essay questions on dulce et decorum est

Dulce et Decorum Est 101: Summary, Analysis, & Questions and Answers

“Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen concentrates on the shocking details of events soldiers came through in World War I. Owen recalls the war realities by showing readers the soldiers’ urgency when faced with death.

If you’re stuck with writing a paper on the poem, you’re in the right place! Below, you will find the Dulce et Decorum Est analysis, summary, answers to the most common questions. And don’t forget to check our free essay examples .

Let’s start!

• Literary Devices
• Language: Meter, Rhythm, Rhyme Scheme, Tone
• Essay Ideas
• Questions and Answers

Dulce Et Decorum Est: Summary

The author paints a group of marching soldiers in a muddy landscape. The soldiers are tired and sick. They are coughing like older adults, and their knees are shaking. Besides, they are far from the fighting spirit. Some of them walk like they seem to be sleeping. Some even lost their boots, and their feet are bleeding.

At the same time, they carry heavy packs while going away from light flares, used by the German army to spot an enemy by lighting up the territory. Their destination is a distant camp.

Soldiers are worn out physically and mentally. Their perception is clouded as if they were drunk. They can hardly recognize an impending threat.

Suddenly, one from the group warns about a gas attack so that soldiers can put on their protecting helmets. Everyone manages to do it on time, except for one soldier. The author saw his suffering and agony.

The soldier death reminded Owen of someone caught in fire or lime, used to blind the enemy in ancient times. He compares this terrible scene with drowning in the ocean, not underwater, but in the air full of poisonous gas.

Then, the reader is brought into the author’s post-war reality. Even years later, Owen did not escape the picture of yelling and dying in front of his eyes comrade-in-arms.

After sharing his grievous experience, the author turns to the readers and states a straightforward thing. It lies in the fact that if they took his boots and walked a mile, they would never have said to their children the war is glorious.

The author recalls marching behind a wagon with a dying wrecked-face soldier, who reminds of someone passing away from cancer or other diseases. Such memories dispel an “old lie” that dying for one’s country is sweet and fitting.

Dulce Et Decorum Est: Literary Analysis

We approach the literary analysis of the Dulce Et Decorum Est. You will understand the poem’s themes, the literary devices the author used, and the poem’s language.

Let’s go!

Dulce Et Decorum Est: Theme

The author illustrates the relationship between reality and heroic ideals. He does it via two central themes: patriotism and its false glory and horrors of war .

The poem’s title and final lines, “Dulce et Decorum Est,” are from Horace’s Ode 3.2 . The bar is a Latin equivalent for “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.” It echoes powerfully in the hearts of the young, showing only the heroic and romantic side of patriotic death and other sacrifices “for good.”

In reality, it’s far from that. The author argues such a way of war glorification, calling it an “old Lie.” Each horror depicted from the “on-site” shatters the enduring myth that the war is glorious.

Line by line, the poem shows how terrible and horrifying the war experience is. One thing is clear: if the reader could see and feel all the author’s horror, they would not talk so zealously about patriotism and the delights of war.

All the above is bolstered by the third theme: the traumatic war’s impact on humans . In this context, possible terrible emotional or physical pains will not get better with time. The lasting effects of war trauma barely level out all the arrogance and glory of war.

Dulce Et Decorum Est: Literary Devices

Now, we will stop on Dulce Et Decorum Est literary devices. To express the main idea, the author used several poetic techniques, including:

Let’s explore Dulce Et Decorum’s literary devices and look at a few examples of their application.

The author successfully uses many similes to make the terror visible. Thanks to them, it is easier for readers to perceive the pain, horrific images, and agony.

One of the examples is in the very beginning: “ like old beggars under sacks ” — soldiers are shown not as brave mighty heroes, but as the homeless and weak tramps who beg for a living.

Here is the list of other same-purpose phrases: “ coughing like hags ,” “ like a devil’s sick of sin ,” “ obscene as cancer ,” “ like a man in fire or lime ,” “ as under a green sea ,” and “ bitter as the cud .”

Dulce et Decorum Es is so literal that it has only a single metaphor . It is used in the poem to make vivid imagery of the soldiers’ physical state. The metaphors are the compelling phrases, namely, “ drunk with fatigue ” and “ deaf even to the hoots .”

We have already touched a bit upon the symbolic elements in the poem’s imagery. Symbolism pictures the WWI experience like a nightmare rather than a real-life event.

The first symbolic element author introduces a green sea in which one of the soldiers “dies” after a gas attack, as he could not put on a mask on time. It can be explained by what Owen saw then: a gas fog through the mask glass.

Using this symbol in pair with the verb “drowning” transmits the painful and cruel way the soldier died. Besides, it builds the link between drowning in the ocean and gas suffocation. It is easier for readers to imagine the terrible feeling of lacking enough oxygen underwater.

The irony shows up in the poem’s very beginning. First, the reader sees the title Dulce et Decorum Est, meaning the poem will show how great it is to fight for the homeland. The first line is opposite to something glorious and sweet.

Reading more into the poem opens up terrifying things about war gradually. The author uses irony to express the violence, making the phrase in the title an illusion.

Along with irony and other poetic techniques, the author uses oxymorons . Two contradictory words used together make an oxymoron.

In phrase “ To children ardent for some desperate glory ,” the initially negative “ desperate ” word is combined with the joyous “ glory .” Another oxymoron is “ An ecstasy of fumbling ,” where the opposing state of extreme happiness combines with an awkward way of doing something.

With oxymorons, Owen produces a dramatic effect. The poem forces the reader to stop and think about the whole complexity of war and man’s place in it.

