Analysis: Dulce et Decorum Est

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 5

Dulce et Decorum Est

Havo 5 Literature

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.

About the author

• One of many poets who
   has written about WWI.
  
  
• Others were Brooke and
   Sassoon.

What do the following words mean?

knock-kneed

lame

fumbling

stumbling

plunges

gargling

gorgelend

grijpen

met x-benen

struikelend

kreupel

geklungel

Let's read the poem

Let's continue

By answering the questions

1. 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?

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

Stanza 1 + 2

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

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

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!)

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.

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

Question 3

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

What figure of speech is this? Metaphor or simile?

1. metaphor
2. simile

What two things are being compared?

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?
(Do not use the similes from previous question)

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)

What happens to the 'someone' in stanza three 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.

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

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.

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 is Owen's intention in writing in this poem?

Correct answer

He wants to show the ugly face of the war.

What do you think of
the words Owen uses?

Why do you think he used this sort of language?

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.

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

9. Explain why.

Correct answer

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