Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about...

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Wilfred Owen

Transcript of Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about...

Page 1: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

Wilfred Owen

Page 2: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

In today’s lesson we will...

Read and study Owen’s poem ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’.

Talk about poetic techniques.Think about the context of the poem.

Page 3: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

Enthusiastic response to war and volunteering at first.

Propaganda – posters and war movies.

A wish for glory and adventure.

Patriotism But then...

Disillusionment Heavy number of

casualties. Conscription An end to the

illusion that problems could be solved peacefully.

Page 4: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

Romantic sense of patriotic duty.

His war sonnets were written in the first flush of patriotism and enthusiasm as a generation unused to war rushed to defend king and country.

•If I should die, think only this of me:That there's some corner of a foreign

fieldThat is for ever England. There shall

beIn that rich earth a richer dust

concealed;A dust whom England bore, shaped,

made aware….(from war sonnets- sonnet V. the

soldier)

Rupert Brook

Page 5: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

England, in this great fight to which you goBecause, where Honour calls you, go you must,Be glad, whatever comes, at least to knowYou have your quarrel just.

Owen Seaman

Page 6: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

Since ancient times it has been considered heroic to die in war.

Homer’s epic poem The Illiad celebrates, among other things, the nobility of dying on the battlefield.

This view continued well into the 19th Century (and even the 20th Century), and Tennyson’s popular poem ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ gives us an idea of how poets and people in general thought about the “valour” of fighting and dying for one’s country:

Page 7: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them,

Cannon behind themVolley’d and thunder’d;

When can their glory fade? O the wild charge they made!

All the world wonder’d. Honour the charge they made!

Honour the Light Brigade, Noble six hundred

These lines by Tennyson may be well written and rousing, but they are not very realistic.

Page 8: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

Poets such as Sassoon and Owen changed all that with their efforts to give us an accurate representation of trench warfare.

Wilfred Owen fought in some of the major battles of World War I and the reality and horror of war shocked him.

In the face of the desperate suffering he saw around him, it was no longer possible to pretend warfare was adventurous and heroic.

Page 9: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

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

through sludge,Till on the haunting flares we turned our backsAnd towards our distant rest began to trudge.Men marched asleep. Many had lost their bootsBut limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all

blind;Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hootsOf tired, outstripped Five Nines that dropped

behind.

Page 10: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys! An ecstasy of fumbling,Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;But someone still was yelling out and stumblingAnd floundering like a man in fire or lime.Dim, through the misty panes and thick green

lightAs under a green sea, I saw him drowning.In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,He plunges at me, guttering, choking,

drowning.

Page 11: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

If in some smothering dreams you too could paceBehind 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 bloodCome gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cudOf vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,My friend, you would not tell with such high zestTo children ardent for some desperate glory,The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.

Page 12: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

Theme

The theme of ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ is that

there is neither nobility in war,

nor honour in fighting for your country.

Instead there is tragedy, futility and waste of human life.

Page 13: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

Theme

Wilfred Owen fought in some of the major battles of World War I and the reality and horror of war shocked him.

In the face of the desperate suffering he saw around him, it was no longer possible to pretend warfare was adventurous and heroic. Instead Owen recorded in his poetry how shocking modern warfare was and he sought to describe accurately what the conditions were like for soldiers at the Front

Page 14: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

Theme

Owen wanted people who were not in the trenches – the people at home in England – to see the reality and misery of war.

He also wanted them to stop telling future generations the “old lie” Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori (“It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”).

It is worth noting that these lines were written by the poet Horace, two thousand years earlier.

Page 15: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

Techniques and Effect – lines 1-8 What is actually happening in this section of

the poem? Why is it important to the theme of the

poem that the soldiers are marching away from the fighting?

Owen uses a simile to describe the soldiers- "like old beggars". Pick out all the other words ("imagery") from section 1 which could also be used to describe beggars.

Effect. Given that the soldiers are probably very young men, what does the imagery mentioned above suggest about them?