Dulce Et Decorum Est Language: Meter, Rhythm, Rhyme Scheme, Tone

The language of the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est is composed of several poetic devices, including meter, rhythm, rhyme scheme, and tone. Let’s describe each of them:

• Meter. The poem is composed of five-syllable pairs. Each pair’s first syllable is unstressed, and the second is stressed. The Dulce Et Decorum Est meter pattern is iambic pentameter.
• Rhythm. Combined with other techniques, the poem’s somber rhythm expresses imagery. The words themselves are rumbling. They collide to paint a horrific picture of the field where soldiers march. What is more, it is evocative of the rhythm of the heart.
• Rhyme scheme. Although the poem’s meter is rather complex, the rhyme pattern is simple. The rhyme scheme in Dulce Et Decorum Est is ABABCDCD. The author manages with simple words and no more than double rhyme sounds repetition.
• Tone. The poem’s tone is bitter, angry, and critical. The trauma and self-recrimination heat the speaker’s voice. That’s why he so accurately conveys all the fears and horrors he endured. Along with the angry tone, the ironically used “my friend” addressing those supporting an “old lie” impacts them more intensely.

Now, we move on to the poem’s setting.

Dulce Et Decorum Est: Setting

Owen does not give the exact setting location, but it is clear from the context that the action takes place in 1917 winter in France.

What is this context?

The poem is written during Wilfred Owen’s actual WWI experience . Here when he wrote letters with stories of the dying soldier.

Besides, there are elements in the poem, which serve as a clue to understanding the setting.

The most evident is green chlorine gas, deployed by the German army since 1915, and “clumsy helmets” or gas masks, used as gas attacks responsive measure.

Gas shells and flares are also WWI-specific elements. Soldiers never used them before.

The setting breaks into the past and present in terms of the author. After two stanzas, we shift to his indeterminate present in the past. It shows us that his horrors did not leave him even in the postwar peacetime.

Dulce Et Decorum Est Essay Ideas

Now that you have explored the poem analysis, it’s time to write the Dulce et Decorum Est analysis essay. We gathered 15 essay topic ideas to make things simple. Please, pick any from the list:

• Dulce Et Decorum Est poem figurative language
• Dulce Et Decorum Est poem literary devices
• Irony in poem Dulce Et Decorum Est
• Symbolism in poem Dulce Et Decorum Est
• What is the theme of the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est?
• How does Wilfred Owen describe the horrors of war in the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est?
• The brutality of war in the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est
• How does Wilfred Owen convey the human costs of war in the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est?
• Illustration of First World War in the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
• Literary devices and themes in Dulce Et Decorum Est
• Dulce Et Decorum Est: is it charming to die for one’s country?
• Why was Dulce Et Decorum Est written: literary and historical context?
• What is the Dulce Et Decorum Est message?
• The portrayal of death in Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
• Depiction of tragedies of war in the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est

If the topics are not enough and you still have any questions, we suggest you check out an example of a ready-made Dulce et Decorum Est and The Things they Carried: Compare & Contrast Essay .

To help you finally delve into the topic, we gathered the most frequently asked questions and comprehensive answers to them below.

Dulce Et Decorum Est: Questions and Answers

Below you will find comprehensive Dulce et Decorum Est questions and answers.

Who Wrote Dulce Et Decorum Est?

Dulce et Decorum Est was written by Wilfred Edward Salter Owen , an English soldier, and poet. He was born on 18 March 1893 near Oswestry in Shropshire. Among the First World War poets, he was almost the leading one.

At the time he lived, ideas and themes he erased in his poetry were in contrast to the perception of war by the public. As ideas of anti-militarism developed, his poems became increasingly recognized. Here are several examples: “ Anthem for Doomed Youth ,” “ Strange Meeting ,” “ Insensibility ,” and “ Spring Offensive .” All of them were published posthumously.

On 4 November, at the age of 25, Owen was killed while leading his men across the Sambre and Oise Canal.

When Was Dulce Et Decorum Est Written?

Like most of Wilfred Owen’s works, Dulce et Decorum Est was written between August 1917 and September 1918. At that time, Owen was fighting in the First World War. Most likely, it was written in 1917 when he was at the Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh.

What Does Dulce Et Decorum Est Mean?

Dulce et Decorum Est is a citation from the Roman poet Horace’s Ode 3.2. The literal meaning of it is “it’s sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”

The author aims at deconstructing this myth. In the last stanza, he calls it an “old lie.”

Owen successfully showed the difference between the horrifying reality of war and its glorious image, usually spread by those not even fighting in it.

What Is Dulce Et Decorum Est About?

Originally written as a personal letter, Owen later decided to appeal to a broader audience of all war supporters. The poem is highly emotional, making it one of the most popular condemnations of the war.

Dulce et Decorum Est begins with an image of weary soldiers walking from the front lines through thick mud. Then, there is a gas attack, in which one of the soldiers dies.

What Happened in the Poem Dulce et Decorum Est?

The poem tells us the story of a group of soldiers, “ drunk with fatigue ,” forced to make their way “through the mud” to take shelter from the explosive shells that fall on their rear.

Then gas shells fell around them. The soldiers rushed to put on their gas masks. In a rush, one of them is caught gassed. The author sees him “screaming again and stumbling.” Then, he sees him yelling in agony as he is drowning in the green sea.

When the attack was over, they proceeded on their way, but their mate was in the wagon, with white eyes and coughing up blood.

Who Is the Speaker in the Poem Dulce et Decorum Est?

The poem, composed of 28 free iambic pentameters, lets us hear the voice of the poet himself . Owen appears here as a soldier with a deep incurable emotional trauma left after the war and its horrifying events.

Why Was Dulce Et Decorum Est Written?

Discussing war horrors in the abstract does not require much effort. Owen managed to depict those horrors in a specifically devastating way. What’s more, he shows in the poem that every aspect of war is terrible. Starting from a soldier’s daily life, continuing to the death in an attack, and postwar traumatized body and mind.

The author is very disappointed with the war. A reader can see it in the last few lines of the last stanza.

How Does Dulce et Decorum Est Make the Reader Feel?

The way the author uses language to put the audience inside the events helps them understand the terrible experience of awful aspects of war.

What Is the Message of Dulce et Decorum Est?

The central tension lies between the reality of the war and the government’s portrayal of war. They paint it as sweet and fitting to die for your homeland. The message that Owen conveys is the reality of the cruel and horrific war.

Why Is Dulce Et Decorum Est Important?

