Dulce et Decorum Est by

jmooney3609 — 2013-04-11 11:55:15 UTC

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen

jmooney3609 — 2013-04-11 11:59:58 UTC

8 October 1917 - March, 1918

Dulce et Decorum Est

jmooney3609 — 2013-04-11 12:04:49 UTC

Means; It is sweet and right

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks

jmooney3609 — 2013-04-11 12:08:50 UTC

Wilfred Owen uses a simile to make the reader imagine the state of the solider during the war. Because stereo typically people view soldiers as strong, fit, young men. But this simile makes the reader imagine the soldiers as old men who are struggaling to do their tasks

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through slugde.

jmooney3609 — 2013-04-11 12:20:13 UTC

Wilfred Owen uses a simile again to make a picture of the soldiers at war. When we imagine soldiers we imagine them know what they are doing and we imagine them striding confidently. Also we imagine soldiers to have lots of energy when at war but this quote makes you feel that the soldiers have no energy and are struggaling through the sludge.

Men marched asleep

jmooney3609 — 2013-04-11 12:28:49 UTC

This makes you realise how tired the soldiers are and how little seep they get and how far they have to walk.

An ecstasy of fumbling

jmooney3609 — 2013-04-11 12:35:10 UTC

This makes you doubt that the soldiers know what they are doing because normally the come a cross as calm men who know what they are doing.

Fitting the clumsy helmets

jmooney3609 — 2013-04-11 12:47:01 UTC

This also makes you beleive that the soldiers don't know what they are doing.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys

jmooney3609 — 2013-04-12 08:37:37 UTC

This quote shows you how dangerous the gas was because the soldiers were trying to get away from it as fast as they can.

Froth-corrupted lungs

jmooney3609 — 2013-04-12 08:52:00 UTC

This line makes you realise how dangerous and devostating the gas is the the body of the men out at war.

Obscene as cancer

jmooney3609 — 2013-04-12 08:58:31 UTC

This is a very effective line because everyone knows how dangerous cancer is and comparing gas to cancer makes all the readers realise the state people are left in after the war.

The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori

jmooney3609 — 2013-04-12 09:06:58 UTC

Wilfred Owen finishes his poem by saying The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori. This means The old Lie; It is right to die for your country. Just from this line you can see how Wilfred Owen feels about the war. He says in this line that what the soldiers would have been told at the beginning of the war about "it is the right thing to die for your country", is a lie in his view because many people die due to being gased.

jmooney3609 — 2013-04-12 09:20:09 UTC