Dulce et Decorum est.
Dulce et Decorum est Sammie Whyte The bloody slaughter and sheer injustice of World War One was shrouded in the lies and misconceptions of a glorious heroic war. Back in Britain, far away from the dropping shells and continuous machine gun fire, propaganda about the wonderful deeds happening out on the front line was being fed out to the public through a government controlled media. Many young men - little more than boys - were encouraged to sign up to fight for a war that in reality was little more than a mass slaughter. One way that the utter devastation and unimaginable extent of death, could pass through the censored media to the mis-led public was through poets like Wilfred Owen who had fought on the front line. Arguably Owen's best piece, if not the best piece of literature to result from such a disaster, Dulce et Decorum est portrays the utter exhaustion and fear, as well as bereavement and horror, felt by the soldiers during the First World War. Owen uses techniques to emphasize and really bring home the devastation and terror. This is what I shall now discuss. The poem itself is split into four uneven stanzas and these give the effect of splitting the event into chronological sections - the first details the soldiers before a gas attack, the second during the gas attack and the third and forth deal with Owen reviewing the event. By sectioning the poem in this
Dulce Et Decorum Est
Dulce Et Decorum Est In October 1917 Wilfred Owen wrote to his mother from Craiglockhart, "Here is a gas poem, done yesterday........the famous Latin tag (from Horace, Odes) means of course it is sweet and meet to die for one's country. Sweet! and decorous!" While the earliest surviving draft is dated 8th October 1917, a few months later, at Scarborough or Ripon, he revised it. The title is ironic. The intention was not so much to induce pity as to shock, especially civilians at home who believed war was noble and glorious. It comprises four unequal stanzas, the first two in sonnet form, the last two looser in structure. Stanza 1 sets the scene. The soldiers are limping back from the Front, an appalling picture expressed through simile and metaphor. Such is the men's wretched condition that they can be compared to old beggars, hags (ugly old women). Yet they were young! Barely awake from lack of sleep, their once smart uniforms resembling sacks, they cannot walk straight as their blood-caked feet try to negotiate the mud. "Blood-shod" seems a dehumanising image- we think of horses shod not men. Physically and mentally they are crushed. Owen uses words that set up ripples of meaning beyond the literal and exploit ambiguity. "Distant rest" - what kind of rest? For some the permanent kind? "Coughing" finds an echo later in the poem, while gas shells dropping softly suggests
Dulce et Decorum est
Dulce et Decorum est The poet reacts to the war by turning normal poetic language in to something that appears normal on the surface but in reality is tainted. The poet also breaks from normal poetry to show society the normal images of war. The ability to move the reader makes the poem work which aids the reader in to understanding the false propaganda. The poem is about soldiers in trench warfare and is a great example of writing graphically to show the horrific side of war yet being completely truthful. The poet does not withhold any information from the reader and conveys what it was like to fight in the War. The poet shows the pain in the poem. His tone, depression, lack of hope reveals his message. He uses long sentences and metaphor to show the tires soldiers. Picturing 'old beggar under sacks' tells us what war has done to them. It also tells us they are battle weary and scared of what is ahead of them. The use of similes in the first stanza allows the reader to understand the anguish of war. The poet is able to use words the words to paint a vivid and terrifying picture of trench warfare in the mind of the reader. The Hags is connected with the word beggers as they both outcasts in society. What's more words like beggers, hags and blood-shod shows what the war has done to the soldiers of war.. Through his use of vivid words and portrayal it makes us understand the
Dulce Et Decorum Est
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. 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. In all my dreams before my helpless sight He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. Of 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 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. Wilfred Owen (1893 - 1918) DULCE ET DECORUM EST (With explanatory notes) * Title--> "Dulce et Decorum est": o
Dulce et Decorum Est Critical Essay.
Dulce et Decorum Est Critical Essay Wilfred Owen deals with the horror of war in his eloquent poem "Dulce et Decorum Est". The poem is written with a bitter tone to describe men before and through an attack that happened during the First World War. The theme of the poem, as the title is an antithesis of, is it is no "fine and fitting thing to die for one's country. Owen has created a different atmosphere in each verse, creating a picture that is certainly not glorious; the point the author uses this poem to prove. Owen has used the first verse to create a scene of despair "deaf even to the hoots". He has used enjambment to create a conversational tone, but each phrase strikes the reader while being part of a list to reinforce how many injuries there were. It suggests that the soldiers are elderly, giving up and barely alive "old beggars under sacks" and "coughing like hags". Owen has created a slow pace in the first verse using long sentences and figurative language "Knock-kneed, coughing like hags". The word choice "asleep", "lame" and blind also gives connotations of old men, slowly dying. This shows the author's skill; he creates images that he can later shatter. Owen had cleverly caused me to forget that these men are young and should be in good health. The second verse contrasts well with the first, the author has cleverly built a lively, fast-moving scene.