The poem lies genre of protest poetry because it shows the horror and reality of war, specifically the First World War. Dulce et Decorum Est sets this horror against how war is so often glorified.

• Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” — English Emory
• Horace, Ode 3.2 
• Biography of Wilfred Owen
• Wilfred Owen: Biography & War Poet
• Digital Archive of Owen’s Life and Work 
• Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum est: Summary & Analysis
• Dr. Santanu Das explores the manuscript for Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum est” Video on the British Library’s World War I website
• Ian McMillan asks if “Dulce et Decorum est” has distorted our view of WWI Video on the BBC’s iWonder website
• Manuscript version of ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ The Poetry Manuscripts of Wilfred Owen on the British Library’s website
• Listen to “Dulce et Decorum Est” 
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Dulce et Decorum Est Summary & Analysis by Wilfred Owen

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis
• Poetic Devices
• Vocabulary & References
• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme
• Line-by-Line Explanations

"Dulce et Decorum Est" is a poem by the English poet Wilfred Owen. Like most of Owen's work, it was written between August 1917 and September 1918, while he was fighting in World War 1. Owen is known for his wrenching descriptions of suffering in war. In "Dulce et Decorum Est," he illustrates the brutal everyday struggle of a company of soldiers, focuses on the story of one soldier's agonizing death, and discusses the trauma that this event left behind. He uses a quotation from the Roman poet Horace to highlight the difference between the glorious image of war (spread by those not actually fighting in it) and war's horrifying reality.

• Read the full text of “Dulce et Decorum Est”

The Full Text of “Dulce et Decorum Est”

1 Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

2 Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

3 Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,

4 And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

5 Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,

6 But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

7 Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

8 Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

9 Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling

10 Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,

11 But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

12 And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—

13 Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,

14 As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

15 In all my dreams before my helpless sight,

16 He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

17 If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace

18 Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

19 And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

20 His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;

21 If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

22 Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

23 Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

24 Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—

25 My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

26 To children ardent for some desperate glory,

27 The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

28 Pro patria mori .

“Dulce et Decorum Est” Summary

“dulce et decorum est” themes.

The Horror and Trauma of War

• See where this theme is active in the poem.

The Enduring Myth that War is Glorious

Line-by-line explanation & analysis of “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,

Lines 11-14

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.

Lines 15-16

In all my dreams before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

Lines 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’s sick of sin;

Lines 21-24

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—

Lines 25-28

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 .

“Dulce et Decorum Est” Symbols

The Dying Soldier

• See where this symbol appears in the poem.

“Dulce et Decorum Est” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

“Dulce et Decorum Est” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Knock-kneed
• Haunting flares
• Flound'ring
• Froth-corrupted
• See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Dulce et Decorum Est”

Rhyme scheme, “dulce et decorum est” speaker, “dulce et decorum est” setting, literary and historical context of “dulce et decorum est”, more “dulce et decorum est” resources, external resources.

Biography of Wilfred Owen — A detailed biographical sketch of Wilfred Owen's life, including analysis of his work.

An Overview of Chemical Warfare — A concise historical account of the development of chemical weapons, with detailed descriptions of the poison gases used in WWI.

Listen to "Dulce et Decorum Est" — A recording of "Dulce et Decorum Est," provided by the Poetry Foundation.

Representing the Great War — The Norton Anthology's overview of literary representation of World War I, with accompanying texts. This includes two of Jessie Pope's patriotic poems, as well as poems by Siegfried Sassoon and others and various contemporary illustrations. It also suggests many additional resources for exploration.

Horace, Ode 3.2 — One translation of the Horace ode that the lines "Dulce et Decorum Est" originally appear in. 

Digital Archive of Owen's Life and Work — An archive of scanned documents from Owen's life and work, including his letters, as well as several handwritten drafts of "Dulce et Decorum Est" and other poems.

The White Feather — A brief personal essay about the treatment of conscientious objectors in WWI-era Britain.

LitCharts on Other Poems by Wilfred Owen

Anthem for Doomed Youth

Mental Cases

Spring Offensive

Strange Meeting

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Ask LitCharts AI: The answer to your questions

Dulce et Decorum Est

By Wilfred Owen

‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen is a poignant anti-war poem that exposes the harsh reality of World War I.

Wilfred Owen

Nationality: English

He has been immortalized in several books and movies.

Key Poem Information

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Central Message: The war, in truth, is always gruesome and horrifying and should not be celebrated

Themes: Death , War

Speaker: A Soldier

Emotions Evoked: Anger , Pain , Sadness , Terror

Poetic Form: Sonnet

Time Period: 20th Century

'Dulce et Decorum Est' by Wilfred Owen, challenging romantic notions of war, is a robust anti-war poem that makes the reader face the petrifying harrowing truths of war with graphic imagery and blood-curdling nuances.

Poem Analyzed by Elise Dalli

B.A. Honors Degree in English and Communications

The year was 1917, just before the Third Battle of Ypres. Germany, in their bid to crush the British army, introduced yet another vicious and potentially lethal weapon of attack: mustard gas, differentiated from the other shells by their distinctive yellow markings. Although not the effective killing machine of chlorine gas (first used in 1915) and phosgene (invented by French chemists), mustard gas has stayed within the public consciousness as the most horrific weapon of the First World War. Once deployed, mustard gas lingers for several days, and anyone who comes in contact with mustard gas develops blisters and acute vomiting. It caused internal and external bleeding, and the lethally injured took as long as five weeks to die.

Shell shock, which can be defined as a type of post-traumatic stress disorder, was a term invented during the First World War as the soldiers suffered an immense impact on their psyche, witnessing the atrocities of war and the deaths of thousands.   Wilfred Owen served in the British Army during the First World War and initially believed in the glorified ideals of the war; however, as he witnessed the calamities of the war, he realized the bitter truth, going into a psychological shock.     He suffered injuries after he was caught in a blast and was unconscious for several days. Afterwards, he was admitted into Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh for treatment of shell shock. He wrote this poem bearing the physical and emotional trauma of soldiers while staying at the Craiglockhart War Hospital in October 1917.

