Analysis: Dulce et Decorum Est

Dulce et Decorum Est
Havo 5 Literature
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EngelsMiddelbare schoolhavoLeerjaar 5

This lesson contains 41 slides, with interactive quizzes, text slides and 3 videos.

time-iconLesson duration is: 80 min

Items in this lesson

Dulce et Decorum Est
Havo 5 Literature

Slide 1 - Slide

About the author
  • Wilfred Owen
  • 1893 - 1918

Slide 2 - Slide

What does the year of his death (1918) tell us?

Slide 3 - Open question

About the author
  • Owen died during WWI.
  • He had enlisted voluntarily.
  • Killed one week before the
     armistice (wapenstilstand)
     was signed.

Slide 4 - Slide

About the author
  • One of many poets who
     has written about WWI.

  • Others were Brooke and
     Sassoon.

Slide 5 - Slide

What do the following words mean?
knock-kneed
lame
fumbling
stumbling
plunges
gargling
gorgelend
grijpen
met x-benen
struikelend
kreupel
geklungel

Slide 6 - Drag question

Let's read the poem

Slide 7 - Slide

Slide 8 - Video

Let's continue
By answering the questions

Slide 9 - Slide

1. What is the setting of this poem?

Slide 10 - Open question

What is the setting of this poem?
Time: WWI
Place: on a battlefield (back towards their camp)

Slide 11 - Slide

What is a stanza?

Slide 12 - Open question

Describe in your own words what happens in the first two stanzas.

Slide 13 - Mind map

Stanza 1 + 2
Tired soldiers are walking back to their camp from a battlefield. Suddenly they are attacked by their enemy who uses gas.

Slide 14 - Slide

Describe in your own words what happens in the third stanza.

Slide 15 - Mind map

Stanza 3
 The soldiers put on their masks. One, however, fails to do so and is choking in the gas. (He isn’t dead yet, but he is dying!)

Slide 16 - Slide

Hyperbole
The definition of hyperbole is “exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.” In practice, hyperbole is language that loads up on the drama.

Slide 17 - Slide

Connect the figure of speech to the description.
A comparison without the words as or like.


A comparison with the words as or like.


A lifeless object is given a human trait.
personification
metaphor
simile
hyperbole

Slide 18 - Drag question

Question 3
Examine the figure of speech (2x) in the first two lines.

Slide 19 - Slide

What figure of speech is this? Metaphor or simile?
A
metaphor
B
simile

Slide 20 - Quiz

What two things are being compared?

Slide 21 - Mind map

What image is created by these figures of speech?

Discuss this in pairs or groups of three

Slide 22 - Slide

Correct answer:
The soldiers are a sorry sight, not the strong energetic men you normally associate with soldiers

Slide 23 - Slide

What words show how tired the soldiers are?
(Do not use the similes from previous question)

Slide 24 - Mind map

Possible answers:
  • bent double (dubbel gevouwen; shows how they walk)
  • knock-kneed (x-benen)
  • trudge (sjokken)
  • men marched asleep
  • limped (strompelen)
  • lame (kreupel)
  • drunk with fatigue (vermoeidheid)
  • deaf (to the hoots)

Slide 25 - Slide

What happens to the 'someone' in stanza three and why?


Discuss this in pairs or groups of three

Slide 26 - Slide

Slide 27 - Video

Correct answer
The someone is dying because he couldn’t put on his gas mask in time.

Slide 28 - Slide

Stanza 5 is one long 'if-sentence'. If you..., you wouldn't ...

Slide 29 - Slide

Possible answer
If you also had nightmares about young men dying a horrible death,

(then) you wouldn’t tell new recruits it is honourable to die for your country.

Slide 30 - Slide

Slide 31 - Video

Why is there a sentence in Latin? What is it used for in war?


Discuss in pairs or groups of three.

Slide 32 - Slide

Correct answer
Why is there a sentence in Latin?
It is an artistic way to say that it is honourable to die for your country, but the words the old Lie suggest otherwise.

What is it used for in the war?
It is used as propaganda and to justify the many soldiers dying during the war.

Slide 33 - Slide

What is Owen's intention in writing in this poem?

Slide 34 - Slide

Correct answer
He wants to show the ugly face of the war.

Slide 35 - Slide

What do you think of
the words Owen uses?

Slide 36 - Mind map

Why do you think he used this sort of language?

Slide 37 - Open question

What you have to understand (notes!)
He uses direct, graphic, explicit words when describing the state the soldiers are in and the way the ‘someone’ dies. 

He does this to highlight the ugliness of the scenes he describes. It is like he wants to shock people.

Slide 38 - Slide

In Owen's view, it is ... to die for your country. (1 word)

Slide 39 - Mind map

9. Explain why.

Slide 40 - Open question

Correct answer
Horrific and devastating: there is no glory, no beauty or honour in the way young men die. 

Slide 41 - Slide