dulce et decorum est essay introduction

• Ask LitCharts AI
• Discussion Question Generator
• Essay Prompt Generator
• Quiz Question Generator

• Literature Guides
• Poetry Guides
• Shakespeare Translations
• Literary Terms

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

The Next War

Ask LitCharts AI: The answer to your questions

• Quizzes, saving guides, requests, plus so much more.

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

Unlock more with Poetry +

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.

Log in or join Poetry + to access Poem Printable PDFs.

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).

Get PDFs for this Poem

Log in or join Poetry + to access all PDFs for this poem.

Home » Wilfred Owen » Dulce et Decorum Est

About Elise Dalli

Join the poetry chatter and comment.

Exclusive to Poetry + Members

Join Conversations

Share your thoughts and be part of engaging discussions.

Expert Replies

Get personalized insights from our Qualified Poetry Experts.

Connect with Poetry Lovers

Build connections with like-minded individuals.

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.

Access the Complete PDF Guide of this Poem

Poetry+ PDF Guides are designed to be the ultimate PDF Guides for poetry. The PDF Guide consists of a front cover, table of contents, with the full analysis, including the Poetry+ Review Corner and numerically referenced literary terms, plus much more.

Get the PDF Guide

Experts in Poetry

Our work is created by a team of talented poetry experts, to provide an in-depth look into poetry, like no other.

Cite This Page

Dalli, Elise. "Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen". Poem Analysis , https://poemanalysis.com/wilfred-owen/dulce-et-decorum-est/ . Accessed 16 August 2024.

Help Center

Request an Analysis

(not a member? Join now)

Poem PDF Guides

PDF Learning Library

Beyond the Verse Podcast

Poetry Archives

Poetry Explained

Poet Biographies

Useful Links

Poem Explorer

Poem Generator

[email protected]

Poem Solutions Limited, International House, 36-38 Cornhill, London, EC3V 3NG, United Kingdom

Download Poetry PDF Guides

Complete Poetry PDF Guide

Perfect Offline Resource

Covers Everything Need to Know

One-pager 'snapshot' PDF

Offline Resource

Gateway to deeper understanding

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 .

Discover more from Interesting Literature

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Type your email…

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

• Pingback: 10 Classic Wilfred Owen Poems Everyone Should Read | Interesting Literature
• Pingback: The Best War Poems Everyone Should Read | Interesting Literature

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…

• Pingback: Sunday Post – 11th March, 2018 | Brainfluff

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

Comments are closed.

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

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.

• About Wilfred Owen: Poems
• Wilfred Owen: Poems Summary
• Character List

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"
• Commentary on the Poem “Disabled” by Wilfred Owen
• Commentary on the Poem "Anthem for Doomed Youth" by Wilfred Owen

E-Text of Wilfred Owen: Poems

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

• Introduction by Siegfried Sassoon
• Strange Meeting
• Greater Love
• Apologia pro Poemeta Mio

Wikipedia Entries for Wilfred Owen: Poems

• Introduction

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.

We serve cookies on this site to offer, protect and improve our services. KNOW MORE OK

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.

Summary of Dulce et Decorum Est

Analysis of the literary devices used in “dulce et decorum est”, analysis of poetic devices in “dulce et decorum est”.

Quotes to be Used

“Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge.”

“Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.”

Related posts:

Post navigation.

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” 
• Share to Facebook
• Share to LinkedIn

You might also like

105 literature review topics + how-to guide [2024], study guide on the epic of gilgamesh, essay topics & sample, the things they carried 101: literary analysis.

• National Poetry Month
• Materials for Teachers
• Literary Seminars
• American Poets Magazine

Main navigation

• Academy of American Poets

User account menu

Find and share the perfect poems.

Page submenu block

• literary seminars
• materials for teachers
• poetry near you

Dulce et Decorum Est

Add to anthology.

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.

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 .

This poem is in the public domain.

More by this poet

Winter song.

The browns, the olives, and the yellows died, And were swept up to heaven; where they glowed Each dawn and set of sun till Christmastide, And when the land lay pale for them, pale-snowed, Fell back, and down the snow-drifts flamed and flowed.

The Unreturning

Newsletter sign up.

• Academy of American Poets Newsletter
• Academy of American Poets Educator Newsletter
• Teach This Poem

• Annotated Full Text
• Literary Period: World War I
• Publication Date: 1920
• Flesch-Kincaid Level: 8
• Approx. Reading Time: 0 minutes

Dulce et Decorum Est

English soldier Wilfred Owen wrote “Dulce et Decorum Est” in 1917 while recovering from shell-shock during World War I, which overlapped with the modern literary period. The poem was published in 1920, two years after Owen died in battle. Its title alludes to a phrase from Horace’s Odes that had become popular among patriots in England during the war. Loosely translated, it means “It is sweet and fitting [to die for one’s country].” Owen, however, ultimately condemns the war in his use of the phrase by contrasting pro-war idealism with the gruesome reality experienced by soldiers in the trenches.

Table of Contents

• Text of the Poem
• Historical Context
• Literary Devices
• Quote Analysis

Study Guide

• Wilfred Owen Biography

Poems & Poets

Dulce et Decorum Est

Latin phrase is from the Roman poet Horace: “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”

Source: Poems (Viking Press, 1921)

Dulce et Decorum Est

Read the poem carefully, and make notes on all the highlighted contextual points that would add to a reader’s understanding of the poem and Owen’s messages. You can check back later to see if you were on the right lines by clicking on each of the highlights.

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 .

Wilfred Owen

Paragraph 1

In Dulce et Decorum Est, Wilfred Owen presents in graphic detail a specific incident in the world changing conflict of World War 1, which he presumably witnessed, as he enlisted in 1915, and fought on the front line until he was killed in action, just a week before the Armistice. In the poem, writing in the first person, he describes the scene of a group of exhausted soldiers making their way back to their base in the trenches when they are caught by a shell attack. One of the soldiers is unable to get his gas mask on in time, and, almost in slow motion, every stage of his suffering is described by Owen, who leaves the reader in no doubt that those who urged young men to sign up, with such expressions as the Latin “Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori,” translated as “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country” were deluded, as the scenes described by Owen are anything but “sweet.”

The poem starts by…..