Explore Dulce et Decorum Est

• 2 Analysis, Stanza by Stanza
• 3 Historical Background

There was no draft in the First World War for British soldiers; it was an entirely voluntary occupation, but the British needed soldiers to fight in the war. Therefore, through a well-tuned propaganda machine of posters and poems, the British war supporters pushed young and easily influenced youths into signing up to fight for the glory of England.

Several poets, among them Rupert Brook, who wrote the poem ‘ The Soldier ‘  (there is a corner of a foreign field/ that is forever England), used to write poetry to encourage the youth to sign up for the army, often without having any experience themselves! It was a practice that Wilfred Owen personally despised, and in ‘Dulce et Decorum Est ,’ he calls out these false poets and journalists who glorify war.

The poem takes place during a slow trudge to an unknown place, which is interrupted by a gas attack. The soldiers hurry to put on their masks; only one of their numbers is too slow and gets consumed by the gas. The final stanza interlocks a personal address to war journalist Jessie Pope with horrifying imagery of what happened to those who ingested an excessive amount of mustard gas.

The Poem Analysis Take

Expert Insights by Jyoti Chopra

B.A. (Honors) and M.A. in English Literature

Painting a nuanced picture of the horrors of the Great War or the nightmarish calamity and dehumanization of soldiers, the poem critiques the glorification of war and hero-worship of soldiers, testing the misleading notions of patriotism that are relevant even today. The poem unflinchingly calls the false idealization 'it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country' a lie stressing the truth that war is always gruesome and soldiers are the worst sufferers of the calamity. It looks critically at the society and larger politics that push young soldiers into dehumanizing cruel deaths under the guise of hero-worship.  

Analysis, Stanza by Stanza

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 tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

British soldiers would trudge from trench to trench, seeping further into France in pursuit of German soldiers. It was often a miserable, wet walk, and it is on one of these voyages that the poem opens. Immediately, it minimizes the war to a few paltry, exhausted soldiers, although it rages in the background (’till on the haunting flares we turned our backs / and towards our distant rest began to trudge’). Owen uses heavy words to describe their movement – words like ‘trudge’, and ‘limped’; the first stanza of the poem is a demonstration of pure exhaustion and mind-numbing misery.

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.

The second stanza changes the pace rapidly. It opens with an exclamation – ‘Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!’ – and suddenly, the soldiers are in ‘an ecstasy of fumbling’, groping for their helmets to prevent the gas from taking them over. Again, Owen uses language economically here: he uses words that express speed, hurry, and almost frantic demand for their helmets. However, one soldier does not manage to fit his helmet on in time. Owen sees him ‘flound’ring like a man in fire or lime’ through the thick-glassed pane of his gas mask.

Stanza Three

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

For a brief two lines, Owen pulls back from the events happening throughout the poems to revisit his own psyche. He writes, ‘In all my dreams,/ before my helpless sight’, showing how these images live on with the soldiers, how these men are tortured by the events of war even after they have been removed from war. There is no evading or escaping war.

Stanza Four

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’s sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, 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 .

In the last paragraph, Owen condenses the poem to an almost claustrophobic pace: ‘if in some smothering dreams, you too could pace’, and he goes into a very graphic, horrific description of the suffering that victims of mustard gas endured: ‘froth-corrupted lungs,” incurable sores,’ ‘the white eyes writhing in his face’. Although the pace of the poem has slowed to a crawl, there is much happening in the description of the torment of the mustard gas victim, allowing for a contrast between the stillness of the background and the animation of the mustard gas victim. This contrast highlights the description, making it far more grotesque .

Owen finishes the poem with a personal address to Jessie Pope: ‘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.’ Jessie Pope was a journalist who published, among others, books such as Jessie Pope’s War Poems and Simple Rhymes for Stirring Times. The Latin phrase is from Horace and means, ‘it is sweet and right to die for your country’.

The earliest dated record of this poem is 8. October 1917. It was written in the ballad form of poetry – a very flowing, romantic poetical style , and by using it outside of convention, Owen accentuates the disturbing cadence of the narrative. It is a visceral poem, relying very strongly on the senses, and while it starts out embedded in the horror and in the narrative, by the final stanza, it has pulled back to give a fuller view of the events, thus fully showing the horror of the mustard gas attack.

Historical Background

While at Craiglockhart, Owen became the editor of the hospital magazine The Hydra. Through it, he met the poet Siegfried Sassoon (read Sassoon’s poetry here ), who later became his editor and one of the most important impacts on his life and work. Owen wrote a number of his poems in Craiglockhart with Sassoon’s advice.

After his death in 1918, aged 25, Sassoon would compile Owen’s poems and publish them in a compilation in 1920.

Poetry + Review Corner

20th century, world war one (wwi).

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It was a volunteer army until 1916, when conscription was introduced.

Interesting. I had no idea conscription was so recent. Great subject knowledge. Thank you.

Pretty gruesome but it was telling the truth.

Oh definitely – cold reality was the hallmark of his later poetry.

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Dalli, Elise. "Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen". Poem Analysis , https://poemanalysis.com/wilfred-owen/dulce-et-decorum-est/ . Accessed 29 June 2024.

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A Short Analysis of Wilfred Owen’s ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’

By Dr Oliver Tearle

‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ or, to give the phrase in full: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori , Latin for ‘it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country’ ( patria is where we get our word ‘patriotic’ from). The phrase originated in the Roman poet Horace, but in ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’, Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) famously rejects this idea.

For Owen, who had experienced the horrors of trench warfare and a gas attack, there was nothing sweet, and nothing fitting, about giving one’s life for one’s country. Focusing in particular on one moment in the First World War, when Owen and his platoon are attacked with poison gas, ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is a studied analysis of suffering and perhaps the most famous anti-war poem ever written.

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.

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’s sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, 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 .

‘Dulce et Decorum Est’: background

In October 1917, Wilfred Owen wrote to his mother from Craiglockhart Hospital: ‘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!’

Although he drafted the poem that October, the surviving drafts of ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ show that Owen revised and revisited it on several occasions thereafter, before his death the following November – one week before the Armistice.

