Dulce+et+Decorum+Est+-+Listen+to+the+poem+here

﻿What you have here is Wilfred Owen's poem being read aloud and accompanied by a slide show.   []

These notes are designed to accompany the analysis of the poem we did in class. The annotations we created in class will be the most important resource for you in terms of studying for exams.

Remember that __analysis of the techniques the poet uses in the the poems__ and __being able to discuss the poetic techniques and their effect__ is key to your response.

Here are some very brief notes about DEDE... **Theme **

The theme of DEDE is that there is neither nobility in war, nor honour in fighting for your country. Instead there is tragedy, futility and waste of human life. Wilfred Owen fought in some of the major battles of WW1 and the reality and horror of war shocked him. In the face of the seperate suffering he saw around him, it was no longer possible to pretend warfare was adventurous and heroic. Instead, Owen recorded in his poetry how shocking modern warfare was and he sought to describe accurately what the conditions were like for soldiers at the front: //“bent-double, like old beggars under sacks, // //Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,”// More importantly, Owen wanted people who were not in the trenches – the people at home in England – to see the reality and misery of war. He also wanted them to stop telling future generations the “old lie” DEDE (“It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”). It is worth noting that these lines were written by the poet Horace, two thousand years earlier. **Imagery ** DEDE is built around three powerful and disturbing images. We find the first in the opening stanza; a group of soldiers moves through no-man’s land in an attempt to get back to the relative safety of the trenches.

Owen wants us to imagine what it was kike n these trenches; to see the detail (“many had lost their boots”) and the reality of dying in such a place. Look carefully at the words Owen uses to describe the condition of the men: //“asleep”, “lost”, “limped”, “blood-shod”, “lame”, and “blind” // //<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif';">Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots // //<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif';">But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; // <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif';">After the image of the soldiers stumbling towards the trenchers in the first stanza, the second image (found in the second stanza) is more dramatic. Notice how the first words of the stanza change the pace of the poem, making it more urgent as the soldiers come under attack and try to put on their gas masks before they choke:

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif';">Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling, //<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif';">Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; // <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif';">The poet manages to get his mask on. After the sudden activity of the men, the last two limes of this stanza change the pace again. They have an almost dreamlike quality as the poet watches from behind his gas mask. As the thick green smoke washes over the men, the poet uses a striking simile of the sea to describe the gas. But one man fumbles with his mask and is overcome by the fumes and “drowns” in the sea of thick smoke:

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif';">Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif';">As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif';">The dream quality of this stanza gives way, in the third and final image, to a harrowing picture of the dead man as his body is put on a wagon filled with the bodies of other dead soldiers: //<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif';">His hanging face like a devil’s sick of sin; // //<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif';">...Obsence as cancer, bitter as the cud // //<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif';">Of the vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, - // <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif';">Although young men went to war with the promise of glory and comradeship, in these lines the poet presents us with the awful truth about war and conflict: that it is the brutal waste of life that causes unspeakable human misery and corruption.