Dolce et decorum est
"Dolce et decorum est." and "who's for the game?" Wilfred Owen and Jessie Pope were very popular poets during the WW1. In Jesse Popes poem "who's for the game", her aim was to recruit men and boys to the war whereas Wilfred Owens poem about how he suffered a gas attack and was injured, he also writes about how the men suffered. In popes poem "who's for the game ", she uses an extended metaphor. The metaphor she uses suggests that the war is a game. She describes the war as many types of sports such as football, boxing, racing and also hunting. I think that she uses this because most men are into sports and so they will think that the war is like a sport and go to war, so she uses it to grab their attention. The mood of her poem is very upbeat and lively, this is because she is using propaganda to convince the men to go to the war unlike Wilfred Owens poem who states out about what she said about the war was wrong and a lie. I sense that she used personification less but rather strongly. I get this idea from "your country is up to her neck in a fight". This tells me that she is calling England a female. I think she uses this because it sounds as if our country is drowning and she needs our help therefore you would want to support your country. In this poem it doesn't create such a strong image in your mind unlike Owens poem which creates a very powerful image in your head.
The long and the short and the tall
In what ways, and for what reasons do the attitudes of Bamforth and Maclesish change towards the prisoner of war during the course of the play? How are these attitudes shown through language and action, and how might they be brought out in a production through stage action and gesture? The Long and the Short and the Tall, written by Willis Hall, is a play set in Malaya during the Second World War (1939 - 1945). At this time, the Japanese forces poured down the Malayan peninsula to attack the British from behind. The patrol in the play had been sent to discover the movements and strength of the Japanese. Willis Hall was himself part of the professional army at the age of 17 and his service took him to the Far East for many years. This is where he acquired most of the inspiration needed for writing this play. Hall raises many issues in the play that were present and needed to be dealt with. The main issue is the treatment of a prisoner of war and linking to this are other issues like loyalty, companionship and innocence. These issues are raised by Hall through the actions and sayings of the characters in the play. Each character has a different opinion and attitude towards war and Hall shows this on how they react to the prisoner of war. I will be specifically looking at the characters of Bamforth and Macleish as these characters change the most during and after the capture
The Long and the Short and the Tall.
The Long and the Short and the Tall In the drama 'The Long and The Short and The Tall,' the playwright Willis Hall convincingly uses the characters and their reactions to their situation to effectively reveal the theme of war. The play centres around seven soldiers in the First World War, who have become separated from their platoon and are stuck in the Malayan Jungle with only weapons, a minimal food supply and each other. The first part of the play concentrates on how the soldiers relate to each other in this isolated and pressurising situation, and we find out what kind of people they are. Later on though, they find a Japanese soldier and have to let him live with them in their hut. However, they must decide how to deal with him in the long run and in the end, after many arguments and changes of heart, an example of the harsh reality of war is demonstrated - they kill him, surprising themselves as much as anyone. The play finishes unpredictably, with all of the soldiers but one being killed after leaving the hut. This soldier, Johnston, surrenders to the Japanese, and what is going to happen to him is foreseeable. The first important aspect we see which influences the characters and shows the idea of war is the setting. The setting is described to us before any dialogue takes place: "A short burst of heavy gunfire is heard in the distance - and then silence. A pause
The First World War.
The First World War brought about much destruction and horror to extents that the world had never before seen. With the suffering came a wave of change that saw millions after their opinions towards not only war, but life itself. The romanticised adventure of defending one's country had utterly vanished as people were shown the cruelty and brutality that was associated with the First World War. An unreserved hatred towards those that promoted this fabled ideal emerged and this was exemplified through poetry, literature and above all, the people. The war robbed millions of their homes, families and lives. To talk of all the physical ramifications of the First World War, not a hundred speeches would suffice. Statistics such as 38 million casualties and 185 billion dollars worth of destruction cannot 'wholly' capture the true damage World War I brought about. Much of Europe was shaken to its very foundations, and it revealed a vast domain of devastation and rubble. Even decades after the war, its physical effects were still not healed. The small roots of development that had been sown were rocked again by both the Great Depression and World War II. It could be said that these two events, although separated in time from each other, were promoted by the effects of the First World War. Another consequence the war had was its total demoralisation, which instigated a people to see
The Great War
To understand the human catastrophe that was the "Great War," it is imperative to consider the socializing factors that shaped the generation of men whose lives and futures were forever altered by one of the most costly events of the twentieth century. A large, naïve membership who had, for the most part, only known the fruits of industrialization and the patriotic highs of nationalism, this generation quickly found itself amidst the horrors of a modern, technological war: an experience characterized by death, madness and near starvation for many of its participants. Yet, out of the ferocity and desperation, these young men discovered "the finest thing that arose out of the war - comradeship."1 In the aftermath of the First World War, authors and historians alike have attempted to assess the impact of the tragic ordeal on its participants. Erich Maria Remarque, renowned author of All Quiet on the Western Front, himself served in the war and harshly critiqued the conflict's validity throughout his acclaimed novel. Indeed, for Remarque, the special camaraderie shared amongst those involved, acquired only in the annals of war, was the only positive result amidst the deprivation and despair that defined the First World War. Other assessments, most notably Ernst Jünger's Der Kampf als inneres Erlebnis, have possessed a more 'productive' outlook of the war. Jünger,