Although he wrote all his poetry while he was still a young man – he died aged just 25, like the poet he so admired, John Keats – Wilfred Owen was a master of form and metre, although the extent to which ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is carefully structured is not necessarily apparent from reading it (and certainly not from hearing it read aloud).

‘Dulce et Decorum Est’: form

The first two stanzas, comprising eight lines and six lines respectively, form a traditional 14-line sonnet, with an octave (eight-line section) and sestet (six-line section).

The line break after the fourteenth line only brings this home: there’s a pause, and then we find ourselves returning to the word ‘drowning’, locked in it, fixating on that word, ‘drowning’ to describe the helpless state of the poor soldier suffocating from poison gas. The helplessness, of course, is Owen’s too, being unable to do anything for his falling comrade: all we can do is watch in horror.

‘Dulce et Decorum Est’: imagery

The imagery is as striking and memorable as the structure, though a little more explicit: the first stanza bombards us with a series of similes for the exhausted men trudging through mud (‘like old beggars’, ‘coughing like hags’) and more direct metaphors (‘blood-shod’ suggesting feet caked in blood, implying trench-foot and cut legs; with ‘shod’ putting us in mind of horses, perhaps being used to plough a very different kind of muddy field; and ‘drunk with fatigue’ bitterly reminding us that this isn’t some sort of beer-fuelled jolly, a bunch of friends out for a night on the town).

Then we are shocked by the double cry of ‘Gas! GAS!’ at the beginning of the second stanza, with the two successive heavy stresses grabbing our attention, much as the cry from one soldier to his comrades is designed to – and they all fumble for their masks, struggling to put them in place to protect them against the deadly gas attack.

Even after he physically witnessed the soldier dying from the effects of the poison gas, Owen cannot forget it: it haunts his dreams, a recurring nightmare. The recurrence of the word ‘drowning’ neatly conveys this.

In that final stanza, Owen turns what until now has been a descriptive poem into a piece of anti-war propaganda, responding with brilliant irony to the patriotic poets such as Jessie Pope (whom Owen specifically has in mind here), who wrote jingoistic doggerel that encouraged young men to enlist and ‘do their bit for king and country’.

‘Dulce et Decorum Est’: further analysis

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’s sick of sin …

If people like Pope, Owen argues, addressing her directly (‘If in some smothering dreams you too could pace…’), could witness what he has witnessed, and were forced to relive it in their dreams and waking thoughts every day and night, they would not in all good conscience be able to write such pro-war poetry, knowing they were encouraging more men to share the horrific fate of the soldier Owen had seen killed.

Jessie Pope and her ilk would not be able to feed the ‘Old Lie’, Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori , to impressionable young men (some of them so young they are still ‘children’: it’s worth remembering that some boys lied about their age so they could join up) who are ‘ardent for some desperate glory’.

‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is a fine example of Owen’s superb craftsmanship as a poet: young he may have been, and valuable as his poetry is as a window onto the horrors of the First World War, in the last analysis the reason we value his response to the horrific events he witnessed is that he put them across in such emotive but controlled language, using imagery at once true and effective.

As he put it in the draft preface he wrote for his poems: ‘My subject is War, and the pity of War. The poetry is in the pity.’

Image (top): Wilfred Owen (author unknown: image taken from 1920 edition of  Poems of Wilfred Owen ),  Wikimedia Commons . Image (bottom): John Singer Sargent,  Gassed , via Wikimedia Commons .

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8 thoughts on “A Short Analysis of Wilfred Owen’s ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’”

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Excellent analysis of a great poem.

Thank you :)

Wilfred Owen is one of the many talented war poets that inspired me to love literature!

Good piece here on a powerful poem. And I still think ‘Disabled’ is his best…

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A very good analysis of one of my favourite poems. Arguably the best of any war poet.

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Dulce et Decorum Est Summary & Analysis

Dulce et decorum est: about the poem.

The poem Dulce et Decorum Est is a prominent anti-war poem written by Wilfred Owen about the events surrounding the First World War. Owen served as a Lieutenant in the War and felt the soldiers’ pain and the real truth behind war.

In the poem, he creates an hierarchical division of events. First, he discusses the general unwillingness of the soldiers who are actually facing the wrath of war to continue with the war. The soldiers are caught in a sudden gas attack, most probably the chlorine gas which forms a green sea. Owen then moves on to depict the trauma the narrator suffers while he watches his fellow soldier succumb to the deadly gas poisoning and can do nothing. Finally, he makes an outstanding commentary on how the perspectives of people talking about war and the soldiers who are witnessing it differ.

In the poem, Owen presents a graphic picturisation not of the the war but the casualty of war. Such characterisation makes the poem a distinct anti-war poem of all time. Further, in ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ we find that it is not confined to being an anti-war poem. Rather, it moves a step ahead to invoke those people who make rallying  cry for youths to enlist to fight war in name of glory and national honour.

This brings out the irony between the idealism of war as heroic by men exhorting youth to join the war and realism of the war as devastating that a soldier of the war face. The use of irony marks Owen’s known form of expression.

He directed the first draft of this poem to Jessie Pope, a civilian propagandist and poetess who rooted on the youths to join war efforts. Then, he  later revised it to mention “a certain Poetess” and ultimately eliminated it in order to rope in a larger audience.

The title of the poem is satiric and a manifestation of the disgust and bitterness the narrator holds for the warmongers. The title appears in the last two lines of the poem. “Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori” (It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.) was a popular Latin phrase at that time. It was originally a part of the Roman Poet Horace’s Ode 3.2 . Owen ends the poem with these lines to accentuate the fact that participation in war may not at all be decorous. He was simply unable to justify the sufferings of war. The outbreaks of influenza, or living in trenches with rats for days didn’t seem justifiable. The loss of so many lives, soldiers living in worst conditions, blocking each other’s food supplies didn’t support a humane environment.

About the Poet: Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen, MC (Military Cross) was an English soldier and one of the leading war-poets of the First World War. He is best known for his works which stood contrary to the popular perception of war at the time and the patriotic verses of the writers like Rupert Brooke. Many of his best-known works came out  posthumously including “Dulce et Decorum Est”, “Insensibility”, “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, “Futility” and “Strange Meeting”.

