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Wilfred

Owen
Dulce et Decorum Est
LESSON iNTENTION:

• What is the poem ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’


about?
• How did Wilfred Owen portray the misery
of war through his use of poetic devices.
SUCCESS CRITERIA:
1. As a group, answer the questions relating to the stanza you
have been allocated. (You must present this as a ppt)
2. Create 3 freeze frames relating to the stanza you are
analysing.
3. Collate all freeze frames from the other groups to create a
short ppt slide or video about the poem. Arrange the
frames in the correct order. You must include your
recording of the recited poem, and the words of the
poem under the corresponding frames.
4. You must also use the SPECS/SLIMS PPT based on ‘Dulce et
Decorum’ to answer the SPECS/SLIMS poem analysis
worksheet. (This must be completed and submitted by
Monday through google classroom)
Groups
Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4
Stanza 1 Stanza 2 Stanza 3 Stanza 4
and Title
Jamie Armstrong Sam Amir
Nicholas Conor Fernandez Steven
Sebastian Anthony Liam Charbel
Daniel Emilio Ryan Owen
Read the stanza, search for the following and colour
accordingly:

● Onomatopoeia (Highlight ● Verb tenses present


yellow) progressive (green
● Simile ( Red) Highlight)
● Metaphors (green) ● Personification
● Repetition (underline) (Underline green)
● Rhyming (use alphabet) ABC ● Pronouns (red highlight).
● Assonance (highlight letter
blue)
● Alliteration (Highlight letter red)

You must also answer the following?


What is the stanza about?
Dulce et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,


Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
Questions – Stanza 1.
1. What state are the soldiers in (exactly)?
2. Which two surprising comparisons describe the
soldiers?
3. Why is the expression blood-shod dehumanising
to the soldiers?
4. What happens in the in the last line of this
stanza?
5. Owen selects ugly, textured, guttural diction to
convey a hideous event and landscape. ‘Sludge’
is one such word. Find others.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
Questions – Stanza 2
6. Why is GAS repeated and in capitals?
7. Explain the phrases ‘an ecstasy of fumbling’ and
‘the misty panes’.
8. Three comparisons describe the fate of one man.
What are they? What effect does the dying
soldier have on the narrator?
In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
Stanza 3
9. What does ‘plunges at me’ mean? What does
‘guttering’ mean exactly?
10. Explore the force of the words: ‘flound’ring’,
‘fire’, ‘lime’, ‘guttering’ and the underwater
comparison – gas has green fumes.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Questions – Stanza 4 – one long
sentence addressed to ‘my friend’
11. What do the soldiers do for the dying man?
12. The man’s face hangs upside down. What
horrible details of the face are given to us and
with what is it compared?
13. The gas eats away the man’s lungs. What ugly
words and comparisons describe this result?
14. Who are the children? What is some ‘desperate
glory?’
15. What effect and force do these words have:
writhing, hanging, devil, froth-corrupted, cud,
sores
Does it rhyme? Yes. Have a look at the rhyme
scheme and see what words rhyme for effect.
Does it have rhythm? Yes. It’s in iambic
pentameter. What effect does this have on
the way the poem is read aloud?

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