LAHORE COLLEGE FOR WOMEN UNIVERSITY

MAJOR: ENGLISH LITERATURE

SUBJECT: ENGLISH COMPULSORY
SUBMITTED TO: MA’AM MAIMOONA

TOPIC OF PRESENTATION:
DULCE ET DECORUM EST
BY W.OWEN.

GROUP SUBMITTED BY:

SANA NADEEM
1825116101

AAMNA KHALID
1825116004

URSHA HAFEEZ
1825116115

RAFIA MEHRAB
1827116094
Literary Devices:
Poets use literary devices to bring richness and clarity to the text. Wilfred Owen has
employed such techniques in the poem to present the mind-disturbing picture of war. Some
of the major literary devices which are used in the poem have been discussed below:
Alliteration:
Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line. Poet used this technique in
line 11 and 19. In line 11, he used the sound of /s/ “But someone still was yelling out and
stumbling.” And in line 19, he used the sound of /w/ “And watch the white lines writhing in
his face.”
Imagery:
Usage of words creating image that cause the reader to feel panic and worry with the
speaker. Readers perceive things with their five senses through imagery. Owen has used
heavy imageries to create a horrific picture of war. In line 7, he used this device as “Drunk
with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots”. He used it in line 13 too as “Dim, through the misty
panes and thick green light”
Simile:
A figure of speech which is used to compare a thing with another one, to describe a person or
a object. Owen has used self-explanatory similes such as “Bent double, like old beggars
under sacks” , “Coughing like hags” , “Like a devil’s sick of sin”.
Metaphor:
Metaphor is a resemblance of two contradictory or different objects is made based on a
single or some common characteristics. In this poem this technique is used as, “Drunk with
fatigue; deaf even to the hoots”. It represents the physical state of the men. Also as, “Blood-
shod” conveys how blood-covered feet might, at a distance, look as if they were protected by
shoe- leather, but in fact the blood really is the only ‘covering’ the feet have. “Smother” in
line 17 is strongly associated with nightmares and the physical symptoms of panic on
walking, which include gasping for breath.
Onomatopoeia:
These are the words which represents the natural sounds if the things. Poet has used the
words choking, hoot, knock, gargling in the poem to imitate sounds.
Oxymoron:
Figure of speech in which two opposite ideas are joined to create an effect. Owen arrests our
attention with certain phrases which read like contradictions. In line 19, the phrase “ecstasy
of fumbling” encapsulates the contrast of ecstasy suggesting being taken onto a higher plane,
whilst fumbling is characteristic of clumsy humanity. The “desperate glory” in line 26 is a
complex oxymoron. The youths long for glory, perhaps for the adulation of fame, yet it may
only be won when they can no longer appreciate it – and the death such as witnessed in this
poem is hardly glorious.
Consonance:
It is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line such as the /r/ sound in “Come
gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs.”
Rhyme:
Rhyme means the same sound coming from the word or end of the line. In this poem, every
other line rhymes, changes actual sound. However, ababcdcdefefghghijijklklmnmn keeps the
poem moving.
Meter:
It is a stressed or unstressed syllabic pattern in a verse, or within the lines of a poem. This
poem follows the Iambic Pentameter (loosely). Meter is not fully consistent, reflecting the
subject/situation of the poem.
Irony:
Figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that their intended meaning is
different from the actual meaning. Title of the poem is itself ironic, because author calls it a
lie in the last two lines of the poem.
Owen utilizes these literary elements to teach the reader the harsh reality of war.
Explanation of the poem:
Lines 1-4:
In these lines, the poet explained the situation of the soldiers. He wrote it as we were went
down crouching and hobbling like old beggars. The battle is about to end for a day. Until the
soldiers turned their backs on the haunting gunfire and bombs. They turn away from the
lights and noise of war and head back in the direction of their camp. The ‘ distant rest ’ to
which our soldiers are heading may just be death.
Lines 5-8:
In these lines OWEN’s opting for concise realism here: there’s no need to fancy up the
language of the poem. We’re guessing that the men are walking as if they are dead. In other
words, all the soldiers were very sleepy. The poet is trying to get us to feel how interminable
the soldier’s march seems right now. Blood that has been shed seems to clothe them now.
Owen told us that none of the soldiers felt any remorse or regret, they all were mentally and
physically exhausted, and were also deaf enough tohear the sound of gunfire, and the cries of
fallen soldiers and the bombs. The whole war in other words seems worn out.
Lines 9-10:
Poet said that among all the soldiers someone yelled, ‘Gas! GAS! To make all boys aware
about the situation and this yelling draws us straight in the frenzy of action. We can make a
guess from the given lines that all the soldiers were in the midst of an ‘ecstasy’ of fumbling
for helmets and gas masks.
AAMNA KHALID
1825116004

REMAINING EXPLANATION OF THE POEM.

LINE 11-14
But someone still was yelling
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.

EXPLANATION:
These lines are explaining a scene where people have been gassed and they are rushing to put their gas
masks on. Poet sees a man who could not get his gas mask and where it on time and begins to choke in the
gas.

LINE 15-16
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning

EXPLANATION:
Poet sees the man begging him for help, fell and dying. For poet it is a painful sight that he is trying to
explain, maybe the reason of his pain is his helplessness, that how could he have helped him. Now there are
two things, firstly as poet mentions; in all my dreams’, here this might means that he sees the man’s face in
dreams because he hasn’t forgotten him, these dreams are the reason why, because he cannot he cannot help
him through them. Secondly this might have a simple meaning that he couldn’t help him getting a gas mask
and seeing him in utmost pain causes poet a displeasure.

LINE 17-20

If 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 sick of sin

EXPLANATION:
The poet asks the readers that if only they could imagine what he has seen with his eyes. Poet
describes how the dying man is put into a wagon while watched by the soldiers, his eyes turned white and
rolled back into his head, his facial expressions while the course are compared with a devil who is sick
meaning ill as a result of all his sins.
LINE 21-24

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupting lungs
Obscene as cancer, bitter as cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues

EXPLANATION:
The poet describes the noise of the blood coming out of the dying man’s mouth along with little jerks. And
again here he draws the attention my telling us only if we could hear how horrifying that was. Addresses the
scene while comparing it with cancer and cud and saying that it seemed like dreadful wounds on an innocent
person who did not deserve to have them on his tongue.

LINE 25-27

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.

EXPLANATION:
The poet tells us how the youth, who wants to be heroes are being lied to and told how wonderful war is
instead of telling tell how horrible and dreadful it is or how much loss it causes. He says these children and
teenagers are being lied to about how wonderfully they will die for the country.

SANA NADEEM

1825116101

Intensions of Poet
The purpose of the poem, Dulce et Decorum Est, is to try to explain to the public that war is
not at all glorious. Owen finishes this poem by saying to not tell children who want glory
that to die for your country is not as sweet as it may seem. The death of the soldier in this
poem is neither sweet nor becoming. He brings out this purpose by using imagery throughout
his poem.
Conclusion
The central message of Owen's poem features a stinging rebuke of war. The poem
captures the innocence of soldiers who are put in harm's way without the faintest of idea that
what they engage upon is the embodiment of futility and suffering. The message of "Dulce
et Decorum Est" has value today for wars continue to be waged and young soldiers find
themselves having to confront horrors that never leave them as a result.

RAFIA MEHRAB.
1827116094