1. 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, which we will
   discuss later on in this term.

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 text together

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?

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

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

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

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)
• dear (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.

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 were Owen's intentions with writing the poem?

9. 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