Dulce Et Decorum Est

• 'An ecstasy of fumbling'

  • heightened emotions - suggest excitement when the soldiers are actually panicking
  • soldiers are presented as unprepared - rejecting traditional image of wartime heroism
• " guttering, choking, drowning'

  • triplet for effect - emphasises words - semantic field of death
  • 'ing' - present continuous - verbs emphasise that the actions feel immediate and inescapable for the narrator
  • repetition of 'drowning' (in stanza 2) and the fact that it is rhymed with itself emphasises that the image is stuck in the speaker's mind
  • horrific images in the poem, contradict the idealistic depictions of war
• 'come gargling from the froth- corrupted lungs

  • makes reader feel disgust
  • victim of mustard gas
  • vivid description presents the horrors of war
  • gruesome imagery
• context

  • Wilfred Owen was killed in action on 4 November 1918 one week before the signing of the Armistice, which ended the First World War.
  • His mother received the telegram informing her of his death on Armistice Day, as the church bells were ringing out in celebration.
• structure

  • first stanza - slow, turgid pace due to the first sentence layering clause on top of clause - turgid tone, reflecting the soldiers’ feeling that the march will never end.
  • second stanza - fast paced through one word sentences and exclamation marks - reflects the sense of panic as the gas attack unfolds.
  • pace slows in final stanza - reflecting the feeling that war is never ending - uses the second person (“you”, “my friend”) to address the reader personally - uncomfortable and accusatory tone. These final lines are clearly aimed at those in command.
• knock-kneed, coughing like hags

  • Continues the degradation ”like hags' evoking images of the elderly and sickly.
  • alliteration - (knock-kneed, coughing) creates a choppy, harsh rhythm to mimic their staggering movement
  • This portrays the soldiers as far from strong and noble, reinforcing the poem’s anti-heroic tone