“Dulce et Decorum Est”
Wilfred Owen
1883-1918
Wilfred Owen.
• Born in Shropshire in
1883.
• Became interested in
poetry and music at an
early age
• Went to France to teach
English.
• Was in France when the
war broke out.
• Returned to England to
volunteer for service.
Wilfred Owen
• What do these statements tell us about
Owen’s feelings regarding the war?
• Explain your answer.
• Would you regard Owen as an Anti-war or
Pro War poet?
“The people of England needn’t hope. They
must agitate.“
“ I do now most intensely want to fight.”
“I hate washy pacifists."
You are now going to find out more
about Owen
• Sent to the battle field in 1916. Sent to the
Somme sector to begin with and then to the
Hindenburg line.
• A shell exploded close by him and left him
severely shell shocked. He was sent back to
England to recover.
• Upon his return his view of war began to
change.
• He became very critical of armchair patriots
In your pairs discuss…..
• What is a Patriot?
• Once you have
discussed this point
decide on what you
think an arm chair
patriot is.
•
•
•
Wilfred Owen
Look at the list of titles
• Mental Cases
opposite. These are all
titles of poems that Owen
• Anthem for
wrote after he was injured
during the war.
Doomed
What do these titles
Youth
suggest about Owen’s
feelings towards the war
•
Disabled
at that stage?
•
Futility
Has his opinion of War
changed? Why do you
•
Insensibility
think this is?
More about Owen
• Owen was sent to
Craiglock Hospital to be
treated for shell shock.
• By day the hospital was a
relatively pleasant place
but at night the
atmosphere changed
• The patients were
tormented by their
experiences and Owen
was woken up frequently
by the screams of the
men around him.
Some symptoms of shell
shock:
•Mental Trauma
•Anxiety
•Hallucinations
•Facial/ Body tics
Wilfred Owen
• Once Owen recovered he
was sent out to fight once
more.
• He was sent to the front
line and was killed in
action on 4th November
1918. A week later the
war ended.
• His family received
notification of his death
on the 11th of November,
the day the war ended.
Watch the following rendition of the
poem and listen carefully.
Context
Why wasn’t it ‘over by
Christmas…’?
• Developments in technology and modern
warfare
• One million grenades coming out of
munitions factories every week
• British soldiers were outnumbered, badly
equipped and unprepared
• Trench warfare created deadlock where very
little ground was made.
• Awful conditions
•13,000 men in 2 days, Flanders, March 1915
•60,000 men in 14 days. Battle of Loos, 1915
•60,000 men in 1 day, Battle of the Somme, 1916: more than
the Crimean War, Boer War and Korean War combined
Wilfred Owen
•Born 1893
•Died November 4th, 1918
•Killed in action, just a week
before war ended.
•News of his death reached his
mother just as the town’s church
bells were ringing for victory at the
end of the war.
•One of the war’s most famous
poets for speaking out against the
death and destruction it brought.
DULCE ET DECORUM EST
Wilfred Owen
What is this poem about?
The title- Dulce et Decorum Est
• Taken from a Latin saying meaning ‘It is
sweet and right (to die for your country)’- in
other words, it is a wonderful and great
honour to die for your country.
• This was widely quoted at the beginning of
the war and poems like Pope’s ‘Who’s for
the Game’ reflected this idea.
Is this sweet? Is this right? Is this
fitting?
• With mustard gas the effects did not become
apparent for up to twelve hours. But then it began
to rot the body, within and without.
•The skin blistered, the eyes became extremely
painful and nausea and vomiting began.
•Worse, the gas attacked the bronchial tubes,
stripping off the mucus membrane.
•The pain was almost beyond endurance and most
victims had to be strapped to their beds.
•Death took up to four or five weeks.
Starter Activity
• Summarise the main idea/event of each of
the stanzas in the poem in just one
sentence.
• E.g In Stanza 3 Owen tells of his
recurring nightmares from watching the
man die slowly.
Learning Intentions
• To enjoy and understand the poem
• To learn about poet techniques
Success Criteria
• To show that you have understood the
techniques in the poem you will have to
• Answer the questions on the worksheet
fully
• Use your own words to answer the
questions
Activity 1
Paired Activity
• Owen uses lots of powerful imagery and similes to
describe the soldiers.
• Choose 2 examples from your sheet on similes and
fill in the answers fully using your own words
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 bombs that dropped
behind.
GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of
fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
Activity 2
• What is the impact of
‘Gas! Gas! Quick boys!’
• Owen describes the
soldiers putting their
gas masks on as ‘an
ecstasy of fumbling’.
Why does he use the
word ‘ecstasy’?
But someone still was yelling out and
stumbling
And floundering 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
Activity 3
• What is Owen describing here?
• What is the effect of words like ‘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,--
Activity 4
• Why does Owen describe his dreams as
‘smothering’?
• What is the impact of using the word ‘flung’?
• This is a description of a man after a gas attack,
as his lungs are slowly eaten away. Which ugly
words and comparisons describe this?
• Who do you think Owen is addressing here when
he says ‘If you could hear’?
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.
(It is sweet and just to die for your
country).
Activity 5
• What is the tone of these final lines?
• How do you feel about this poem and what
do you think its final message is?
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we curse
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; blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped
behind.
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.