Paragraph 2

The famous war poet, Wilfred Owen was born in March 1893, in Oswestry, and later lived in Birkenhead, Cheshire, and Shrewsbury. He was the oldest of four children. He was very religious as he grew up, partly owing to the influence of his mother, but as he grew older he became disillusioned with the church. he worked for a while as a tutor in France, but in 1916 joined the Manchester regiment and was sent out to France. He was the victim of a shell attack, and, suffering from shell-shock, was sent back to Edinburgh to recover. Here he met Siegfried Sassoon, another famous war poet, who encouraged him to write. He returned to France towards the end of the war, but was killed in action a week before the Armistice. In fact, when his mother in Shropshire received the telegram telling of his death, the church bells were ringing in celebration at the end of the war.

In Dulce et Decorum Est Owen describes the horrors of being caught up in a shell attack (probably based on his own experiences). The poem starts by….

While both of these have their merits, Example 1 is the stronger response, as it links contextual knowledge to the poem much more efficiently. It is important to remember that you only have 20 minutes or so to show off your knowledge and understanding of each poem in the exam, and this includes its content and stylistic features as well as context, so the more economically you can filter in references to all these aspects, blending them together, the better.

Look at the examples again, and notice how Example 2 is all AO3 (context) whereas Example 1 addresses all three Assessment Objectives.

Your Chosen Very Important Points

Have a go at writing the next paragraph, dealing with the first stanza of dulce et decorum est . aim to filter in your contextual knowledge, using some of the ideas on the previous screen, while you discuss what is happening in the poem, and how owen puts across his ideas about conflict..

Do you think this poem can only be appreciated as a product of a very specific time, or could it apply to other casualties and their loved ones, in different times and places?

What is the significance of the two parts, The Tragedy and The Irony? How may these headings help a reader appreciate the writer’s point of view?

What themes can you find in this poem? Jot down the titles of other poems that could link in with it, for all the themes you have identified

• Benefits to Participating Communities
• Participating School Districts
• Evaluations and Results
• Recognition Accorded
• National Advisory Committee
• Establishing New Institutes
• Topical Index of Curriculum Units
• View Topical Index of Curriculum Units
• Search Curricular Resources
• View Volumes of Curriculum Units from National Seminars
• Find Curriculum Units Written in Seminars Led by Yale Faculty
• Find Curriculum Units Written by Teachers in National Seminars
• Browse Curriculum Units Developed in Teachers Institutes
• On Common Ground
• Reports and Evaluations
• Articles and Essays
• Documentation
• Video Programs

Have a suggestion to improve this page?

To leave a general comment about our Web site, please click here

Share this page with your network.

Dulce et Decorum Est: Common Core and The Poetry of War

Introduction.

For centuries, the poppy flower has held an association with restoration, sleep, and death: the plant was sacred to both Demeter—in ancient Greece, the flowering weed was used to revitalize the soil—and Hypnos—its seeds were used as both anesthetic and medicine. Red poppies grow in abundance in Asia and Europe including in the County of Flanders in southern Belgium. It was here, in the fields of Flanders, when the flower became the indelible symbol of World War I.

The Second Battle of Ypres started on April 21, 1915 and raged for over a month. Within thirty-five days, over 105,000 men were killed, wounded, or missing. 1 Throughout the battle, Lieutenant Colonel John McRae, a field surgeon with the Canadian artillery, treated the injured from both sides. He would later write: "Seventeen days of Hades! At the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done." 2 Included in the list of dead was Alexis Helmer, a close friend and former student of McRae. Helmer fell on May 2, 1915, twelve days into the conflict.

The following day, May 3 rd , McRae allowed himself a few moments to grieve. He sat in the back of an ambulance and began to write, staring out at the makeshift cemetery that had blossomed behind the field hospital. 3 Wild blooms of the blood-red flower adorned the new graveyard. In fifteen short lines, using a tight metrical pattern and paired rhyme scheme, McRae used poetry to grapple with the death of his friend, perhaps in an attempt to memorialize or give meaning to his loss. For almost 100 years, this composition—"In Flanders Fields"—has stood as one of the finest pieces of modern war poetry.

Unfortunately, most contemporary students finish their education with little background in poetry and almost no ability to analyze the genre. Many teachers assume that it is the students who do not like to study poetry and leave it out of their curriculum. Surprisingly, a 2006-2007 educational report found that "older pupils, particularly the more able, enjoyed the intellectual demands poems made and their ability to inspire frequent rereading." 4 In other words, our students want poetry in the classroom; we are the ones keeping it out.

With little exception, most of my seniors have had limited experience with poetry throughout their education. Some had an introduction in primary school, reading rhymed verse by writers like Dr. Seuss and writing short poems about family members. By middle and high school, they have analyzed very little poetry: maybe an occasional verse sprinkled in as an afterthought—a sestina here, a haiku there—with the literary focus always on the novel, play, or short story.

I'm guilty of this emphasis as well. In conversations with my colleagues, there is a sentiment that poetry is too hard, too confusing. It barely shows up on most standardized exams, so my fellow English teachers and I find teaching short stories to be more manageable. Perhaps some high school teachers shy away from poetry because of the overwhelming fear that this—this sonnet, this verse—is just beyond us, that this will be the day that we are proved a fraud. What if we don't get the metaphor or cannot identify the meter? If we do not get it, how can we teach it to our students? We are so used to being subject matter experts and we are pulled in so many different directions with our standards: teaching students the different genres; balancing fiction and non-fiction; pushing students to write and revise; practicing grammar and mechanics. Poetry is something that can easily fall through the cracks. Many teachers eschew poetry because of a misperceived benefit-cost ratio of teaching poetry: the amount of time it takes to adequately read, discuss, interpret, and analyze a 20-line poem is generally equal to reading, discussing, and analyzing a 1000-word short story. Ergo, in our minds, the study of prose gets us more bang for our buck.

Let us flip this final argument. When you are craving chocolate, you have many options, but for this analogy pretend you only have three: a chocolate chip cookie, a candy bar from the vending machine, or a truffle from an artisan chocolatier. All three will satisfy the craving, but the truffle will provide a richer chocolate experience. Poetry is like a truffle and using poetry—concise, densely packed texts—will provide a more satisfying experience in teaching language and voice in a way that cannot be matched by a prose-only approach to the classroom.

