This document contains a full analysis of the prescribed Matric IEB poem: Dulce et Decorum est by Wilfred Owen. The poem has been broken down and analysed line by line to ensure it is fully understood by the reader and includes points on the structure and techniques in the poem.
Dulce et Decorum est
Wilfred Owen
By Adrian MacKenzie
Summary = poem written about World War 1. The poet addresses the repugnance of war and attempts to debunk
the idea that war is glorious by depicting it as evil and horrifically vile. The poet is unaccepting of the way in which
politicians convince the youth and working class that it is honourable to die for your country.
Tone = caustic, critical and repugnant
Attitude = scathing attitude towards politicians and war
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, → Simile illustrates immense fatigue of the soldiers compared to elderly
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, → Simile illustrates poor/harsh conditions of warfare
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, → inclusive 1st person pronoun, depicts soldier's unity in experience
And towards our distant rest began to trudge. → soldiers are exhausted but look forward to eventually getting respite
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, → the toll of war, soldiers are weary, defeated and fatigued
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; → mental & physical damage, they’re injured & distressed
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots → Metaphor, so tired they cannot orientate nor navigate themselves
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind. → soldiers fundamentally exhausted & desensitised to their bitter surroundings
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling → sudden urgency yet soldiers are clumsy with fatigue
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, → Transferred epithet – adjective meant for soldiers, not helmets
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling → desperate, suffering soldier in the gas who’s stumbling & yelling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime. — → futile desparation of the soldier in the gas (floundering around)
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, → seeing the gas (thick green) through their masks (panes)
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. → Metaphor, so much gas, as if the soldiers is submerged in a green sea
→ illustrates the inability of the soldier to escape the horrific gas
(shift from present tense to past tense)
In all my dreams before my helpless sight, → still traumatised by the war, in his dreams he remembers the horror
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. → vivid & graphic imagery of a soldier dying in the gas
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