Dulce et decorum est - Owen
Background
Dulce et decorum est: Analysis
- Dulce et decorum est = it is good and honourable
- Propaganda was used to recruit young men
- semi-autobiographical
- Owen's purpose is clear which is to reveal war for what it is of course
there is the irony that a man who volunteered for service who was
wounded promoted and rewarded for his courage under fire should
expose the powers that be in such a brutal and uncompromising
fashion.
Title:
- Paradoxical as the title sounds like a pro-war poem, while the poem is
anti-war
A Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
B Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
A Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
B And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
C Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
D But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
C Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
D Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
E Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
F Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
E But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
F And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
G Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
H As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
G In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
H He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
, I If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
J Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
I And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
J His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
K If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
L Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
K Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
L Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
M My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
N To children ardent for some desperate glory,
M The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
N Pro patria mori.
Structure:
- Iambic pentameter (10 syllables per line starting on an unstressed syllable)
- This imitates the constant gunfire of war
- 28 lines
- Double length of a regular sonnet
- Emphasis on length of war (or how long the war / the walk felt to the
soldiers described in the poem)
- Four unequal stanzas
- Blank verse
- Rhyme Scheme: ABAB alternating rhyme scheme
- Emphasises uniformity of soldiers or how the killing/explosions/horror
was constant
Theme:
- Horror and futility
- Senselessness of war
Diction:
- Jargon of war (This helps the reader see what Owen saw firsthand as a
soldier)
- This is contrasted with plain language of the human body (backs, faces,
lungs, tongues, etc) which helps the reader recognise the frailty of the human
condition while trying to survive in a violent and unforgiving environment
- The poet uses short sounds and heavy monosyllabic words with the
emphasis on the vowels in the first stanza contrasted with the longer guttural
words in the lines describing the gas attack
- All of these words add to the sense of REALISM
Background
Dulce et decorum est: Analysis
- Dulce et decorum est = it is good and honourable
- Propaganda was used to recruit young men
- semi-autobiographical
- Owen's purpose is clear which is to reveal war for what it is of course
there is the irony that a man who volunteered for service who was
wounded promoted and rewarded for his courage under fire should
expose the powers that be in such a brutal and uncompromising
fashion.
Title:
- Paradoxical as the title sounds like a pro-war poem, while the poem is
anti-war
A Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
B Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
A Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
B And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
C Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
D But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
C Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
D Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
E Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
F Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
E But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
F And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
G Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
H As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
G In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
H He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
, I If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
J Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
I And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
J His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
K If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
L Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
K Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
L Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
M My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
N To children ardent for some desperate glory,
M The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
N Pro patria mori.
Structure:
- Iambic pentameter (10 syllables per line starting on an unstressed syllable)
- This imitates the constant gunfire of war
- 28 lines
- Double length of a regular sonnet
- Emphasis on length of war (or how long the war / the walk felt to the
soldiers described in the poem)
- Four unequal stanzas
- Blank verse
- Rhyme Scheme: ABAB alternating rhyme scheme
- Emphasises uniformity of soldiers or how the killing/explosions/horror
was constant
Theme:
- Horror and futility
- Senselessness of war
Diction:
- Jargon of war (This helps the reader see what Owen saw firsthand as a
soldier)
- This is contrasted with plain language of the human body (backs, faces,
lungs, tongues, etc) which helps the reader recognise the frailty of the human
condition while trying to survive in a violent and unforgiving environment
- The poet uses short sounds and heavy monosyllabic words with the
emphasis on the vowels in the first stanza contrasted with the longer guttural
words in the lines describing the gas attack
- All of these words add to the sense of REALISM
