

What does the title show?

Answer 2

• Title = it’s sweet and fitting to die for your country

- Reader expects it to be a pro-war poem

Question 3

What shows weakness and powerlessness?

Answer 3

• Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
• begins with weakness and the alliteration on B is harsh and almost slows downtime & contrast with beggars makes us wonder what these boys are begging for

Question 4

How does Sheers show war is unnatural?

Answer 4

• Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
• hags = emasculated = war is unnatural and cursed reminds us of withes of Macbeth = evil nature

Question 5

How does Sheers creates the sound of gas shells?

Answer 5

• Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
• -> onomatopoeia and sibilance recreate the sound of gas showers = like the escaping sound of gas  ironic as soft and gentle but it’s filled with agony

Question 6

How does Sheers create a sense of urgency in the poem?

Answer 6

• Of gas-shells dropping softly behind
  .–> onomatopoeia and sibilance recreate the sound of gas showers = like the escaping sound of gas - ironic as soft and gentle but it’s filled with agony

Question 7

How does Sheers include the theme of death to the audience?

Answer 7

• In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
• wants to put the reader in the position he is in and feel the anger from the harsh sounds of guttering, choking and drowning - death appears in ALL his dreams as if it’s Owen’s fault

Question 8

How does Sheers use irony?

Answer 8

• My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
• used to show irony when he calls us “our friend” we think is it our fault for celebration as all these young men die - “high zest” is the opposite to the description of the children

Question 9

How does Sheers show that war glory is an illusion?

Answer 9

• To children ardent for some desperate glory,
• children shows that these people are no more than boys and “some” shows that the desperate glory is illusionary and these boys are desperate to grow up and we tell them a big lie

Question 10

What does pro patria mori show?

Answer 10

• no reference to this in the actual poem and his death has been pointless and it shows a further point that all deaths have been pointless - this word comes from Latin and this shows that the Romans didn’t gain anything from all these empires

Question 11

How does the number of syllables change?

Answer 11

• The lines are usually 10 syllables long
• 9 syllables show the urgency of what’s about to happen in the Gas mark lines
• This syllable moves to next line and it shows the slowness of the solider as he dies due to him being too slow on putting on his gas mark
• All 11 syllable lines show that the reader and poet can’t let escape it
• The final line is 6 syllables long which is an unsatisfying end of the poem just like the unsatisfying deaths of all these people and it shows the whole idea of dying for your country is incomplete
• • syllables are emphasised on the first sound = more accusing tone and the poem can’t control his own anger

Question 12

What meter is Dulche est Decoreum est?

Answer 12

• Not Iambic but instead is trochaic