Dulce et Decorum Est

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 5

Dulce et Decorum Est

World War 1 poetry

Preparation for Poperinge

About the author

• Wilfred Owen
• 1893 - 1918

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

About the author

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

What do the following words mean?

knock-kneed

gargling

plunges

stumbling

fumbling

lame

gorgelend

grijpen

met x-benen

struikelend

kreupel

geklungel

Let's read the text together

www.litcharts.com

What is the setting of this poem?

• Time: WWI
• Place: on a battlefield (back towards their camp)

Title: Dulce et Decorum Est

• Where do we find the complete title?
• The old lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria Mori
• =  it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. 
  
  
• Government wanted soldiers to believe this. 
• Carved into the entrance of Sandhurst Acadamy (= military acadamy)

Title: Dulce et Decorum Est

• The old lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria Mori
• = it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. 
  
  
• Why is it a lie (leugen)?

1. What is the setting of this poem?

What is a stanza?

1. a type of poem
2. a group of lines forming a unit in a poem
3. 12 lines in a poem

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

Discuss in pairs or groups of three

Stanza 1

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

Stanza 2

 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!)

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

Question 3

Examine the two figures of speech in the first two lines.

3a. What figure of speech is this? Metaphor or simile?

1. metaphor
2. simile

3b. What two things in each
case are being compared?

3c. What image is created by these figures of speech?

Discuss this in pairs or groups of three

Correct answer:

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

What words show how tired the soldiers are?

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)
• dear (to the hoots)

What do the stanza's focus on?

Stanza 1

Stanza 4

Stanza 3

Stanza 2

we: the soldiers

you = the reader

He = a dying soldier

I = speaker

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

Discuss in pairs or groups of three.

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.

What (do you think) were Owen's intentions with writing the poem?

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

Correct answer

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

I think I understand this poem well enough to be able to analyse it myself.

Yes

No

Now imagine you'd had to go to the front, and you'd be on your way. 

Write a letter or poem expressing how that would feel, and what you might be thinking about.
Write it to: a parent? a friend? a boyfriend/grilfriend? the world?

Hold on to it until after Poperinge, please.