In its oldest form, poetry is oral, full of pattern, repetition, rhythm, music, sound, and beat. It is "the most kinesthetic of all literature, it's physical and full-bodied which activates [one's] heart and soul and sometimes bypasses the traps of our minds and the outcome is that poetry moves us." 5 It can help educate young children who may not understand all the words or meaning, but they will feel the rhythm, get curious about what the sounds mean, and perhaps want to create their own patterns or feel more comfortable in guessing the next word on the page because of the rhymes. Poetry can also educate older children who are learning English as a second language, and mainstream students who are learning about a major event in world history.

Poetry has been an important part of every civilization and dates back to the earliest of human history. Poetry as an art form is believed to predate the written word. "In many ancient cultures, the poem was used as a way to maintain oral history and transport it across long distances." 6 Most of the surviving ancient texts include the poetry of prayer as well as passion. Because of its use of grammatical and rhythmic patterns, poetry helped people remember and pass down their stories, laws, and history.

This unit is being written for 10 th grade World Literature, though it could be adapted for any level of English. Much of my research looks at the importance of fiction and poetry in an educational system that is pivoting away from those subjects in favor of expository reading and writing. This unit is concurrent to a World History unit of study on World War I.

Independence High School is a large, public high school in California serving almost 3100 students. Our students come from many ethnicities and backgrounds: 39.5% of our students are Asian, 32.7% are Hispanic, and 19.3% are Filipino; the Caucasian population is officially considered statistically insignificant at just 4% of the total school population. 43% of our students qualify nationally for the Free/Reduced Lunch Program and a total of 51.8% of our students are categorized as socio-economically disadvantaged. Additionally, 45.4% of our students are targeted English Language Learners and 8.4% of the student population is categorized as having a disability.

To meet the diverse needs and demands of our students, we have three California Partnership Academies. I teach sophomore English in a Teaching Academy, offering opportunities to at-risk students who are interested in pursuing a career in teaching or education. In the sophomore year, my students teach a total of six hours at local elementary schools. In addition to meeting national standards and preparing students for a state graduation exam, part of my curriculum includes preparing students to speak in front of large groups, to research standards and objectives for their elementary classrooms, and to design and implement their own lesson plans. With public speaking standards, interpreting text, and understanding elements of literature, poetry is a way to teach many parts of my curriculum and meet the Common Core.

Rationale: Why Read, Study, and Teach Poetry in the Age of Common Core?

Geoffrey Harpham, director of the National Humanities Center, posited "[t]he scholarly study of documents and artifacts produced by human beings in the past enables us to see the world from different points of view so that we may better understand ourselves." 7 It's been a century since World War I, and many present-day high school students feel that distance, feel that the history is too dusty and too far removed from their own lives. But it is important to read the personal words that memorialize that period. We are not so far removed from total war nor from sending our citizens to fight for our ideals.

"If you want to fight your way through a thorny sentence, look no further than Shakespeare. If you are having trouble figuring out what equipment is necessary for the task you are about to perform, look no further than The Iliad , where Achilles has a similar problem." 8 The Common Core State Standards, introduced in 2011, have been adopted by 45 states. These standards include specific indicators for reading and analyzing literature, abbreviated as RL. Our classrooms must be places that encourage teachers and students to focus on the craft and structure of complex pieces of texts, looking not just at plot but also theme (RL.9-10.2) and demanding students use textual evidence to support their thoughtful analyses (RL.9-10.1). These steps are satisfied through both an introduction and extended analysis of the succinct literature of poetry.

Because of its nature, poetry encourages both literacy—the building block of an educated and capable populace—and global citizenry. The Common Core is built on the concept of range and complexity in reading with teachers building on texts that get progressively more complex as students advance through each grade level (RL. 9-10.10). Further, students should be analyzing a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature (RL.9-10.6). When building a poetry unit—especially a unit that focuses on World War I or any event that played out on a world stage—it is easy to include poems from various cultures and time periods. Our national standards in English-Language Arts recognize that students at the secondary level need to be reading texts selected from a broad range of cultures and periods. This includes "narrative poems, lyrical poems, free verse poems, sonnets, odes, ballads, and epics." 9 Poems written during the war have become the permanent "verbal artifacts" of World War I, to appropriate a phrase of W.H. Auden. 10 It is as important to study these artifacts, as it is to know the causes and consequences of a world at total war.

The Common Core encourages teachers to build cross-curricular units. The History/Social Studies Standards, a subset of the English-Language Arts Standards, are abbreviated RH for Reading History. Students must be able to examine key ideas and details and, just like in literature, they must be able to cite specific textual evidence (RH.9-10.1) and determine central ideas (RH.9-10.2). The difference is that, in history, student-historians should be reading primary and secondary sources in order to compare and contrast the treatment of the same topic over several primary and secondary sources (RH.9-10.9). Many of the poems from World War I are first-hand narratives and are found in the diaries and journals of the poet-soldiers, creating first-hand documentation and personal insights. "Children need to be told personal stories about historical events such as the First World War because these are often too big for them to comprehend… stories are able to get through to people in a way that history books are unable to." 11 In this sense, the poetry and history textbooks complement each other, each giving something the other cannot.

In 1938, just months before the start of a second World War, Winston Churchill defended the absolute need for a country to have an investment in the arts. "The arts are essential to any complete national life. The State owes it to itself to sustain and encourage them….Ill fares the race which fails to salute the arts with the reverence and delight which are their due." 12 The livelihood of many in the arts, not to mention every elective program in every school, is threatened whenever the economy takes a downturn. Likewise, when standards change—such as the switch to Common Core—some politicians and administrators can overreact in an attempt to appease their constituents. In my own district and across my state, senior English is being eliminated and replaced with a course called Expository Reading and Writing. ERWC focuses on non-fiction modules such as "The Rhetoric of the Op-Ed Page: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos" and "Good Food/Bad Food." Fiction has been replaced by magazines, poetry supplanted by newspaper articles. This is the result of erroneous beliefs that senior English courses that focus on non-fiction will better meet the Common Core and improve test scores. Contemporary British writer and activist Jeanette Winterson counters this dangerous path:

