Context

Why wasn’t it ‘over by Christmas…’? Developments in technology and modern warfare One million grenades coming out of munitions factories every week British soldiers were outnumbered, badly equipped and unprepared Trench warfare created deadlock where very little ground was made. Awful conditions

13,000 men in 2 days, Flanders, March 1915 60,000 men in 14 days. Battle of Loos, 1915 60,000 men in 1 day, Battle of the Somme, 1916: more than the Crimean War, Boer War and Korean War combined

Wilfred Owen Born 1893 Died November 4th, 1918 Killed in action, just a week before war ended. News of his death reached his mother just as the town’s church bells were ringing for victory at the end of the war. One of the war’s most famous poets for speaking out against the death and destruction it brought.

Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

The title- Dulce et Decorum Est Taken from a Latin saying meaning ‘It is sweet and right (to die for your country)’- in other words, it is a wonderful and great honour to die for your country. This was widely quoted at the beginning of the war and poems like Pope’s ‘Who’s for the Game’ reflected this idea.

Is this sweet? Is this right? Is this fitting? With mustard gas the effects did not become apparent for up to twelve hours. But then it began to rot the body, within and without. •The skin blistered, the eyes became extremely painful and nausea and vomiting began. •Worse, the gas attacked the bronchial tubes, stripping off the mucus membrane. •The pain was almost beyond endurance and most victims had to be strapped to their beds. •Death took up to four or five weeks.

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we curse 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; blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Activity 1 Owen uses lots of powerful imagery and similes to describe the soldiers. Find three examples of this and explain the effect these might have on the reader.

Activity 2 What is the impact of ‘Gas! Gas! Quick boys!’ Owen describes the soldiers putting their gas masks on as ‘an ecstasy of fumbling’. Why does he use the word ‘ecstasy’?

Activity 3 What is Owen describing in Stanza 3? What is the effect of words like ‘guttering, choking, drowning.’?

Activity 4 Why does Owen describe his dreams as ‘smothering’? What is the impact of using the word ‘flung’? This is a description of a man after a gas attack, as his lungs are slowly eaten away. Which ugly words and comparisons describe this? Who do you think Owen is addressing here when he says ‘If you could hear’?

Activity 5 What is the tone of the final lines? How do you feel about this poem and what do you think its final message is?