Year 8 English
Set 5
Objectives:
Engage with a difficult poem
Read for meaning
Empathise with the ideas in the poem
Dulce et Decorum Est
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.
I read the poem to them.
I asked them what question they
would like to ask about the poem.
What is happening to the man?
Answering the questions
• We highlighted relevant parts of the text
and made notes –with varying success
• We also discussed and did some
‘supposing’
Quite a few students noticed the ‘French’ words. We worked out
‘patria’ via ‘patriot’. Then we discussed word order.
Looking closely at the text
• Identify words and phrases which tell us
the soldiers are not in peak condition
• Quotations from the poem
Empathise…
• Identify the qualities of a ‘good’ soldier
• Identify the qualities of a WW1 soldier
• The students wrote key words and some
quotations from the poem round a stick
figure
Progress in the lesson
Can the students write about the
poem?
• In this poem we are shown how the
soldiers had sore feet and how fast things
happened.
• In this poem we are shown how the
soldiers are unhealthy.
• His dreams are broken.
• It must have been a horrible situation.
Bit more progress…
• The words show how they were gassed
and were “drowned”.
• The soldiers were like old women and
don’t have any energy in them.
• NEXT TIME –WORK AT INCLUDING
QUOTATIONS IN THEIR COMMENTS.
Next lesson –using quotations
some of the students’ sentences
• The phrase ‘coughing like hags’ shows the men
are young and should be fit but they’re too tired
to fight.
• …the men are too exhausted to fight well.
• …they should be fit and healthy but they’re like
old women
• …the young men are so ill and unhealthy that
they cough like old women.
• …conditions are poor so they’re not as fit as
they should be
And more…
• The phrase ‘drunk with fatigue’ means
they’re not concentrating properly.
• …they can’t walk
• …their senses are off and they can’t walk
• …they are staggering around and their
heads hurt.
• …they weren’t ready or thinking about the
war
Progress?
• Definitely!
• They’ve used quotations and explained
them
• They’ve empathised with the soldiers in
the poem
• Some have noticed how a particular word
can give you a clue to meaning