When people say that poetry is a luxury or an option, or for the educated middle classes, or that it shouldn't be read in school because it is irrelevant, or any of the strange and stupid things that are said about poetry and its place in our lives, I suspect that the people doing the saying have had things pretty easy. A tough life needs a tough language—and that is what poetry is. That is what literature offers—a language powerful enough to say how it is. It isn't a hiding place. It is a finding place. 13

In 2013 the American Academy of Arts and Sciences commissioned a report: The Heart of the Matter: The Humanities and Social Sciences for a Vibrant, Competitive, and Secure Nation . Their findings indicate that there has been a troubling shift in the pendulum of education away from the liberal arts towards science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Since 2011, Common Core State Standards have been suggesting more non-fiction texts be taught and that, by Grade 12, students should spend only 30% of their day on fiction and 70% of their reading should be informational texts. 14 In an overreaction, this means Fast Food Nation has replaced Faustus in some districts. But the adoption of the Common Core does not mean that 70% of the reading in 12th grade English classes should be informational, but that nonfiction should make up 70% of all the reading 12th graders should do throughout their school day, across all their subjects. The final report stated three overarching goals:

• to educate Americans in the knowledge, skills, and understanding [students] will need to thrive in a twenty-first-century democracy;
• to foster a society that is innovative, competitive, and strong; and
• to equip a nation for leadership in an interconnected world.

The report warns "these goals cannot be achieved by science alone." 15 In the 88-page document, the Commission details how the humanities and social sciences are key in maintaining national excellence in education. If the goal of the country is to have educated citizens, then citizens must have a background in the humanities. A sustained, structured, and scaffolded poetry unit teaches the highest levels in Bloom's Taxonomy—analysis, synthesis, and evaluation—which are essential in shaping citizens who can think critically and independently. These findings echo the United Kingdom's Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) report Poetry in Schools: a Survey of Practice, 2006/07 where primary and secondary schools were evaluated to see if and how poetry was taught. Their findings were that a lot of the poetry being taught was considered "relatively lightweight" and pupils had "a limited experience of classic poems and poems from other traditions and cultures." 16 Their findings also showed that students enjoyed poetry when their teachers were using active approaches. Additionally, Ofsted found that it was necessary in broadening the range of poems studied:

Poetry matters because it is a central example of the use human beings make of words to explore and understand. Like other forms of writing we value, it lends shape and meaning to our experiences and helps us move confidently in the world we know and to step beyond it. [Therefore,] poetry should be at the heart of work in English because of the quality of language…that it offers to us. 17

Teaching Strategies

Visually identifying a poem is a relatively easy task: students recognize a jagged right edge, a traditional use of rhyme, a metrical pattern. They can see the shape and abbreviated length. Verbalizing a definition of poetry is another matter entirely for students and teachers, as well as scholars and poets. Isaac Newton defined poetry as "ingenious nonsense." Carl Sandburg called it "an echo asking a shadow to dance." Samuel Taylor Coleridge said that "poetry [is] the best words in their best order." Diction and syntax are two of the goals in teaching voice: to consider not just words, but their order across the page. As in the case of that chocolate truffle, using the vehicle of poetry to teach language and style can be more satisfying than using prose, but it requires time, patience, and courage. As such, it should be the focus in our classrooms rather than the afterthought.

Why Read and Study the Poetry of World War I?

This year—2014—is the start of the one-hundred-year anniversary of the outbreak of World War I. This war is a critical moment in history: the first time the entire modern world entered into conflict. As soldiers on both sides hunkered down for what would prove to be a lengthy and costly war—in both human and practical measures—poetry started pouring back home in letters and telegrams. In just four years, more than 2200 men and women in just Britain and Ireland had poems published, creating a diverse range of voices and attitudes towards the war. 18 Much of this verse was printed in newspapers and, later, individual collections and anthologies; some of it is being rediscovered as we approach the centenary. As British journalist Jasper Copping noted, "The works of Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, and Rupert Brooke beautifully describe the pity and loss of the conflict raging around them and are still appreciated for their historical and literary significance." 19 These poems provide voices from a generation that started off optimistic and enthusiastic about the battle ahead of them. Many believed that the conflict, which started in July 1914, would be over by that Christmas. These poets were young and hopeful, educated and shaped by what they had learned in school, by attitudes towards war that had been handed down for generations. This idealism and misinformation was reinforced by popular music and yellow journalism. By war's end, their bodies, minds, and voices were broken and exhausted, attitudes changed sharply by four years of hell, horror, and hopelessness.

It is important to remember that the poetry produced during World War I is not all doom and gloom. Most contemporary poetry units, especially a unit for World War I, allows for an incorporation of the music and song from the era. Music played an important part in the trenches as it does today with soldiers fighting wars in the deserts and jungles. "Music can transcend national, age and gender boundaries. It's a shared experience that helps cohesion and team bonding. It uplifts people and takes them away from the moment they are in." 20 Songs were a way to propagandize World War I and the war effort. Songs were written in the trenches and on the home front as a way of keeping up morale. Remember, "[i]n 1914, there was virtually no cinema; there was no radio at all, and there certainly was no television…amusement was to be found in language formally arranged, either in books and periodicals, or at the theater and music hall." 21

Songs to incorporate in the unit include Jack Judge's 1911 hit "It's a Long Way to Tipperary," one of the first hits of World War I. This song instantly brought a sense of "camaraderie and [chased] away fear as the 1st Battalion of one of the British Army's Irish regiments headed for the Western Front." 22 Ivor Novello and Lena Gilbert Ford's 1914 composition "Keep the Home Fires Burning" encouraged those who were not fighting to "Let no tears add to their hardships/As the soldiers pass along,/And although your heart is breaking/Make it sing this cheery song." 23 Paul Rubens's 1914 song "Your King and Country Want You" has the great line "Oh, we don't want to lose you but we think you ought to go" which humorously pushed men towards recruiting stations and the front line. 24 While post-modern eyes have learned a distrust towards war and are cynical towards manipulative propaganda, we can see that these songs played on the sentiments of both the men being encouraged to enlist and the women who assisted in the emotional manipulation of their brothers, sons, boyfriends, and husbands.

