Analysis or Owen's "Dulce et decorum est".

English Autumn Assessment 2011

The poem ‘Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori’ is the name of a poem written my Wilfred Owen, a wartime Poet. The title was taken from an ode by Horace.

The title literally means ‘It is sweet and right to die for your country’. It was written specifically to stress the fact that the government’s Propaganda was a lie, “The Old Lie” as it states in the final stanza of the poem. Propaganda is a word generally used in a war, meaning advertising, promoting and spreading information towards the public. They were generally based around that if you join up, you would get the women! The government wanted, young, fit and red-blooded men to enlist, to fight and die for their country. Thousand’s of patriotic men enlisted.

Wilfred Owen described the conditions endured by the men in the first stanza in more of a physical manner, emphasizing the men’s appearance, positions and actions. From reading this stanza, I can identify that the men were clearly pushed to their physical limits, for example, “drunk with fatigue” or “men marched asleep” both suggest how extremely exhausted they were. Special camps were used in the war; a phrase that suggests this is “and towards our distant rest began to trudge”. As the men slowed down with physical and mental drainage, their distant rest seems prolonged.

A very serious ...

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A very serious and saddening mood is used in the poem. If spokes, one would use a very somber and depressing voice. A good example where this could be used is “but limped on, blood-shod” a metaphor is used here, as well as throughout the first stanza. A metaphor is a word meaning ‘to say something IS something, but it isn’t. The men were not really walking with shoes of blood, which is almost physically impossible. In my opinion, Wilfred Owen has used lots of these metaphors so the reader can build up characteristics and a mental image of the poem.

The pace of the poem changes in the second stanza, which changes the amount of syllables per word, per line. An example of this is “Gas! Gas! Quick boys” This sentence only has four syllables, opposed to a line in the first stanza “towards our distant rest began to trudge” has ten syllables so it is longer to say and takes more time. The first stanza is slow and progressive, with no tension at all, but the tension is quickly built in the first sentence of the second stanza, which I find, raises one’s attention once again. With this strategy, there is no boredom. Also, the attitude of the men changes. In the first stanza, the men can only trudge with fatigue, but in the second, they were rapidly fighting for their lives.

The third stanza differs from the previous two stanzas as it is written in the present tense. The stanza may be written in the present tense to emphasize the fact that Wilfred Owen suffered reoccurring dreams of the same man on that day; “In all my dreams” suggests that they are reoccurring. Wilfred Owen uses five very descriptive words to known as adjectives. They are “In all my dreams before my HELPLESS sight, he PLUNGES at me, GUTTERING, CHOKING, DROWNING” these words are strong and meaningful; they make me think, which in turn, also creates a mental image. This helps me to understand the poem more.

I think that Wilfred Owen might of set out the third stanza on its own to make it stand out, to emphasize how haunting the memories of the man floundering towards him was, to an extent that every night, he suffered a reoccurring dream. Also, Wilfred Owen has also set out the third stanza on its own so the reader can focus purely on that one piece, which means that the reader can think more of it, the emotion, meanings and their opinions, without the distractions of different sentences you would find in a much longer stanza, e.g. stanza one or two.

Peer Reviews

Here's what a star student thought of this essay

sydneyhopcroft

29th of Mar 2012

Quality of writing

The Quality of Written Communication is also very poor. The candidate often misuses apostrophes ("Thousand's of patriotic men enlisted"); commas ("The government wanted, young, fit and red-blooded men to enlist, to fight and die for their country"); and capital letters ("The Old Lie", "Propaganda"). As well as a complete disregard for standard grammatical structure in places ("They [propaganda posters] were generally based around that if you join up, you would get the women!". This seriously needs to be addressed and I would advise the candidate to pay much more attention to their clarity of written expression by re-reading every sentence they write - this is not something fundamental as the candidate does have a grasp of how to write, but the coherence and accuracy is greatly lacking.

Level of analysis

The Level of Analysis shown here is indicative of a candidate expecting to a achieve a high D grade for GCSE. The reason they do not achieve higher is because the analysis, where applicable, does not delve to a sufficient depth for the examiner to consider the candidate to have provided original insight and analysis of the poetic devices used; the context that influenced; or the gravity of the poem. A lot of the analysis given is quite superficial and does not appear to go much further than face-value. A clichÃƒÂ©, but candidates hoping to achieve higher than a C grade need to show signs of beginning to read between the lines - "long and distant rest" is not just a metaphor for sleep in "special camps", but it could also be interpreted as death itself, with the soldiers marching towards their imminent deaths. Where this candidate loses the most marks is the fact they simply do not provide any evidence for their very general points. General points like "they [strong adjectives] make me think, which in turn, also creates a mental image. This helps me to understand the poem more" will not win any marks as the candidate has responded too personally, commenting on how they would respond, rather than what the audience feels. Also, there is no real analysis into what the images are of, and next to no appreciation or understanding of how this image is created other than adjectives. This is a very poor GCSE standard - candidates should at least recognise the three main poetic devices used by all poets to conjure imagery - similes, metaphors and personification. As a last note, the candidate must not make the mistakes of feeling like they have to explain the poetic devices they do identify - there commentary on what a metaphor is is useless and does not gain any marks. Finally, candidates must address the poems and poets correctly - this poem is called 'Dulce et Decorum est', not "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori".

Response to question

The answer given here is for a question asking for a holistic analysis of Wilfred Owen's 'Dulce et Decorum est'. This candidate demonstrates a very vague focus on the question, often digressing to irrelevant points that, in some cases, do not even set themselves up for analysis. As an analytical question, this time-wasting and babbling must be avoided if precious exam time is to be preserved and used to comment on the more important aspects of Owen's poetry. An example would be where the candidate comments on the use of "special camps" in the War, or in their definition of propaganda (which, as a side-note is not entirely accurate). Candidates should aim to write efficiently, making sure their words to do not carry flabby extra weight that wins no marks and simply wastes time.

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