Dulce et decorum est
In this poem, by Wilfred Owen ‘Dulce et decorum est’ Owen was attempting to across the full horror of the First World War. In great detail get he describes a soldier suffering and dying in a gas attack.
The poem is written from the point of view of an eyewitness who was there before during and after the attack.
Owen finishes by asking the reader to tell their children the truth about the war and not the ‘old lie’ that it is sweet and fitting to die for your country, ‘Dulce et decorum est pro pratria mori’.
In the poem ‘dulce et decorum est’ (which means it is sweet and fitting) The poem is narrative and in sections. The first section is the men going to rest the second is .the gas attack in the trenches. The third is the man having bad dreams to do with the incident. The fourth is explaining if you had seen what he had seen you would not want to tell your children of these awful conditions. The rhyme scheme goes ABABCDCDEFEF I did not notice this at first, this is very good poetry and the words are well thought out. The similes in this poem are very good ‘flound’ring like a man in fire or lime’ this means the man was going all over the place and it was like he was on fire. There are also a lot of metaphors ‘Men marched asleep’ this is because the men were so tired it looked as though they were asleep. This poem has got a very sad, dark and somber feel and mood to it. ’In all my dreams before my helpless sight’
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Peer Reviews
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Quality of writing
The Quality of Written Communication is also very poor. he candidate can string together a simple sentence, but anything longer or more complex results in either a misuse of punctuation (comma splice, missing punctuation) or a loss of clarity. This needs to be carefully reconsidered and the candidate appears to have limited knowledge of how to write cohesively and coherently. This must be addressed by the teacher on an individual basis and they must guide the candidate to improve their writing. What the candidate can do, is to re-read every line they write to ensure maximum clarity and accuracy in their written English.
Level of analysis
The Level of Analysis is really quite poor. For a GCSE there is almost none and this candidate can expect a solid D grade for their efforts. From their choice of words for analysis ("fall into the trap of believing war is graceful") to their basic understanding of what the poem is saying ("The poem is written from the point of view of an eyewitness who was there before during and after the attack" (sic).), this candidate does not show ability of a cohesive writer. Taking the aforementioned quote: war was never branded as "graceful", even in propaganda, or else it wouldn't be seen as a brave and manly thing to do and would appear to be something women could participate in. This fundamental misunderstanding about the poem naturally hinders the rest of the analysis, and where the little accurate analysis does peep through, it is merely feature-spotting, which limits this essay to it's D grade. To improve, candidates must not look through the poem and find something worthy of commentary, simply identify it and then move on. They need to analyse the effect on the reader. The rhyme scheme of 'Dulce et Decorum est' is indeed ABABCDCDEFEF, but what about the structure? The stanza breaks? What changes and why is the third stanza only two lines long? This is the level of analysis that the candidate needs to consider if they are to break in to the C grade boundary.
Response to question
This is an analytical response to Wilfred Owen's poem, 'Dulce et Decorum est'. The candidate's response show signs of not being able to clearly present ideas about the poem, and quite substantial lack of appreciation of the gravity of war poetry; the writing on most occasions does not appears explicitly objective and analytical and phrases like "I did not notice this [the poem's rhyme scheme] at first. This is good poetry" and "In 1916-18 people didn't realise this [the reality of war] and thought everything was fine and dandy" is not only bad analysis, but the use of the phrase "fine and dandy" is a colloquialism and therefore not part of Standard English. As a GCSE English student, this should be greatly discouraged. I would advise that the candidate steer away from any phrases mentioning themselves, as whilst analysis allows much room for personal interpretation, it is best not to mention yourself when writing analysis because it puts holes for critics to argue with if you say "I think..." or "This appears to me as...". You should be confident and precise in your language choices and should write everything adamantly, saying something IS representative of this or that, and that something IS and COULD BE a deliberate link to something else.
