`Dulce Et Decorum Est
Alliteration
Metaphor
Cannot
escape
the flares
Metaphor
men really
tired
Metaphor –
visual
image –
very tired
Shocks
reader repetition
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, simile –very tired
very scruffy – not well equipped
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
they are unwell and unhappy
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Trudge when
tired or the conditions are muddy
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, barefoot
limping and their feet are cut
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind;
repetition – stresses their horrible situation
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots imagine the
sound
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
personification
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! — An ecstasy of fumbling real panic
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling failed to fit
helmet
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime.— simile showing
action
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, gas like
clouded glass
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. Simile – extended
image
In all my dreams before my helpless sight sees this in every
dream
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. Verbs
assonance
Metaphor – dreams that
stop you breathing
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace image inclusive
Behind the wagon that we flung him in, emotive –don’t
value him – so many have died
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin, simile – no escape torment
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs - image unpleasant
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud similes - violent
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, — image of lies
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest - keen to
tell
To children ardent for some desperate glory, children like
tales of bravery
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori. It is sweet and honourable to die for your
country