Perhaps the most famous of these early war songs is George and Felix Powell's 1915 standard "Pack Up Your Troubles": "Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag,/And smile, smile, smile,/While you've a lucifer to light your fag,/Smile, boys, that's the style./What's the use of worrying?/It never was worth while." 25 It is now considered a "viral hit of World War I" for its jaunty, simple nature and rousing, stirring message. 26 The song was originally dismissed as nonsense by George Powell and stuffed in a drawer, but it was brought out and polished up when "New York publishers Francis Day and Hunter…were giving a prize of 100 guineas for a marching song for the troops." 27 Even today, popular music quickly saturates a populace and country, reaching into all corners and forming a great medium for conveying messages.

Recognizing this capability, governments often used it as an effective means for inspiring fervor, pride, patriotism, and action in the citizens in order to gain manpower, homeland support, and funds. Composers and publishers readily cooperated and adopted these new musical motifs with which to earn money from a large population rallied by war and eager to respond to the sentiments by purchasing the pro-war music. 28

"Pack Up Your Troubles," an upbeat song written in 1/2 time and G major, mimicked the cheerful optimism of soldiers marching off to war with heads held high, whistling jaunty tunes. 29 Music scholars note that the G major means that the song was quick to learn, simple to play on the home piano or the accordion in the trenches, and, most importantly, easy to sing along to. 30 It speaks of the universal life of a solider: the kit bag, or soldier's duffle, translates universally to those who have to march off to battle packed with just the essentials. As conductor, singer, and scholar Gareth Malone notes: "It hoodwinks you, this song. You think it's going to be a simple music hall song, then we go into a slightly rousing and emotional section, and I think that's key to this. This is why it grabs people. People are in need of a song like this during very difficult times." 31

Why Were So Many World War I Soldiers Poets?

With the passage of the United Kingdom's 1870 Education Act, the 1876 Royal Commission on the Factory Acts, and a lengthier process in the United States (starting with Massachusetts by 1852 and ending with Mississippi in 1917), most western countries had a compulsory education system starting at the age of five and extending through the age of sixteen in place by the end of the World War I. 32 For England especially, this meant that the soldiers were an educated, literate generation: "For the first time in history virtually all the soldiers who took part were able to read and write. And many of them, perhaps feeling sentimental, perhaps being shaken and appalled by what they had experienced, wrote poetry." 33 These men had read, analyzed, memorized, and written poetry throughout their school years, so they were emulating these past masters and their school-day lessons.

Many soldiers wrote in diaries and letters texts that were rich in allusions to the classical literature of their formative years. General Sir Ian Hamilton wrote in his diary, after an unwanted postponement in the Gallipoli expedition, "Postponed! The word is like a knell," evoking a line from "Ode to a Nightingale" by John Keats: "Forlorn! The very word is like a bell." 34 Captain Oliver Lyttelton, 1st Viscount Chandos, wrote "Well, that [attack] dawdled away. Ovid and his mistress would not have addressed the gods that day: ' O lente, lente currite nocte equi [Run softly, softly, horses of the night].'" 35 Granted it would be expected that officers like General Hamilton and Captain Lyttelton would have been highly educated, but even the lowest level of soldiers, like a Private Stephen Graham who would not have had access to a Cambridge education, were able to reference such works as Richard III in letters: "'[It] recalled the mood of Clarence's dream [from Richard III, 1.4] when he was pacing on the hatches of the ship at night.'" 36

[The soldiers of World War I] belonged to a…poetic generation, whose inherited tradition and technique were utterly at variance with the material which they suddenly found themselves trying to handle. So that whether they wrote in the overly-simplified lyric vein now commonly associated with Georgian poetry, or in the prosaic, academic model that was equally popular with pre-1914 poets, they were quite unable to adjust themselves, as many critics have pointed out, to the grim realities of modern war. What men…were experiencing and feeling, after the holocaust of the Somme if not before, could no longer be given poetic expression by writers whose sensibilities had been conditioned in Edwardian days or earlier, and whose poetic conventions were out-worn even before the war started. 37

The Georgian tradition is a term given to lyrical poetry from the first part of the twentieth century, written during the early part of the reign of George V, England's king from 1910 until 1935. The Georgians came from the conservative climate of the first decade of the twentieth century: "In general, the conservatism that prevailed in the first decade of the twentieth century resulted in patriotic and nationalistic issues often being addressed in the poetry of the period." 38 When first applied, the Georgian tradition was supposed to mean romantic and new, a promise that a long period of stagnation in British poetry was coming to an end. 39 After a half-decade of war and profound loss, the term became a pejorative, synonymous with "old-fashioned" mostly because Edward Marsh, the editor of the five volumes of Georgian Poetry that were published between 1912 and 1922, resisted releasing anything that was unsavory, uncomfortable, or unpleasant despite the fact that the horrors of total war had irrevocably changed the face of history and the arts. 40

Suggested Poets and Poetry

Borrowing my structure from I.M. Parsons' 1965 anthology Men Who March Away and John Sadler and Rosie Serdiville's 2013 collection Tommy Rot: WWI Poetry They Didn't Let You Read , this unit incorporates six movements in this poetic history: Visions of Glory or Expectation, The Bitter Truth or Resignation, No More Jokes, The Pity of War or Mud, The Wounded and The Dead, and Aftermath. However, perhaps the best way for students to study the poetry of World War I is to allow them to stumble upon the poetry on their own. This means having collections of war poetry in our classrooms and creating links to online sites, and then "[giving] students a reason for exploring these [poems]." 41

Visions of Glory or Expectation

Like the music and songs of 1914, the poetry from the earliest part of World War I was optimistic, pro-war verse. There was a "mood of optimistic exhilaration with which so many writers, young and old, greeted the outbreak of war. This was a period of euphoria, when it was still possible to believe that war was a tolerably chivalrous affair, offering welcome opportunities for heroism and self-sacrifice." 42 The poetry that emerged from the beginning of the war emulated the styles and rules of traditional poetry and traditional rhetoric.

