The poetry of World War I has a clear right to be considered part of modernist poetry.

The experience
of the war was emphatically one that could not be conveyed in nineteenth-century poetic
conventions. Poets had to adapt their language to the new and terrible experiences, creating poetry
that could convey the horror of the battlefield. They thus played a significant part in the renewal of
poetic language.

DULCE ET DECORUM EST by WILFRED OWEN (1893-1918)

1 Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

2 Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
3 Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
4 And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
5 Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
6 But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
7 Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
8 Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

9 Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! — An ecstasy of fumbling,

10 Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
11 But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
12 And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime...
13 Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
14 As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

15 In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,

16 He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

17 If in some smothering dreams you too could pace

18 Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
19 And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
20 His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
21 If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
22 Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
23 Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
24 Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
25 My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
26 To children ardent for some desperate glory,
27 The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
28 Pro patria mori.

1. How does the poet make an impact on the reader in the first two lines of the text? Identify the 2
similes used and explain what they tell us about the soldiers.
2. How does the poet develop the description of the soldiers in lines 3 to 8? Refer to at least one example
of metaphor.
3. Explain what is being described in lines 10 to 14. How does the poet use language in lines 11 and 12
to convey the way in which soldier is moving?
4. Look at lines 13 to 14. How does the poetic speaker help us imagine his view of the event he is
describing?
5. What is the poetic speaker describing in lines 15-16? What does this tell us about the effect of war on
those that went through it?
6. Is the poet using a regular rhyme pattern? What is the poem’s message and how is it emphasised in
the closing lines (25 to 29)?
7. Choose a phrase you think particularly shocking or effective in describing the experience of war.
Explain your choice.
1 Torcidos como viejos mendigos bajo sus hatos,
2 renqueando, tosiendo como brujas, maldecíamos a través del lodo,
3 hasta que donde alumbraban las luces de las bengalas nos dimos la vuelta
4 y hacia nuestra lejana posición empezamos a caminar afanosamente.
5 los hombres marchaban dormidos. Muchos habían perdido sus botas
6 pero abrumados avanzaban sobre zapatos de sangre. Todos cojos, todos ciegos;
7 borrachos de fatiga, sordos incluso al silbido de las balas
8 que los cansados cañones de calibre 5.9 disparaban detrás de nosotros.

9 “¡Gas, gas! ¡Rápido, muchachos!”; un éxtasis de desconcierto,

10 poniéndonos los toscos cascos justo a tiempo;
11 pero alguien aún estaba gritando y tropezando
12 y retorciéndose, como si ardiera o se ahogara en cal viva...
13 borroso, a través de los empañados cristales de la máscara y de la tenue luz verde,
14 como en un mar verde le vi ahogarse.

15 En todas mis pesadillas, ante mi impotente mirada,

16 se desploma boqueando, agonizando, asfixiándose.

17 Si en algún agobiante sueño tú también pudieras caminar

18 tras la carreta en la que lo echamos,
19 y mirar sus blancos ojos moviéndose
20 en su desmayada cara, como un endemoniado.
21 Si pudieras escuchar a cada traqueteo
22 el gorgoteo de la sangre saliendo de sus destrozados pulmones,
23 repugnante como el cáncer, nauseabundo como el vómito
24 de horrorosas, incurables llagas en lenguas inocentes,
25 amigo mío, no volverías a decir con ese alto idealismo
26 a los ardientes jóvenes sedientos de gloria
27 la vieja Mentira: “Dulce et decorum est
28 pro patria mori”.