His early writings show influence of Romantic poets like Keats and Shelley. But, his later ones show a distinct influence of his fellow soldier Siegfried Sassoon, especially his use of satire.

Owen was awarded the Military Cross for his courage and leadership in the Joncourt action.

Dulce et Decorum Est: Form and Structure

The poem is a combination of two sonnets. Though the spacing is regular between them, it gives a semblance of French ballad. The breaks in the sonnets are irregular and irregularity brings out a sense of irregularity and imperfectness of the world.

The poem rhymes well following patterns like ABAB, CDCD etc. It may look like one written in Iambic Pentameter. But, the stresses are not definite in every line. May be this is another way of Owen to break off from the conventions and traditional ideals of the society and show the world its true face.

Dulce et Decorum Est: Line by line Analysis

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags,

The first stanza starts with the description of the tired, war-ridden soldiers. According to the speaker, the soldiers were bent double like old beggars with heavy sacks. Here, ‘double’ points to the fact that the soldiers were not only physically but also mentally exhausted.

… we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Exhausted, they dragged on through the sludge nonetheless. The “sludge” may actually depict the trenches the soldiers had to live through during the First World War. Seemingly, these trenches became a part of an extended war-plan. The soldiers wouldn’t turn around even if the haunting flares or bombs exploded near them. They kept on moving to their camps, a place where they could rest. It was certainly ‘distant’ from the war-front.

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 tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

With this, the speaker continues the description and says the men marched on. They were dog-tired as if they were asleep. Even when many of them lost their boots they limped on their blood-shod feet. They all went lame and blind and drunk with fatigue. They even grew deaf to the noises, hoots of the shells and the bombs around them. Even the five-point-nine calibre shells which dropped behind them seemed to fail to awaken the soldiers.

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. . .

With the second stanza, we move on to the second act or stage where a sudden chaos ensues. The poem suddenly gains pace with the abrupt gas-attack. The soldiers were caught in the frenzy which is marked by ‘Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!’. They hastened to ready themselves with masks and helmets. While fitting their clumsy helmets in time, they fumbled. But, there was one soldier still yelling out and stumbling, floundering like a man on fire or lime (which burns live tissues).

The ‘ecstasy of fumbling’ provides us with an irony. Surely, the situation was far from being ecstasy. It only describes the picture of how tired and jaded they were. The chaos followed the fatigue and presented itself as ecstasy.

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.

The man in his dreams is always guttering, choking and drowning. Here, ‘guttering’ may point to gurgling like water draining down a gutter or the sounds in the throat of the choking man.

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’s sick of sin;

Now with this stanza, the poem enters its final stage where the speaker takes over the narrative. Here, as discussed earlier, ‘you’ is meant to point out to  the extended audience Owen tries to show the real face of the war to. Here, he attempts to convince us to see the war as if we were there.

Owen continues to exhort the readers to prove his point. He claims that we the readers could feel the same pity of war if we could follow the wagon that they (speaker and his comrades) flung the soldier’s body in, or watch the dead soldier’s lifeless white eyes or his pitiful face in an overwhelming (smothering) dream.

Here, the poet has used expressions like ‘white eyes’, ‘writhing in his face’, ‘hanging face’ and ‘devil’s sick of sin’ to express how horrible the dream could be.

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, 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.

He clearly calls “Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori” (“It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country”) an old lie. Even when he maintains that he is not unwilling to sacrifice his life for his country, he simply doesn’t believe in the old conviction that it is the sweet and fitting thing to do. Needless to say, he didn’t gain any sweet or fitting, worthwhile experience from the war.

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Dulce et Decorum est

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Wilfred Owen: Poems

By wilfred owen, wilfred owen: poems summary and analysis of "dulce et decorum est".

The boys are bent over like old beggars carrying sacks, and they curse and cough through the mud until the "haunting flares" tell them it is time to head toward their rest. As they march some men are asleep, others limp with bloody feet as they'd lost their boots. All are lame and blind, extremely tired and deaf to the shells falling behind them.

Suddenly there is gas, and the speaker calls, "Quick, boys!" There is fumbling as they try to put on their helmets in time. One soldier is still yelling and stumbling about as if he is on fire. Through the dim "thick green light" the speaker sees him fall like he is drowning.

The drowning man is in the speaker's dreams, always falling, choking.

The speaker says that if you could follow behind that wagon where the soldier's body was thrown, watching his eyes roll about in his head, see his face "like a devil's sick of sin", hear his voice gargling frothy blood at every bounce of the wagon, sounding as "obscene as cancer" and bitter as lingering sores on the tongue, then you, "my friend", would not say with such passion and conviction to children desirous of glory, "the old lie" of "Dulce et decorum est".

"Dulce et Decorum est" is without a doubt one of, if not the most, memorable and anthologized poems in Owen's oeuvre. Its vibrant imagery and searing tone make it an unforgettable excoriation of WWI, and it has found its way into both literature and history courses as a paragon of textual representation of the horrors of the battlefield. It was written in 1917 while Owen was at Craiglockhart, revised while he was at either Ripon or Scarborough in 1918, and published posthumously in 1920. One version was sent to Susan Owen, the poet's mother, with the inscription, "Here is a gas poem done yesterday (which is not private, but not final)." The poem paints a battlefield scene of soldiers trudging along only to be interrupted by poison gas. One soldier does not get his helmet on in time and is thrown on the back of the wagon where he coughs and sputters as he dies. The speaker bitterly and ironically refutes the message espoused by many that war is glorious and it is an honor to die for one's country.

The poem is a combination of two sonnets, although the spacing between the two is irregular. It resembles French ballad structure. The broken sonnet form and the irregularity reinforce the feeling of otherworldliness; in the first sonnet, Owen narrates the action in the present, while in the second he looks upon the scene, almost dazed, contemplative. The rhyme scheme is traditional, and each stanza features two quatrains of rhymed iambic pentameter with several spondaic substitutions.

