Ardon M Pillay

Dulce et Decorum Est Notes

Features
Background
 Drafted October 1917 in Craiglockhart, published 1920
 Munitions work act of 1916 meant that Britain was producing 1 million
grenades a week – very war centric
 Dulce et Decorum Est means that “tis sweet and right.” Commonly used to
say tis sweet and right to die for one’s country, widely understood.
Alludes to a positively themed poem but we quickly discover that this is
not the case from the abundance of negative imagery
 Published posthumously, people who lost family and friends in the war
read it, but it drew criticism from others who said the poems failed to
discuss other aspects of war like camaraderie and acts of bravery.
 Owen joined the war to preserve the works of Wordsworth and Shelley,
as he feared a German invasion would spell destruction for the English
language.
 He was shocked however to discover the horror of warfare first hand.
Structure
 Frequent use of caesuras in the first stanza to match the slow marching
pace of the soldier – express how lethargic they truly are
 In the first stanza, an ABABCDCD rhyme scheme is used, paralleling the
soldiers’ marching
 Generally, rhyme scheme is
 Tone at the end is sarcastic, uses patriotic words like ardent and glory but
this is contrasted to what has been presented in the poem
 Rhyme scheme starts to decay at the end, representing Owen’s emotional
instability when he recounts this traumatic event, like how at the end of a
sad story one would cry. It is also used to represent that he is directly
addressing Jesse Pope rather than recounting the events
Audience
 People who were strongly anti-war, as Owen’s poetry communicated this
very well to them
 This is shown through the use of Owens poetry in the 1960s in anti war
movements in the USA

Themes: Suffering, Propaganda vs Reality and Death

Purpose: Reveal the horrific nature of war and the suffering of soldiers

Tone: Bitter and sarcastic at the end

Structural points:
 Frequent use of caesuras in the first stanza to match the slow marching
pace of the soldier – express how lethargic they truly are
 In the first stanza, an ABABCDCD rhyme scheme is used, paralleling the
soldiers’ marching
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Thesis Statements
1. How does Owen juxtapose propaganda’s depiction of the life of a soldier
against the reality of war in this poem?
2. How does Owen explore the suffering of soldiers?

Line by Line analysis

1. Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

 Bent double uses contrast as it is the opposite of what propaganda depicts
soldiers as being (good posture)
 Simile – like old beggars under sacks- compares the soldiers to beggars,
making it seem that the soldiers are malnourished, drained of life. The
“under sacks,” part could reference how the sacks are their uniforms and
hang off them or could be that the soldiers are hiding themselves under
sacks due to their lack of dignity


2. Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

 “Knock-Kneed” – hard k use represents the sounds of bullets, expressing
the chaos of the battlefield. Could also represent how the bags they wear
are so heavy that the soldiers knees simply collapse
 “coughing like hags,” – simile to show how the soldiers have lost
masculinity, health and youth as hags have a lack of these 3 things
 “sludge,”- metaphor for the movement of soldiers through the ground
that is tainted with death and horror, due to the negative connotation of
the word sludge.

3. Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,

 “Haunting flares,” – personification to show how the memories of the
battlefield will forever “haunt,” the soldiers. Flares were used to give light,
could be haunting because it shows the dead bodies around them
 “turned our backs,” – guilty connotation, survivors guilt will haunt them
forever, link to haunting flares, but in this case the flares are the souls of
the fallen

4. And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

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 Distant- diction shows that the soldier’s felt that their rest was far away,
shows the extent to which they were demoralised
 The rest could be a metaphor for death, showing that even if the war
ended, the soldiers could never truly rest
 Diction in the word trudge, negative connotation, means to walk wearily,
this shows how the soldiers are demoralised and exhausted


5. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,

 M alliteration could represent the ringing in the soldier’s ears following
battle, showing their disorientation. Also conveys the lethargic nature of
the men, shown by the word asleep, which denotes exhaustion
 “lost their boots,” – contrast to the well equipped soldier presented in
propaganda – show how pitiful the soldiers were.

6. But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

 Neologism (made up word) in the word blood shod, represents painful
foot injuries incurred when fighting in trenches, these were very common
in WW1. This depicts how soldiers did not only suffer injuries from the
enemy, but from the ground on which they stood. This has the poignant
effect of increasing the audience’s pity for the men
 “Limped,” – denotes lethargy
 “All went lame;all blind,”
o Repetition of all shows how no man was spared from injury
o The phrase is a hyperbole in itself, it expresses the large number of
soldiers that suffered incurable physical injuries, such as blindness
or lameness (being crippled), horrifying the audience in the
process, as it was made out that all men incurred mental or
physical disabilities as a result of the war. Therefore, the extent to
which they suffer is made pellucid
o All went lame is a metaphor to show that the men are not actually
lame (mentally), they are simply quiet when they return home
because they are still traumatised

7. Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

 “drunk with fatigue,” - metaphor to show how their tired movements
resembled that of a drunk
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 “Deaf even to the hoots,” – hoots were parts of gun shells, the loss of
hearing is shown through this phrase. Starts off the narrative recount of
the gas attack.
8. Of tired, outstripped, Five Nines that dropped behind.
 Tired and outstripped are diction that denote exhaustion and lack of
preparation, show how pitiful the soldiers are and this lack of
preparation explains how they didn’t notice the gas shells (5-9s)
9. Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
 GAS- express loudness of the exclamation- immediate sense of panic
created
 “boys,” – denotes young men, increase pity for soldiers since we now
know that they are young
 Ecstasy of fumbling – juxtaposition ecstasy means feeling of an
ascension of normal consciousness, but fumbling creates sense of
panic, Also juxtaposed to tired soldiers. Overall effect is that sense of
panic is amplified

10. Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,

 Personification – clumsy helmets – show how the helmets provided were
ill-fitting and primitive, juxtaposed to propaganda posters.

