DULCE ET DECORUM EST
In the poem "Dulce et Decorum est" by Wilfred Owen the poet sets out to make clear to the reader his point of view. Wilfred Owen served as an officer during the First World War and so had suffered many ghastly experiences and seen sights that were to haunt him until his death at the end of the war. Consequently, he wrote poems about his war experiences in the hopes they would make people stop and consider the soldiers' sufferings as well as the right and wrongs of war.
One such poem is "Dulce et Decorum est" in which Wilfred Owen describes how all the soldiers were trudging back to their trenches after fighting. A gas shell dropped behind them as they hurried to fit their gas masks:
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Peer Reviews
Here's what a star student thought of this essay
Quality of writing
The Quality of Written Communication is very basic, and does very little to challenge itself. Because of this, there are no glaring spelling errors of misuses of grammar, and there is also a very limited use of punctuation. To improve, I would like to see more of a challenge presented to the candidate and that they should respond by incorporating more complex vocabulary and punctuation.
Level of analysis
The Level of Analysis is extremely superficial, and there is no real understanding of Owen's particularl viewpoint at this time of his life. He was also very anti-War and antiestablishment, but when writing 'Dulce et Decorum est', Owen was recently released from Craiglockhart hospital in Ediburgh and returned to the front-line in France. It is not enough for a candidate to rattle off any old facts about where he was born and where he was assigned to in the War if it does not relate to the poem. This contextual appreciation is missing from this answer and would've strengthened it had the candidate considered it. Also, the lack of analysis on structure loses this candidate marks, as the final stanza of the poem is extremely important. It is the section where Owen stops describing the horrors of War and addresses the reader directly, and so to miss this loses many more easy marks. To improve, the candidate should aim to comment on all the poetic devices used by Owen to create the tone and convey his attitude to War with specific reference to his beliefs about fighting consistently integrated throughout.
Response to question
This is response is to a question on Wilfred Owen's 'Dulce et Decorum est', with particular focus on language to convey attitude to war. Although the question specifies a commentary on language must be detailed, it is simply not enough for students to comment on language alone - structure and context must also be considered. The latter of the two is evident here, but not in any great insight and so does not elicit a great number of marks. However, the focus is consistent throughout, and very rarely does the candidate make a comment which does not gain even a few marks. It would have been nice though to see the candidate not pick the poem apart as it reads, as this limits the extent to which an answer can be considered innovative and insightful.
