The IEB poem,Dulce et Decorum est , written by Wilfred Owen, is analysed in-depth and in great detail in this document. The figures of speech, themes, structures, line by line analysis, stanzas and rhyme schemes are provided and elaborated, offering a greater understanding of the poem. The document...
By Wilfred Owen
-This poem is a protest poem.
-The title refers to how sweet and right it is to fight in war and
Dulce et Decorum est
how honorable it is to die for your country. (the title was used Was only 25 years when killed in action.
as propaganda) He was killed towards the end of World War I.
- However, Wilfred Owen, fought during the war and he wrote
this poem to show that fighting in the war is not so sweet and
honorable after all. (sweet) (and) (fitting/proper) (it is)
- The poem shows the horrific circumstances of war.
Similes: These are used to show the audience how the
soldiers are bent over, coughing, and struggling
through the war landscape
The effect of gas has aged them like ‘hags’.
(pos. also referencing the effects of mustard gas).
Consonance:
‘Bent’ and ‘beggars’.
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Alliteration:
‘Knock-kneed’
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through
Stanza 1
Both of these sound effects add
cadence to the reading of the poem.
sludge,
Personification: This refers to the flares on This phrase possibly connotes literal sleep for
the battlefield that cast unsteady and glaring light Til on the haunting flares we turned our backs the tired soldiers, but could also be a more
onto the field - a sight that haunts the soldiers, even
solemn meaning, referring to the final sleep – a
as they are heading for rest. And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
literal death as a result of the war.
‘Lame and blind’
This phrase suggests that the men are Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots This is describing the effects of the mustard gas
almost sleepwalking due to their extreme on the soldiers.
fatigue. It’s an interesting juxtaposition ‘Lame’ doesn’t mean stupid in this case; it
(opposing meanings), as we know that But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; means to be unable to walk without difficulty.
one cannot march while asleep.
‘the hoots of gas-shells dropping
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots softly behind.
This phrase plays on the imagery (personification)
of someone inebriated – the soldiers are so tired and The soldiers are so tired they
in need of rest they almost seem drunk. Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind. are almost deaf to the sounds of
gas shells being dropped
The soldiers are so tired they are almost deaf to by planes.
the sounds of gas shells being dropped by planes.
Consonance:
‘limped’, ‘blood-shod’, ‘lame’ and ‘blind’ have
consonance through their ‘l’ and
‘bl’ sounds.
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