For this first movement in war poetry, Alfred, Lord Tennyson's 1854 poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" works well as a starting point in studying rhyme, meter, assonance, and alliteration. It would also be a classic example of a poem that the poet-soldiers themselves would have studied and embraced. Additional poetry from this part of the war would include Eric Blair's "Arise Young Men of England," Owen Seaman's "Pro Patria," Jessie Pope's "The Call," and Rupert Brooke, one of the original founders of the anthology Georgian Poetry , "The Soldier." These poems evoke that heady sunniness of this war being a good thing, a necessary endeavor. This would also be a good place to include the music and songs mentioned previously in this curriculum unit.

The Bitter Truth or Resignation

Moving from the ideal of war to its bitter reality, the next phase in the poetry of World War I is a shift in understanding that the front is actually "'the hell where youth and laughter go.'" 43 These boys—just past college-aged students—were now men on the frontlines and their poems were reports on the experience of war. Poems for this period would include John McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" and "The Silent Ones" by Ivor Gurney.

However, people always find humor in the unlikeliest of places. Despite the serious nature of war, the ugliness of the trenches, and the privations of the home front, there is much wit to be found throughout World War I. Since a unit on the poetry of war can become bleak, it would be best to sprinkle some sarcasm and wit throughout the unit. Mark Sheridan's 1914 song "Belgium Put the Kibosh on the Kaiser" explores some of the ridiculousness the Allied soldiers and citizens found in war:

In addition to verses from silly songs, there are lots of less academic works created on the battlefield. The day-to-day tedium of the trenches, the frequent horror of war, and the natural human response to unrelenting awfulness can make for gallows humor. These poems may not have as much of the literary merit and genius of Owens, Sassoon, or Brooke, but there is the human element as well as an historical importance. Naval sub-lieutenant A.P. Herbert wrote a popular poem about one of the least-liked officers, General Sir Cameron Deane Shute of the British Army.

Obviously, be careful as you hunt for poems of this lighter fare, but there is a humanity in the humor and the profane that high school students will recognize. "These men are actually having a good laugh. What they write is raw and unedited. Mostly the men were private soldiers rather than officers, but they [too] were not uneducated…Their works are moving…because they are funny. They don't seem to lose heart. It is all about keeping cheerful and trying to look on the bright side." 44 Another poem from this time parodied a famous song "Little Grey Home in the West" with the lines: "There's a shallow wet trench near the Houplines/'Tis the wettest there has ever been/There are bullets that fly/There are shells in the sky/And it smells like a German 'has been.'" 45 This piece of fluff was found in a letter from British Second Lieutenant Gamble dated on November 20, 1915. The balance of the letter continues to describe the wretched living conditions: "The water in the front line was everywhere a foot or more deep; it was intensely cold; the hail came across with such force, that it seemed to be mixed with bullets, and I'm sure many men must have thought they were shot by hail-stones." 46

Another poem, "I Want to Tell You Now Sir," shows a funny side of the Battle of Ypres, a balance to John McRae's "In Flanders Fields": "I want to tell you now sir/Before it's all forgot/That we were up at Wipers/And found it very hot." 47 This verse can set up a classroom conversation about rhyme and meter, the tedium of trench life, and the typical-British refusal to pronounce words in anything but a strictly British fashion, and the humanity of the soldiers who found a way to laugh in the worst of all conditions.

No More Jokes

The third phase of war poetry is the anti-war verses. I.M. Parsons describes this phase in World War I Poetry as "poems of protest." 48 The tone has shifted firmly away from the high-spirited, pro-war joy where battle was where a boy became a man and into dark, snarling, critical anger that seeks to mock the experience around them. The dominating tone for these poems, as expected, is bitter and satirical reflecting the exhaustion and disappointment of the soldiers. A poem that starts with "God, how I hate you," encapsulates the cynicism of a world that has been at war far longer than anticipated with still no end in sight. Poems to include in this portion of the unit would include "The General" by Siegfried Sassoon, Charlotte Mary Mew's "June, 1915," and Charles Hamilton Sorley's "To Germany."

The Pity of War or Mud

Not necessarily poems written by soldiers, this movement in war poetry comes from those who "had the heart and wit" to understand the bigger picture of total war. 49 Some of these poems are written after the war that allowed for a temporal distance to create a perspective on the consequences. Other poems were written during the war from the soldiers still on frontlines, still in trenches and dugouts. I.M. Parsons found the mood of many of these poems to be "meditative and reflective, rather than assertive or denunciatory." 50

Poems to include in this section of the unit include Wilfred Owen's "Insensibility," "Parable of the Old Man and the Young," "Anthem for Doomed Youth," and "Dulce et Decorum Est." If Jessie Pope's "The Call" was taught during that first movement (Visions of Glory), it would be interesting for students to know that Wilfred Owen dedicated an early draft of "Dulce et Decorum Est" to Jessie Pope herself. 51 There is also Evelyn Underhill's "Non-Combatants," Edward Thomas's "Rain," and Ivor Gurney's "Strange Hells" to cover in this middle part of the unit.

The Casualties: The Wounded and The Dead

"World War I had a profound human cost, both on servicemen and civilians. Conservative estimates put war casualties at 12 million dead and 20 million severely wounded, though in reality both figures should probably be much higher." 52 Factor in the additional, emotional toll on the parents who lost sons, children who lost fathers, wives who lost husbands, and all who lost friends, cousins, and siblings—not to mention, as Erich Maria Remarque phrased it, "a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war"—and the human cost was astronomical and felt for decades. 53

Poems to include in this part of the unit include Wilfred Owen "Disabled"; Siegfried Sassoon's "Suicide in the Trenches," "Does It Matter," and "Survivors"; and May Herschel-Clarke, "Nothing to Report," "For Valour," and "The Mother." May-Herschel-Clark's "The Mother" was written two years after Rupert Brooke's 1915 sonnet "The Soldier," and should be understood as a direct response to his stirring, pro-war rhetoric.

The absolute devastation of a world that went to war had aftershocks felt throughout the rest of the twentieth century. Never before had the world seen such devastation caused by modern warfare. There was a solemn vow to let this war be "the war to end all wars," a goal that was unmet within two decades. Poems to include in this portion of the unit include Sara Teasdale's "There Will Come Soft Rains" (1920), A.E. Housman's "Here Dead We Lie" (1936). More contemporary poems can also be included such as Edwin Brock's Viet Nam era "Five Ways to Kill a Man" (1972) which has a stanza on World War I.