Page 16: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

Lines 1-8

The poem is built around 3 powerful and disturbing images.

A group of soldiers moves through no-man’s land in an attempt to get back to the relative safety of the trenches.

Owen wants us to imagine what it was like in the trenches – to see the detail and reality of dying in such a place.

Page 17: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

Techniques and Effect – lines 1-8 Look at all the punctuation in section 1.

There are a large number of commas and full stops in the middle of lines. What do they do to the pace and rhythm of the lines?

Effect. How do the pace and rhythm of the lines reflect how the men are moving?

Sound effects: the writer uses sludge and trudge instead of "mud" and "walk". How does the sound of these words give a better idea of the scene?

Page 18: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

Lines 1-8

Sound effects 2: look at all the s sounds in the last 2 lines. Write them down.

What sound do they imitate? What do we call this?

Word association: many of the men have lost their boots and are "blood-shod": what does this mean?

What two similar words does "blood-shod" resemble?

What does this suggest about what the men have been through?

NOW COMPLETE YOUR TECHNIQUES TABLE.

Page 19: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

Section 2

What happens in this section?There is much less punctuation in this

section. What effect does this have on the pace and rhythm of the lines?

How does the pace and rhythm of the lines reflect what is happening in this section?

At the beginning of the section, Owen uses capital letters when writing GAS! How does this suggest the men’s reaction?

Page 20: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

Section 2

Look at the last 2 lines. Owen uses an image to describe how the gassed man looks to the narrator. Explain this image literally.

What simile does the poet use to suggest what the scene appeared like to the narrator?

Why is this simile appropriate in the light of what is happening to the gassed man?

Page 21: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

Section 2

The second image (found in the second stanza) is more dramatic.

Notice how the first words of the stanza change the pace of the poem, making it more urgent as the soldiers come under attack and try to put on their gas masks before they choke.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; The poet manages to get his mask on.

Page 22: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

Section 2

The last two lines of this stanza change pace again.

They have an almost dreamlike quality as the poet watches from behind his gas mask.

As the thick green smoke washes over the men, the poet uses a striking simile of the sea to describe the gas.

But one man fumbles with his mask and is overcome by the fumes and “drowns” in the sea of thick smoke.

NOW COMPLETE YOUR TECHNIQUES TABLE.

Page 23: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

Section 3

In this short section, Owen is no longer telling the story. What is he talking about?

Word choice. Another technique the poet uses again is employing words that have a number of different associations or possible meanings.

Plunges: what kind of dream is suggested here? How does plunges relate to the image at the end of section 2?

Page 24: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

Section 3

Guttering: guttering resembles guttural which means to do with the throat. How does this relate to the noises the gassed man might be making?

Guttering is normally used to describe a flame on the point of being blown out. Given that human life is often described as a flame, how is this appropriate to the gassed soldier?

NOW COMPLETE YOUR TECHNQUES TABLE.

Page 25: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

Section 4

What happens in this section? The narrator starts talking to us. He tries to

describe the scene to us. What does he achieve by using the word flung in line 2?

What effect is he trying to achieve by the following vocabulary? writhing, blood, gargling, froth-corrupted, bitter, vile, incurable, sores?

Contrast: look at the motto (written by the Roman poet Horace) at the end of the poem. How do you think this seems in the light of your answer to the previous question?

Page 26: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

SECTION 4

Read the whole of section 4 again. Sum-up what the poet is saying to us. Show how his use of vocabulary and contrast reinforces this idea.

NOW COMPLETE YOUR TECHNIQUES TABLE.

Page 27: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

Dulce et Decorum Est

The motto is ironic. How is this so in the light of the following:

they are marching away from the fighting

the gas-shells were fired from a long way away

the soldier’s death was prolonged and agonizing ?

Page 28: Wilfred Owen. In todays lesson we will... Read and study Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Talk about poetic techniques. Think about the context of the.

Dulce Et Decorum Est

Essay Question

Analyse the techniques used by Wilfred Owen in ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ to make the poem more vivid and meaningful.