1. How is rhythm used to express ideas?
2. How does the last stanza work to consolidate your understanding of this poem?
By The45Girl
Introduction: 180 words
In Dulce et Decorum est, one of Wilfrid Owen’s most famous poems, which was written in 1917 at
Craiglockhart Hospital, recovering from shell shock, the speaker remembers the death of a fellow
soldier who was unable to wear his gas-mask in time in a French trench. Through techniques such
diction, imagery and rhythm, Owen explores the themes of the bitterness of war, its never-ending
effects on soldiers and the complicity of the British government and people in promoting a false
image of soldier’s lives.
Point One (600 words)
First, Owen explores the theme of the horror of war and the never-ending effects of it on soldiers.
He begins early.
The ironic contrast between the title “Dulce et Decorum est”, which is Latin for “it is sweet
and noble”, and the very first line which describes the soldiers as “bent double, like old
beggars under sacks” actually surprises the reader as they begin to wonder about what is so
sweet and noble about being like a beggar and causes them to begin to consider that the
soldiers’ situations are not sweet and noble.
- “Bent double” not what people expect soldiers to be like. Soldiers expected to be
upright, heroic.
- “Like Old beggars” simile shows that war makes young men old behind their time.
Evokes pity. “Under sacks” creates image of weary soldiers in reader’s mind.
Unpleasant experience is created by rhythm and sound devices. Also evokes pity for the
soldiers as they seem deprived.
- “Knock-kneed” caesura emphasises exhaustion of soldiers. Hard k sounds add to sense
of exhaustion.
- “Coughing like hags” simile highlights loss of youth; reduced to this; pathetic image
created in reader’s mind
- “sludge” diction suggests slow, tiring journey. It could be a reference to the trenches of
WWI. “knock-kneed” and “through sludge” emphasise the men have been crippled by
war.
- “Distant rest” could refer to death; soldiers are walking to their deaths but this is
preferable to their exhausting lives.
- Lethargic rhythm of 1st stanza and regular rhyme scheme and iambic pentameter, for the
most part, adds to plodding, trudging effect.
- Punctuation of first 4 lines especially emulates this “trudge”.
- Elongated vowels “all”, “sludge” adds to sense that march is never-ending.
- Diction “trudge” shows how weary soldiers are. Diction “limped on” suggests exhaustion
and creates sympathy in reader.
- Hyperbole “all went lame, all went blind” emphasises overarching effect of war on all
the soldiers. Repetition of “all” highlights that nobody was exempt from this.
- Imagery emphasises weariness. “Drunk with fatigue” really highlights the weariness of
soldiers.
- Diction “lame, blind, deaf” portrays soldiers as helpless sufferers; evokes pity. Not
attributes of young, heroic men readers imagined.
- Alliteration (bent, beggars) (men, marched, many, limped, lame) emphasises horror and
unpleasantness of experiences.
Point Two (600 words): Long-term impacts
Owen continues to establish the idea that there is nothing sweet and noble about war.
2. How does the last stanza work to consolidate your understanding of this poem?
By The45Girl
Introduction: 180 words
In Dulce et Decorum est, one of Wilfrid Owen’s most famous poems, which was written in 1917 at
Craiglockhart Hospital, recovering from shell shock, the speaker remembers the death of a fellow
soldier who was unable to wear his gas-mask in time in a French trench. Through techniques such
diction, imagery and rhythm, Owen explores the themes of the bitterness of war, its never-ending
effects on soldiers and the complicity of the British government and people in promoting a false
image of soldier’s lives.
Point One (600 words)
First, Owen explores the theme of the horror of war and the never-ending effects of it on soldiers.
He begins early.
The ironic contrast between the title “Dulce et Decorum est”, which is Latin for “it is sweet
and noble”, and the very first line which describes the soldiers as “bent double, like old
beggars under sacks” actually surprises the reader as they begin to wonder about what is so
sweet and noble about being like a beggar and causes them to begin to consider that the
soldiers’ situations are not sweet and noble.
- “Bent double” not what people expect soldiers to be like. Soldiers expected to be
upright, heroic.
- “Like Old beggars” simile shows that war makes young men old behind their time.
Evokes pity. “Under sacks” creates image of weary soldiers in reader’s mind.
Unpleasant experience is created by rhythm and sound devices. Also evokes pity for the
soldiers as they seem deprived.
- “Knock-kneed” caesura emphasises exhaustion of soldiers. Hard k sounds add to sense
of exhaustion.
- “Coughing like hags” simile highlights loss of youth; reduced to this; pathetic image
created in reader’s mind
- “sludge” diction suggests slow, tiring journey. It could be a reference to the trenches of
WWI. “knock-kneed” and “through sludge” emphasise the men have been crippled by
war.
- “Distant rest” could refer to death; soldiers are walking to their deaths but this is
preferable to their exhausting lives.
- Lethargic rhythm of 1st stanza and regular rhyme scheme and iambic pentameter, for the
most part, adds to plodding, trudging effect.
- Punctuation of first 4 lines especially emulates this “trudge”.
- Elongated vowels “all”, “sludge” adds to sense that march is never-ending.
- Diction “trudge” shows how weary soldiers are. Diction “limped on” suggests exhaustion
and creates sympathy in reader.
- Hyperbole “all went lame, all went blind” emphasises overarching effect of war on all
the soldiers. Repetition of “all” highlights that nobody was exempt from this.
- Imagery emphasises weariness. “Drunk with fatigue” really highlights the weariness of
soldiers.
- Diction “lame, blind, deaf” portrays soldiers as helpless sufferers; evokes pity. Not
attributes of young, heroic men readers imagined.
- Alliteration (bent, beggars) (men, marched, many, limped, lame) emphasises horror and
unpleasantness of experiences.
Point Two (600 words): Long-term impacts
Owen continues to establish the idea that there is nothing sweet and noble about war.