Close Reading and Annotating Texts

Annotation is the process of adding notes, explanations, or comments directly on a text, diagram, or image. It is a learned process that requires a traditional method of teaching: namely direct instruction, close and careful modeling, and guided practice before students should be expected to demonstrate independent mastery.

Annotation requires multiple readings of the same text, going over the piece once to get an initial, emotional reaction and a lay of the land, then a second time to unlock the vocabulary, a third layer for more intellectual responses. In some ways it mimics Bloom's Taxonomy: read once for knowledge, twice to approach comprehension, and many more times to get to analysis. While annotation is a major tool for understanding prose passages, it works very well for poetry, perhaps more so because the shorter, denser text of a poem makes the reading and multiple re-readings vastly more appealing and approachable. Students are more likely to read and re-read a 100-word poem than a 2000-word short story.

The strategy of annotating text pushes students to make personal connections on their own, an important part of the Common Core State Standards as well as higher-level thinking. It is more than just reading; it is interacting with text. Since it is not an innate part of reading, where too often students read to complete the assignment and check something off their personal to-do lists, annotation must be explicitly taught and reinforced throughout the unit and the year.

Using Interactive Notebooks

An Interactive Notebook is a paper-and-pen strategy that encourages both organization and close reading. Spiral-bound notebooks are used to teach students how to organize and interact with text. When opened and spread out, an interactive notebook has a left-hand side (the backside of the previous page) and a right-hand side. Teacher handouts, classroom notes, vocabulary words are glued down on the right-hand side while student activities—including doodles, responses, journal activities—are maintained on the left-hand. More information on creating and maintaining Interactive Notebooks can be found by visiting the Teacher's Curriculum Institute.

SOAPSTone Technique

SOAPSTone is a College Board strategy. It is a mnemonic acronym for a series of elements that students should examine as they begin to analyze literature, namely Speaker, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Subject, and Tone. 54 This technique gives students a "conscious plan" to approach any piece of text regardless of length or style. 55 Students must go beyond the surface level of any piece of writing by teaching students to consider the speaker (not the writer, but who is telling the story?), occasion (why was this written?), audience (to whom is the piece intended? Who is supposed to read it?), purpose (what is the reason for the writing of this text?), subject (what is this piece about?), and tone (what is the attitude of the writer?) as elements that will ground the piece. It provides clarity and focuses the student to seek textual evidence before interpreting the piece. More information about this strategy is readily available through the College Board.

Classroom Activities

Activity #1: what is a poem/can a sentence be a poem (2 days).

Teaching Goals: Students will be able to define and apply elements of voice such as diction, detail, imagery, figurative language, and syntax

Start with a discussion of descriptive sentence writing, reminding them of elements of voice: diction, imagery, detail, figurative language, and tone. Then, distribute photographs or paintings from World War I (Google Images has a great repository of both mediums), one image per student. Have each student write a descriptive sentence to describe the image in twenty words or fewer. It might be advisable to have extra pictures so that students can exchange the image they are given for one they like better.

Next, distribute war poetry anthologies or teacher-created poetry readers around the classroom and encourage students to browse through them to find poems that they really like. Have students copy a poem or an excerpt from the poem onto unlined paper exactly as it looks in the book, mindful of line breaks, stanza breaks, indentations, and punctuation. Post the finished product on a wall in the classroom. Be aware of students who are re-writing the poem into paragraph form or as a sentence string as they may not have had much experience with what poetry looks like.

On the second day, discuss the elements of a poem: what is a poem? Look at sentence-length poems such as "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos William (1923) or "Epitaphs of War" by Rudyard Kipling (a collection of short verses published in 1922) and discuss whether these qualify as poems, why or why not. Now would be a very good time to discuss whether or not a poem has to rhyme.

Return to the sentences created by the students that used some of the images of war and have them reformat the sentence into a poem. While students might want to revise their use of poetic devices such as imagery or detail, they should not alter the length of the poem's one-sentence, twenty-word limit. Add these finished products to the classroom wall of war poetry. With permission, you might also want to have students write their one sentence poem, in poetic form, with colored chalk on school sidewalks.

Activity #2: Annotating Poetry

Teaching Goals: Students will be able to define the subject, occasion, audience, purpose, speaker, and tone of a poem (SOAPSTone technique). Students will also interpret meaning in poetry and support an interpretation of a poem with evidence from the text

It is important to model the process of annotation as you move further into the poetry unit. For this assignment, find an example of an annotated poem—the teacher can create the example, it can come from a former student's work, or it can be found online using Google images or Google Books. Begin by explaining that annotation is a way of having a conversation with the text and its author. Students should be encouraged to ask questions, pay compliments, argue a point, or seek clarification.

Next, project the image of the annotated poem to the front of the classroom using an overhead, LCD projector, or interactive whiteboard. Lead students through a discussion of what the model-writer marked up, creating a rubric of annotation to help students differentiate between taking notes that are "incomplete or too random." 56 Some teachers have found great success in providing an annotation key for their students: using an asterisk (*) for passages that demonstrate a fresh way of saying something; a question mark (?) to indicate something that does not make sense; a hashtag (#) for the bigger theme or picture. Leave this rubric and the annotation key on the board or make a poster-sized version of it for students to refer to throughout the year.

Finally, distribute a short war poem to the class—"The Soldier" by Rupert Brooke (1915) would work very well for this assignment. Have them glue the poem onto the right-hand side of their interactive notebook. Next, read the poem out loud once as the teacher, then invite several student volunteers to read the poem a second, third, and even fourth time. Students should use a highlighter or a colorful pen to mark up the poem, referring to the rubric for thoughtful suggestions of what to annotate. On the left-hand page, have students begin a SOAPSTone analysis (who is the Speaker, what is the Occasion, who is the intended Audience, what is the Subject, and what is the Tone), filling in as much as they can individually and with citable evidence before moving to a Think-Pair-Share model. Students should also create below-the-surface discussion questions that could lead to a journal activity or writing assignment.

Activity #3: The Vocabulary of Poetry

Teaching Goal: Students will be able to define and apply poetic devices including alliteration, assonance, consonance, metaphor, onomatopoeia, repetition (including anaphora and epiphora), rhyme scheme (including end rhyme, slant rhyme, and internal rhyme), simile, and theme.

