Dulce et Decorum Est

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• Middelbare school
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• Leerjaar 4

Dulce et Decorum Est

Literature

What do the following words mean?

knock-kneed

lame

fumbling

stumbling

plunges

gargling

gorgelend

grijpen

met x-benen

struikelend

kreupel

geklungel

Let's continue

By answering the questions

What are the two elements that you need to describe when a setting is asked?

What is the setting of this poem?

What is the setting of this poem?

Time: WWI

Place: on a battlefield (back towards their camp)

What is a stanza?

2. 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

humanification

hyperbole

Question 3

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

Decide what they are and what is being compared.

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

4. What words show how tired the soldiers are?
(Do not use the similes from question 3)

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)

5. What happens to the 'someone' in stanza two and why?

Discuss this in pairs or groups of three

Correct answer

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

6a. Stanza 3 is one long 'if-sentence'. If you..., you wouldn't ...

Discuss this in pairs or groups of three

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.

6b. Who is the 'you'?

Answer

• The people recruiting new soldiers. 
• You could therefore also say the Government.

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

Discuss in pairs or groups of three.

Correct answer

It comes from a Roman poet and during the war it was used as a means of propaganda.

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

Discuss in pairs or groups of three.

Correct answer

• He wants to show that the propaganda used by the Government is false. 
• He wants to show the real horrors of the war.

8a. What do you think of
the words Owen uses?

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. 

Why do you think he used this sort of language?

Correct answer

• He probably wanted to shock people. 
• Using less graphic language would probably not get the horrors of the situation across.

9. What is ironic about
what the Government
tells new recruits?

Correct answer

They say it is honourable to die for you country, but obviously it isn’t.

I think I understand this text well enough for the test.

Yes

No

Continue

If you have answered yes on the previous question, fill in the grid about Genesis and Catastrophe.

If you have answered no, please let me know what you do not understand (yet). Afterwards, fill in the grid as well.