Poetry - Dulce Et Decorum Est Flashcards
Who wrote Dulce et decorum est
Wilfred Owen
Dulce et decorum est context
Dulce et decorum est form
‘we cursed through sludge’ S1
- slow pace reflects the slow pace of the progress as they had to walk through the thick mud
‘till on the haunting flares we turned our backs’ S1
- the flares are sent up to light no man’s land so that any opposing forces can be spotted
-As a poetic device they effectively hang in the air like ghosts and remind the soldiers that those flares may lead to their deaths, hence ‘haunting’. The word itself begins with the aspirant consonant ‘h’ followed by the long diphthong ‘au’. So ‘haunt’ has, literally, a haunting, lingering impact
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;’
‘men marched asleep’ suggests that they are zombie-like beings, with death looming over them
-These two lines (and the majority of the poem) are written in iambic pentameter, which conveys the steady beat made by the soldiers’ feet as they march. This rhythm is somewhat contradicted by the poet’s use of enjambment and parataxis; irregular punctuation and lines which run on causes the words to be read at an irregular pace. The use of these techniques reflect how the exhausted soldiers stumbled and flung themselves through the mud even as they were trying to maintain a regimented pace
- “Blind” and “lame” also contain biblical echoes; these are among the conditions that Jesus heals in the Gospels. See Matthew 11:5:
Matthew 11:5: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk
This suggests that the soldiers are looking to God, as many did in that era, but find no saviour figure
‘Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots of gas shells dropping softly behind’
the metaphor ‘drunk with fatigue’ suggests that have been tired for so long that they have little control over their body
the line ‘gas shells dropping softly behind’ is a juxtaposition as the sound of gas shells would be deafing ( but they are ‘deaf even to the hoots’).
This implies the numbness of hearing they would have after being rapidly bombed
‘Gas!GAS! Quick,boys!’
the use of exclamatives in ‘Gas! GAS!’ suggests the urgency of as they went to find their masks amidst a gas attack
- the second ‘GAS!’ is capitalised to reflect how the soldiers would have raised their voice in order to make sure all the men were aware of the danger
’ an ecstasy of fumbling’
- ‘ectasy’ is rather oxymoronic here, as esctasy could mean an overwhelming feeling of great happiness, which would not be what the soldiers feel in such a state of terror
- ‘esctasy’ could be referring to a trance like state, which links back to how they were ‘drunk with fatigue’ and how they were ‘fumbling’ with little to no control over their bodies to grab the gas mask
-‘ecstasy’ also means out of body, as it comes from the latin word ex statis. This could imply they are slowly dying as their fumble to put the gas mask on as when we die we usually enter an outer body trance.
‘through the misty panes’
- watching safely from behind the glass may also reflect how those at home could not help the dying youth
‘In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning’ S3
’ in all my dreams’ suggests that the horrific image of the gas attack victim has stayed with him and entered his dreams, implying he has PTSD
- the tripling of ‘guttering,choking,drowning’ emphasises the brutality of the death. They are also quite harsh and emotive words
- parataxis near the end of the sentence causes the reader to pause and take in the meaning of each word
’ behind the wagon that we flung him in’
bitter imagery that provokes the readers thoughts towards war
- ‘flung’ may suggests the desensitisation of the soldiers towards death as this verb conveys a connotation of an uncaring nature. This emphasises how they had become numb to the idea of death as they had experienced their fellow soldiers die so many times.
‘watch the white eyes writhing in his face’
alliteration and assonance with the ‘w’ and ‘i’ sounds are contorted and difficult to pronounce, which could reflect the difficulty the soldier would have to painfully cry as his lungs were full of gas
‘his hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin’
sibilance (devil’S Sick of Sin’ force the reader to hiss through these words, making them imitate a snake, a symbol of satan
- irony that even the devil has become ‘sick of sin’ as the Devil is their to encourage man to commit horrific atrocities and sin. This forces the reader to contemplate the horror that would make even the Devil ‘sick of sin’
’ the blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs’
very horrific imagery for the reader to take in
