Dulce Et Decorum Est

PURPOSE:

Owen represents the horror of the

battlefield and chemical warfare to

condemn the „old Lie‟ that it is sweet and

honourable to die for your country.

.

STANZA ONE:

The exhausted, dishevelled condition of the

soldiers is described and implicitly

contrasted with the expectations and

assumptions of the soldiers help by

authorities and the public

“Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed”

These introductory lines vividly describe the exhaustion the soldiers encountered while labouring back to the trenches from an attack on the front.

The speaker and his comrades were mostly fit young men, but here we learn that the soldiers are hunched over and hobbling. Making the young men analogous to old beggars sharply contrasts with some wartime propaganda posters that portray spry soldiers in clean uniforms, excited to be fighting.

“we cursed through

sludge,”

The soil of the battlefield

was heavily cut up by

shells, trenches and then

rain turned it all to mud.

“Cursed” is not quite what

one would expect, but

rather a verb of motion.

This clever play shows what

attitude the soldiers had

towards their less than

desirable circumstances.

Till on the haunting

flares …… And towards

our distant rest

The soldiers turn away

from the lights and

noise of war and head back in the direction

of their camp.

These „flares‟ are sent

up to light no-man‟s land so that any

opposing forces can

be spotted — they

hang in the air like

ghosts and remind the

soldiers that those

flares may lead to their

deaths.

And towards our distant

rest began to trudge

The “distant rest” of

oblivion, seems to be

a reference to the

likely deaths of these

soldiers, with death

acting almost a relief

from the horrors of

war.

Men ……..; all blind;

The men are so

exhausted that they‟re

barely conscious enough

to walk. They‟ve lost

boots, so their feet have

gotten cut up and are

covered in bloody scabs.

Their bodies are spent.

“Blind” can refer not only

to the dark night, or to

obstructed or injured

eyes, but to the blindness

of pointlessly marching

on, with no goal

whatsoever but to kill.

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots(4) Of tired, outstripped(5) Five-Nines(6) that dropped behind

Five-Nines refer to the German 15mm, or 5.9" diameter artillery shells used to deliver chlorine gas.

The men are so fatigued and apathetic after suffering so much that they are practically indifferent to the shells behind.

STANZA TWO

Frenzied response to a gas attack

concludes with a description of a soldier‟s

suffering.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!

The author suddenly realizes that the shells which had landed near them didn‟t explode but started letting out poison gas. Capitalizing “GAS” the second time gives the suggestion of urgency to the reader, adding to the severity of the situation.

An ecstasy of fumbling

The words in the second half

of the line — “an ecstasy of

fumbling” — seem more

appropriate to describe an

intimate sexual experience

than to describe war. Under

normal circumstances, these

young men should be having

their first sexual encounters.

Instead, they are fumbling

around with gas masks.

The word „ecstasy‟ could also

refer to the soldiers‟

heightened emotions.

Nowadays, ecstasy suggests

pleasure and there is, as a

result, an oxymoronic quality

to the pleasure of getting on

the gas mask in such a terror-

filled situation. Owen though

may have meant that the

terror, the most heightened of

sensations, has made the

soldier spring into action

Fitting the clumsy helmets

just in time

Gas masks were bulky

and awkward. They still

are.

Now imagine you‟re as

tired as these soldiers

and trying to put one

on so you don‟t die.

But limped on, blood-shod.

All went lame; all blind

Someone‟s mask either

had broken or he hadn‟t

been able to get it on

before starting to

breathe in the gas,

choke, and panic.

“Lime” (also known as

quicklime— its chemical

name is Calcium Oxide)

is a dry chemical

compound that can

burn through flesh like

fire.

Dim, through the misty

panes and thick green

light,

The glass in the goggles

was not exactly clear,

especially after it had

been carried with the

rest of the muddy gear.

As under a green sea, I saw him

drowning.

The man caught without his

gas mask is flailing and

choking from the gas, like

someone who can‟t swim

and has started gulping

water.

Have you ever burned

yourself badly enough that

the blister starts to ooze a bit

of liquid? The same thing

happens when a person

inhales gas. It burns the inside

of their lungs, which release a

mucus to try to stop the

burning. The resulting liquid

accumulation literally drowns

them.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

The speaker is now half talking about the present, half about the past. He is evoking the man who died slowly and painfully in front of him, and also his post-traumatic flashbacks to this moment. The description takes the reader at once to the scene that still haunts the speaker, and likely the poet, who is writing from personal experience.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

our speaker knows we can‟t fully share the horror of battle with him. That‟s part of the point. The best we can do is experience the nightmare at a distance. Such deliberate distancing of the speaker from the “you” creates a large, isolating gap. We just can‟t understand war unless we‟ve “been there”—so we shouldn‟t pretend otherwise.

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

Note the use of alliteration and assonance with the “w” and “i” sounds.

watch the white eyes writhing

The words themselves are contorted and a bit difficult to say, while the vowels almost evoke a cry of pain: “ay, ay, ay.”

His hanging face

“Hanging” has two

meanings: the man looks

miserable emotionally,

and/or he is so infested

with welts and sores

(described three lines

later) that his face is no

longer recognizable.

There is also the idiom “to

stand there with one‟s

bare face hanging out”,

which means “to looks

stupid and helpless”

like a devil's sick of sin;

i.e., like a demon‟s face distorted by the corruptions of sin. May also suggest that even hell itself is sick of the death the youth are experiencing at war.

The implicit comparison is with the initial “glorious” war— the amount of hardship, brutality, and “sin”, was much more than anyone was ready for.

Owen purposely uses alliteration (devil'S Sick of Sin) to force us to hiss through this portion; making us imitate a snake, a symbol for Satan.

If you could hear, ……….. Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues

Owen uses many “disgusting” similes and adjectives in these four lines to convince readers how vile and surreal human destruction is.

In a short moment, the young man ages into a bundle of sores—like cancer running him over.

My friend, you would not tell

with such high zest

To children ardent for some

desperate glory

Wilfred Owen is calling out

propaganda artists and

poets who urged people on

to war. In particular, Jessie

Pope, a patriotic English

poet and journalist, and

Owen Seaman, who wrote

“Pro Patria.” “Friend” here

seems sarcastic, as though

the horror of these

experiences has instilled the

speaker with deep cynicism.