dulce et decorum est

• Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,


  the visual images, enhanced through a simile, are used communicate the severe pain and utter exhaustion. Semantic field, caesura, simile, imagery-war has aged them
• Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,


  Shows how they have been broken, the idealism has been broken, simile suggests a lost youth, dehumanisation, and sludge almost suggests a 'stuck in the mud' state
• Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling,


  Short sentences shows tension and a threat to life, boys are used to show how young they are, metaphor
• But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;


  Physically broken by limping, repetition showing widespread problems, anaphora
• In all my dreams before my helpless sight,... Guttering choking drowning


  -direct reference to PTSD here

  -the war was never over for the soldiers, inevitability of this soldiers death, the helplessness they felt, asyndetic list - reminder of present all in present tense - snap back to reality
• If in some smothering dreams you too could pace


  Addressed to the audience, questioning their action, would they want their children to go through war which is overly glorified ADD CONTEXT
• The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.


  "The old lie", Owen explicitly states that this statement is a lie. He does not offer it as an opinion, but states it as fact. Owen ends the poem with a damning criticism of war and those who support it. He make's it clear that anyone who knew the truth of war could not view war as an act of heroic patriotism. Mocks the Romans as they believed in this but their empire has fallen, capital letters signify they are still recognised by those glorifying war
• Context

  During the somme, 1.5mil soldiers experienced this, shell shock was a new thing that was discovered
• structure


  Alternating rhyme scheme