dulce et decorum est Flashcards
dulce poet
wilfred owen
dulce context
lots of propaganda in war
zeitgeist of time = patriotic for country
didnt accept idea of glorified war
went to war and suffered from shell shock
criticised jessie pope (pro war) - could never understand realities
owen was a pacifist
gas attacks were lethal
dulce structure
regular rhyme scheme - ongoing cruelty faced by soldiers
unpredictable line length = unpredictable nature of war
ending becomes an appeal, aimed - reflective of his resentment towards war
“dulce et decorum est”
lures reader into false sense of security of the poem being pro war however this is wholly juxtaposed through a gruesome first hand account exposing the reality of war
“men marched asleep”
accentuates soldiers exhaustion, alliterative metaphor illustrates soldiers lack of sleep. could be a euphemism to imply the soldiers being basically dead but continued, euphemistic language appears more appropriate to children - emphasising the youthful soldiers who experienced the horrors of war
“drunk with fatigue”
metaphor linking to their disorientation - serverly overworked + lack of humane conditions. Soldiers not being able to focus may result in others lives being lost mirroring how drunkeness is viewed to be a danger in society.
“Gas! Gas!”
volta - plunges reader into the panic and chaos created by a gas attack reflected through use of exclamatorys creating a faster pace in the poem emersing the reader and reflecting the immense fear suffered by soldiers
“drowning”
repeated - reflective of both the suffering faced by the soldier but also the ptsd owen experiences as a result of watching him die infront of him.
“guttering,choking,drowning”
the list of three verbs emphasises the agonising manner of the soldier’s death,
emphasising the human cost of war. It gives the impression that this horrific death is
unavoidable. The use of a single stanza here shows the fact that the soldiers are isolated in their death, this dramatic triple is reflective of the haunting owen experiences through witnessing this
“wagon that we flung him in”
dynamic verb - clear lack of identity + respect - idea of patrioism and war bringing glory is clearly denied here. Soldiers were treated as mere numbers, not people
“my friend”
direct reference to Jessie Pope
“the old lie”
rejection of pro war sentiment in which it was believed to be sweet and proper to die for your country, is horrifying first hand experiences have left him traumatised in which war being viewed as glorified is unthinkable to him