11. But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

 “someone,” – impersonal pronoun shows the victims identity has been
robbed of war
 From here onwards, a lot of verbs are used continuously to create a sense
of immediacy.
12. And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
 Diction in the word floundering is a metaphor for how the man is moving
like a fish out of water, struggling to breathe, like the man literally is in
the sea of gas. To flounder is to move about stochastically, with no control
over oneself, as if one was a fish out of water, signifying his sensory
depravation.
 Man in fire or lime – horrific literal description of effect of Cl2 gas on the
body, dissolving skin, hence making it look like the man was on fire. The
lime describes the colour of the gas but could be the colour of his uniform,
associating how his conscription resulted in his death. The effect of the
diction and simile in this line is to graphically depict the pain experienced
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by the soldier who was attacked by displaying his injuries in shocking

detail.
13. Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
 Dim – diction used to express Owen’s difficulty in seeing through the gas
 Misty panes – metaphor for how Owen cannot do anything to save his
friend, compared to a fish tank, show emotional impact of war on
soldiers. Or could be diction to show that the glass in his goggles was not
clean – poorly equipped
 Thick green light – how ubiquitous the chlorine gas was,
14. As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
 Green sea – metaphor for Owen’s feelings, he feels like he is at the
bottom of the sea, unable to see anything. The pressure is high at the
bottom of the ocean like the emotional pressure on the battlefield,
when watching a friend die, explaining how soldiers did not purely
suffer in the physical sense.

15. In all my dreams before my helpless sight,

 “all my dreams,” – diction: “all,” refers to every possible dream Owen
has had, expressing how no dream was except from his traumatic
recollections of the horrific death of his friend. The effect of this use of
diction is that the audience becomes aware that there is no escape from
the agonizing torment of war for the soldiers, enhancing their
sympathy for soldiers.

16. He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

 These lines are descriptive of the effects of post traumatic stress
disorder and shows how traumatising it was for Owen through the
diction presented, “choking, drowning,” all have negative connotations
and show how vivid the dreams are, showing the severity of PTSD
 “all my dreams,” – horrific diction - no dream is exempt from this
nightmare
 Guttering – horrific neologism- onomatopoeia showing the water
moving down a gutter, like how the gas is entering the man’s mouth, in
order to potray how vivid Owen’s own dreams are, asserting that the
soldiers suffered all the time, even in their sleep.
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17. If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace

 Smothering – horrific diction - the gas smothers Owen in the dream as
well, making it seem that he is being punished for not helping, showing
Owen’s guilt
 Dreams as a medium for this guilt is excellent because dreams are
commonly repetitively, hence representing how this nightmare constantly
plagues Owen
18.Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
 “flung,” – diction – a lack of care, showing how there is no dignity in
death on the battlefield
19. And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
 Imagery used is beastlike – “writhing in his face,” humanity has been lost,
horrific
 Irony – the man is still alive (eyes are moving) but yet he is thrown into a
wagon for the dead
20. His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
 Horrific Diction – hanging to show the effect of the gas on the skin
 Devil’s (face) sick of sin – even the devil is sick (denoting overwhelmed by
an excess of sin in this context) of all the sins that are involved in war
hence his face is contorted, alliteration of s creates sinister tone, like a
snake about to strike. Snake is a symbol for Satan.
21. If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

 “gargling,” onomatopoeia to show how the person’s mouth is full of blood
and he is drowning in it. Very horrific
 Froth – diction – shows how the salivation is forming, lack of control over
bodily functions
 Corrupted – diction – horrific imagery to show how the gas has entered
his lungs and has destroyed everything in the bronchi and bronchioles,
another reference to how the Devil has corrupted the soldiers through
war.
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
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 Cancer is formed from uncontrolled cell division, this shows the spread of
pro war feelings in the UK. The man’s body is dying because of the spread
of the gas through his blood
 Cud is the stuff that cows vomit out so it can be chewed again, it has no
flavour, like what the man is vomiting out. A sense of disgust created
through “bitter as the cud”
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
 Disgusting imagery created through “incurable sores,” sense of
helplessness because the sores are incurable, guilt because Owen can do
nothing to ease his friend’s pain
 Alliteration is used to juxtapose the permanent nature of the sores, that
are in themselves metaphors for the emotional and physical burdens of
war (as discussed in Disabled and Mental Cases), to the purity conveyed
through the overtones of the word, “innocent.” This highlights the
injustice of the soldier’s suffering.
 Innocennt tounges – diction – represent how the men, pre war, have no
physical or emotional burdens, and the sores formed are those that can
never be lost, showing how war places physical and emotional burdens on
soldiers that can never be removed.
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
 “friend,” – diction – sarcastically calling Pope a friend, emphasise
difference in ideology. Also could make himself out be to an advisor, due
to the personal pronoun
 “zest,” – contrasting diction – used to describe eagerness to go to war,
juxtaposed to the lethargy of men
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
 “ardent,” – contrasting diction – intense passion to go to war juxtaposed
to the lethargy of men
 “glory,” – contrasting diction – juxtaposed to the horrors of war
presented in the poem
 “children,” – diction – show how young the soldiers are
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
 “old Lie,” – old shows how this has been used many times before in other
wars, capitalisation shows how the lie is so commonly used that it is
granted capitalisation that is usually given to proper nouns. This
effectively denounces the propaganda used by the British government as
lies and slander, expressing the true nature of war to the audience and
intensifying the juxtaposition that runs through the poem.
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Pro patria mori.

NOTES: Latin phrase is from the Roman poet Horace: “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”