"Dulce" is a message of sorts to a poet and civilian propagandist, Jessie Pope, who had written several jingoistic and enthusiastic poems exhorting young men to join the war effort. She is the "friend" Owen mentions near the end of his poem. The first draft was dedicated to her, with a later revision being altered to "a certain Poetess". However, the final draft eliminated a specific reference to her, as Owen wanted his words to apply to a larger audience.

The title of the poem, which also appears in the last two lines, is Latin for, "It is sweet and right to die for one's country" - or, more informally, "it is an honor to die for one's country". The line derives from the Roman poet Horace's Ode 3.2 . The phrase was commonly used during the WWI era, and thus would have resonated with Owen's readers. It was also inscribed on the wall of the chapel of the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst in 1913.

In the first stanza Owen is speaking in first person, putting himself with his fellow soldiers as they labor through the sludge of the battlefield. He depicts them as old men, as "beggars". They have lost the semblance of humanity and are reduced to ciphers. They are wearied to the bone and desensitized to all but their march. In the second stanza the action occurs – poisonous gas forces the soldiers to put their helmets on. Owen heightens the tension through the depiction of one unlucky soldier who could not complete this task in time - he ends up falling, "drowning" in gas. This is seen through "the misty panes and the thick green light", and, as the imagery suggests, the poet sees this in his dreams.

In the fourth stanza Owen takes a step back from the action and uses his poetic voice to bitterly and incisively criticize those who promulgate going to war as a glorious endeavor. He paints a vivid picture of the dying young soldier, taking pains to limn just how unnatural it is, "obscene as cancer". The dying man is an offense to innocence and purity – his face like a "devil's sick of sin". Owen then says that, if you knew what the reality of war was like, you would not go about telling children they should enlist. There is utterly no ambiguity in the poem, and thus it is emblematic of poetry critical of war.

Wilfred Owen: Poems Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Wilfred Owen: Poems is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

How could we interpret the symbol of ‘fruits’?​

Poem title, please?

What are the similarities between the poems Next War and Dulce et Decorum est? for example how grief is portrayed through both is almost the same fashion

I'm not sure what you mean by "next war".

Experience of war in Dulce Et Decorum Est

"Dulce et Decorum est" is without a doubt one of, if not the most, memorable and anthologized poems in Owen's oeuvre. Its vibrant imagery and searing tone make it an unforgettable excoriation of WWI, and it has found its way into both literature...

Study Guide for Wilfred Owen: Poems

Wilfred Owen: Poems study guide contains a biography of Wilfred Owen, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis of Wilfred Owen's major poems.

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Essays for Wilfred Owen: Poems

Wilfred Owen: Poems essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Wilfred Owen's poetry.

• “Fellowships Untold”: The Role of Wilfred Owen’s Poetry in Understanding Comradeship During World War I
• Analysis of Owen's "Strange Meeting"
• The Development of Modernism as Seen through World War I Poetry and "The Prussian Officer"
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E-Text of Wilfred Owen: Poems

Wilfred Owen: Poems e-text contains the full texts of select poems by Wilfred Owen.

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‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ by Wilford Owen

Wilfred Owen, the poet, tells of his first-hand experience in war. He tells the tale of tired and wounded soldiers walking through dirt and sludge. Suddenly, there is a warning about gas, which the soldiers hurriedly and awkwardly heed by donning their helmets. Unfortunately, one soldier is too late in donning the helmet and his companions watch him ‘drowning’ in the gas. The unfortunate soldier was thrown in the back of a wagon, where it is implied that he was left to die. The persona points out that if you (the reader/ listener) could have witnessed these events, then you would not tell children the old lie: dulce et decorum est pro-Patria Mori (It is sweet and honourable to die for one’s country).

LITERARY DEVICES

1. SIMILE Stanza 1, line 1: This simile introduces the exhaustion of the soldiers.

Stanza 1, line 2: This emphasises not only the tiredness of the soldiers but the fact that they might be sick as well.

Stanza 2, line 19: This device gives a visual image of how the soldier physically reacted to the gas. Floundering implies flopping about, therefore, the soldier was flopping about violently. We know it was violent because fire and lime illicit excruciating pain.

Stanza 4, line 39: This device gives a visual image of the expression on the soldier’s face. This is a particularly grotesque image that highlights the soldier in the throes of death.

Stanza 4, line 39: Cancer is a horrible disease that takes many lives on a daily basis. Therefore, to compare this dying soldier’s face to this disease is to emphasize the agony that the soldier was going through, which was reflected on his face.

Stanza 4, lines 39-40: This is another graphic comparison that compares the soldier’s face to incurable sores. ‘Sores’ is a disgusting visual image of degradation which, in turn, highlights the soldier in the throes of death.

ALLITERATION Stanza 1, line 7: This device points to the level of fatigue that the soldiers were undergoing.

Stanza 1, lines 7-9: This highlights not only the fatigue that the soldiers were feeling but the fact that they were injured as well.

Stanza 4, lines 29-30: This device highlights a visually graphic death mask. The soldier is in the throes of impending death.

IMPORTANT WORDS/ PHRASES 3. ‘Bent double’ The soldiers are bent over with fatigue. It is very significant that the poet/ persona initiates the poem by highlighting the exhaustion of the soldiers. He is trying to emphasize the harsh realities of war.

4. ‘haunting flares’ Flares are typically used to signal distress. The flare is fired from a flare gun, in the air, where rescue crafts, at sea or in the air, can have a general idea of the location of the soldiers who are in distress. Therefore, to describe the flares as haunting implies that the soldiers are severely distressed by their situation.

5.’ deaf even to the hoots of tired outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.’ Five-nines are German 5.9 artillery shells. This means that bullets were firing around them while they were walking. The extent of the soldiers’ tiredness is also emphasized at this point because the soldiers do not hear the shells going off around them.

6. ‘An ecstasy of fumbling’ The word ecstasy, which is used to describe fumbling, implies the level of panic that this one word (gas) elicits. The soldiers’ were so tired that they could not even hear the five nines, but this one word immediately woke them up.

