Wilfred Owen

(1893-1918)
“Red lips are not so red / As the stained stones kissed by the English dead."

Wilfred Owen was born in 1893 near the

Welsh border. A devout Christian, in
1913, he went to France to teach English
and during this period he started writing
poetry, experimenting with different
rhyme schemes. After the outbreak of
war, he visited wounded soldiers in hos-
pital and felt the need for active commit-
ment. He went back to England, enlisted
in the British army and sailed to France,
where he soon experienced the horror of
the trench life and front-line action which
he describes with unrelenting realism in
his poems, sparing the reader none of
the grim details of war death.
This experience had such a deep impact
on his mind that he needed psychiatric treatment for shell shock. At hospital he met
another poet, Siegfried Sassoon, who encouraged him to write poetry inspired by his
war experience and greatly influenced him in his development as a poet.
He was killed in action on 4 November, just a week before the Armistice.

His conception of poetry is best exemplified in the preface to his volume of poems,
where he wrote: “Above all I am not concerned with Poetry. My subject is War, and
the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity. Yet these elegies are to this generation in no
sense consolatory. They may be to the next. All a poet can do today is warn. That is
why the true Poets must be truthful."

Dulce et Decorum Est

(1917)

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 gas-shells dropping softly 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

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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.

➢ Match the words with their definition

1) knock-kneed a) soft mud

2) hags b) the glass of the gas masks
3) sludge c) unable to work normally
4) trudge d) moving violently
5) limped on e) frenzy
6) lame f) burning like a candle that is about to go out
7) hoots g) wounds
8) ecstasy h) loud noises
9) fumbling i) dry white powder for construction
10) lime j) emitting foam
11) panes k) having the knees close together
12) plunges l) matter coming out of mouth
13) guttering m) violent movement
14) writhing n) throws oneself
15) jolt o) walk with heavy steps
16) froth-corrupted p) trying to find something
17) cud q) walked in pain
18) sores r) ugly old women

1 ___, 2 ___, 3 ___, 4 ___, 5 ___, 6 ___, 7 ___, 8 ___, 9 ___, 10 ___, 11 ___,

12 ___, 13 ___, 14 ___, 15 ___, 16 ___, 17 ___, 18 ___

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FORM AND STYLE

➢ Match the literary devices with their definition

1) allusion a) repetition of the same consonant

sounds in a line of text
2) caesura b) the continuation of a sentence
without a pause beyond the end
of a line
3) simile c) a word or phrase applied to an
object or action to which it is not
literally applicable
4) metaphor d) poetic phrase or speech ad-
dressed to a subject that is not
literally present in the literary
work
5) consonance e) overstated or exaggerated claim
or statement that adds emphasis
6) enjambment f) intentionally using a word or
phrase for effect, two or more
times
7) repetition g) pairing two words together that
are opposing and/or contradic-
tory
8) apostrophe h) a rhythmical pause in a poetic
line or a sentence which often
occurs in the middle of a line
9) hyperbole i) reference to another literary work
10) oxymoron j) comparison of one thing with an-
other thing of a different kind (us-
ing the words “like” or “as”)

1 ___, 2 ___, 3 ___, 4 ___, 5 ___, 6 ___, 7 ___, 8 ___, 9 ___, 10 ___

➢ Find examples of each literary device in the poem and highlight them in different
colours.
➢ Write down the rhyming scheme of the poem

COMPREHENSION
1) In the first stanza the poet sets the scene. Find the lines showing the following
conditions of the soldiers.
2) The soldiers are marching towards their camp.
a. They are so tired that they seem to march while they are asleep.
b. They can no longer hear sounds and noises.
c. They are marching away from the front line.

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 d. They no longer have boots and their feet bleed.
e. They cannot walk properly.
3) The second stanza describes a gas attack. What happens to the soldier who can-
not fit his gas mask in time?
4) Where is the dying soldier's body put?
5) How does this image haunt the speaker?
6) Who is the speaker addressing in the last stanza?
7) Look up online the origin of the phrase “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori”

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

1) Explain the extended metaphor used in lines 13-14 by filling in the gaps.
2) The soldier who does not fit his in time is compared to a man who is ________ in
a ________ sea.
3) Focus on stanzas three and four. Underline all the images linked with the semantic
area of suffocating, and the similes or metaphors used to suggest the horror of the
victim's suffering.
4) Choose one from the following to suggest a possible interpretation for the speak-
er's detailed description of the young soldier's death.
a. He has seen so many soldiers die that he wants to describe their deaths.
b. He hopes that by telling the reader, he will be able to forget it.
c. He wants the reader to clearly understand that there is nothing sweet and
honourable in war death.
5) Who are the children that the speaker is talking about in line 26?

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SUMMARY

➢ Now complete the analysis with the words given below.

horrific | lie | metaphors | glory | sounds | harmony | sweet

In this poem the writer addresses all those who were encouraging young men to seek
________ in war, wanting to show them the appalling conditions of the soldiers in the
trenches and in the front line. With the ________ details of the soldier's death the poet
wants to stress that dying in war is not ________ and honourable and this is only an
"old ________” which must no longer be told. The poem is built on a long series of
very strong images and a wide use of similes and ________ which along with exam-
ples of onomatopoeia, reinforce the message of the poem. Despite the use of regular
rhymes, the overall impression is that of a lack of ________ and fragmentation which
is also conveyed by frequent caesuras and harsh ________.

➢ What conflict(s) does the poem highlight?