7. ‘Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, as under a green sea, I saw him drowning.’ This describes exactly what the outside world looks like through the lens of a gas mask. The effect of the gas is seen in the mention of the word ‘drown’. It implies that the unfortunate soldier could not breathe.

8. ‘He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.’ This is the very graphic result of breathing in the gas. It is a very violent reaction, as seen in the word ‘plunge’. The dying soldier did not simply reach for the persona/poet, but he did so in a desperate manner, while all the time being unable to breathe.

9. ‘wagon that we flung him in’  The statement implies that the soldier was left for dead in a wagon. No regard was shown to him, through the use of the word ‘flung’. This implies that war is heartless and tragic.

10 .’Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.’  This statement literally means it is sweet and honourable to die for one’s country. The persona/ poet clearly does NOT believe this to be the case. 

MOOD/ ATMOSPHERE The mood of the poem is reflective. The persona/ poet is thinking about his experiences in WWI. TONE The general tone of the poem is both sarcastic and ironic. The persona/ poet tries to present a visual of the realities of war while using haunting words that contradict that reality. It is, in fact, NOT sweet and honourable to die for one’s country. THEMATIC CATEGORIZATION War, death, survival,  patriotism

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Britain’s Conservative Party faces up to its own mortality

Dulce et decorum est pro parte mori.

O pen a history book about Britain at random and you will probably come across a distant relative of Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor of the exchequer, being shot at. Mr Hunt comes from a long line of brigadiers, admirals and colonial administrators (along with the occasional vicar), the types of people who have long made up England’s elite. In an otherwise excoriating essay, George Orwell alighted on the redeeming feature of this species: “One thing that has always shown that the English ruling class are morally fairly sound, is that in time of war they are ready enough to get themselves killed.” The Conservative Party is facing the prospect of electoral carnage on July 4th. Mr Hunt himself runs the risk of being the first sitting chancellor to lose his seat, in a prosperous corner of Surrey, in a general election. But whereas Mr Hunt marches cheerfully towards gunfire, other Tories approach their destiny differently. Some have deserted, or stationed themselves far from danger. Some see an opportunity for a quick buck. Some complain about their lot; others have come to terms with it. You can learn a lot about someone in their final moments in battle, and this election is no different. For a few close to Downing Street, the outbreak of electoral hostilities was a moment for making money rather than a matter of political life or death. A host of Conservative candidates and staff placed suspicious bets on a July election just before it was announced; two candidates have been dropped by the party. (Several police officers are also being investigated.) This is misconduct at its most tinpot: risking a career, and increasing the likelihood of electoral annihilation, for the sake of a few hundred quid. Some would rather not fight at all. Top-flight politicians once stuck around, at least for a little while, offering wisdom extracted from their own screw-ups. But a bunch of Conservative MP s have rushed for the exit. Sajid Javid, a former home secretary, health secretary and, briefly, chancellor, jumped early. Michael Gove, one of the few ministers to have achieved much in office, scarpered when the election was called in May; some pollsters guess that Mr Gove’s seat, also in Surrey, will flip to the Liberal Democrats, just as Mr Hunt’s might. Leaving may be understandable. It is one thing to spend five years (at least) in opposition; it is quite another to suffer being sacked in a leisure centre at 4am while people cheer your demise. But it is still a shame. A Conservative Party without Messrs Gove and Javid and their ilk is a worse one. The Tory infantry blame their demise on the idiotic decisions of their senior officers. Voters were appalled when Rishi Sunak skipped part of the D-Day celebrations in northern France to return to Britain for an interview with a broadcaster. It was an achievement of sorts: in an election in which many Britons have tried their damnedest to avoid all political coverage, Mr Sunak’s dash home managed to stir focus groups from their slumber. Unfortunately, it was to wonder why the prime minister had accidentally insulted a group of veterans (not least because his constituency includes both a Royal Air Force base and the British Army’s largest barracks). Strategy, as well as tactics, have been lacking. In the Wipers Times , a satirical magazine produced during the first world war by British soldiers in Ypres, one wrote: “They give us a —ing nail. They give us a —ing hammer and they tell us to go and dig a —ing dugout.” That is a familiar feeling for Conservative activists in the south-east, who are embroiled in trench warfare with the wrong tools. What does the Conservative Party offer a City employee who likes to work from home two days a week and voted Remain in 2016? For several years the answer has been insults —for being at best lazy and at worst a traitor. Those close to the party leadership managed to secure candidacies for plum seats in the election, far away from the nastiest fighting. Will Tanner, a charming Downing Street adviser-turned-think-tanker-turned-Downing Street adviser, parlayed his way into one of the Tories’ safest seats, in Bury St Edmunds, a Suffolk market town. Richard Holden, the more pugnacious party chairman, secured a seat in Basildon in Essex after local members were presented with a shortlist containing just one name: his. It all brings to mind the leadership values of General Melchett in “Blackadder Goes Forth”, a classic TV sitcom set in the trenches of the first world war, who was attempting to cheer up troops before they went over the top: “Don’t worry my boy, if you should falter, remember that Captain Darling and I are behind you.” To which Blackadder replied: “About 35 miles behind you.”

Somme Conservatism

Even so Mr Tanner has warned local activists that he could lose on July 4th. In Essex some polls suggest that Mr Holden will fail to win the seat he so carefully secured. A cataclysmic night could even see Mr Sunak ejected from office, never mind Mr Hunt. At this point, with Labour so far ahead in the polls , careful analysis of the electoral landscape is less helpful than hurling a tin of red paint over a map of Britain and seeing where it dribbles. As a result, resignation is seeping through the ranks. Although some Conservatives will fight to the very end, others have long given up. After 14 years in office, many will find the likely result—a gigantic Labour majority and perhaps the Tories’ worst-ever defeat—a relief. “One cannot but remark on the absolute apathy with which the end was received over here,” recalled a nameless author in the Wipers Times when it was all over in 1918. Today, too, most in the Conservative Party simply want it to be done, no matter how painful the eventual end. ■

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