Before the lesson begins, find examples of World War I poems that you enjoy. Look for poems that have strong examples of alliteration, assonance, consonance, metaphor, onomatopoeia, repetition, rhyme scheme, simile, and theme.

Print the poems, one per page with a label of the single element that the poem exemplifies. For example, tag Jessie Pope's "The Call" with the vocabulary word "repetition" and a working definition. Slip the page into a sheet protector to safeguard the pages for today's lesson and to be able to re-use for the next class period and next year.

Have the class sit in pairs or triads, one poem per group. If you printed 14 poems, you will have groups of 2-3 students. Have students copy the vocabulary word into their notebooks, then a phrase from the poem that demonstrates the concept along with a citation of the poem. End class with a discussion of their new vocabulary words or by transferring the information to poster paper around the room.

Activity #4: Writing Poetry

The great irony of most secondary school poetry units is "pupils spend a significant amount of time studying poetry written by others, but most of them write no poetry of their own." 57 This is true for most of the things we study in fiction—we read short stories, plays, and novels, but we don't assign students to write an original story, play, or novel. However, poetry is another matter entirely: imagine receiving a class set of poems to grade rather than a class set of essays.

Writing poetry might be perceived as a luxury with a "crowded examination timetable," but it is thoughtful reflection. 58 Writing poetry is expressive: "much of it is easily based on models and patterns, and the process can be quick and painless and even fun. Let's face it: writing poems is not like writing essays." 59 Poetry helped the soldier make sense of the war and can help our students make connections as well.

Throughout the unit, have students write: something as small as a haiku (5-7-5 syllables) can be an exit ticket for that day's class. This daily or weekly activity will focus students on summarization skills and reinforce the need to look for main ideas.

Longer emulation activities will help students focus on not only the voice of the poet, but their own voice as an emerging student-writer. A model poem such as Wallace Stevens' "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" (1917) can be the starting point for writing a poem like "Six Ways of Looking at a Soldier" or "Nine Ways of Writing about the War."

Materials for Classroom Use

I. Visions of Glory or Expectations

Eric Blair, "Arise Young Men of England," 1914. (https://seandodson.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/ericblair_edited.jpg)

Owen Seaman, "Pro Patria," 1914. (http://www.bartleby.com/266/15.html),

Jessie Pope, "The Call," 1914. (http://allpoetry.com/poem/8605781-The-Call-by-Jessie-Pope)

Rupert Brooke, "The Soldier," 1915. (http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/soldier)

Jack Judge, "It's a Long Way to Tipperary," 1911. (http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/itsalongwaytotipperary.htm)

Ivor Novello and Lena Gilbert Ford, "Keep the Home Fires Burning," 1914. (http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/keepthehomefiresburning.htm)

Paul Rubens, "Your King and Country Want You," 1914. (http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/yourkingandcountrywantyou.htm)

George and Felix Powell, "Pack Up Your Troubles," 1915. (http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/packupyourtroubles.htm)

II. The Bitter Truth or Resignation

John McCrae, "In Flanders Fields," 1915. (http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/john-mccrae-in-flanders-fields.htm)

Ivor Gurney, "The Silent One," 1917. (http://www.worldwarone.it/2014/01/the-poets-and-world-war-silent-one-by.html)

Mark Sheridan, "Belgium Put the Kibash on the Kaiser," 1915. (http://www.ww1photos.com/KiboshOnKaiserVideo.html)

A.P. Herbert, "The General," circa 1916. (https://www.facebook.com/WW1ayrshiresharvest/posts/575061632531410)

III. No More Jokes

Charlotte Mary Mew, "June, 1915," 1915. (http://allpoetry.com/June-1915)

Charles Hamilton Sorley, "To Germany," 1915. (http://www.poemhunter.com/charles-hamilton-sorley/)

Arthur Graeme West, "God, How I Hate You!" 1916.

(http://allpoetry.com/God!-How-I-Hate-You!)

Siegfried Sassoon, "The General," 1918. (http://www.bartleby.com/136/12.html)

IV. The Pity of War or Mud

Evelyn Underhill, "Non-Combatants," 1917. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/0/24961283)

Edward Thomas, "Rain," 1916. (http://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/rain/)

Charles Hamilton Sorley, "When You See Millions of the Mouthless Dead," 1915. (http://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/when-you-see-millions-of-the-mouthless-dead/)

Wilfred Owen, "Dulce et Decorum Est," 1917. (http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html)

V. The Wounded and the Dead

Wilfred Owen, "Disabled," 1917. (http://allpoetry.com/Disabled)

Siegfried Sassoon, "Does It Matter," 1918. (http://www.bartleby.com/136/14.html)

May Herschel-Clarke, "The Mother," 1917. (http://allpoetry.com/poem/8600857-The-Mother-by-May-Herschel-Clarke)

VI. Aftermath

Rudyard Kipling, "Epitaphs of War, 1922.

(http://www.bartleby.com/364/202.html)

Sara Teasdale, "There Will Come Soft Rains," 1920. (http://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/there-will-come-soft-rains/)

A.E. Housman, "Here Dead We Lie," 1936. (http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/housman.html)

Edwin Brock, "Five Ways to Kill a Man," 1972. (http://worlds-poetry.com/edwin_brock/five_ways_to_kill_a_man)

English-Language Arts Common Core State Standards

Craft and Structure (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.1): Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Craft and Structure (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2): Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

Craft and Structure (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.6): Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.10): By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of the grades 9-10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

History/Social Sciences Common Core State Standards

Key Ideas and Details (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.1): Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.

Key Ideas and Details (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.2): Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.9) : Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.

Bibliography

Aguilar, Elena. "Five Reasons Why We Need Poetry in Schools." Edutopia. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/five-reasons-poetry-needed-schools-elena-aguilar (accessed June 30, 2014).

Auden, W. H.. "The Poetry of Andrei Voznesensky by W.H. Auden." The New York Review of Books . NYREV, Inc., 16 Apr. 1966. Web. 14 Aug. 2014. <http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1966/apr/14/the-poetry-of-andrei-voznesensky/>

BBC. "BBC iWonder—Has Poetry Distorted Our Views of World War One?" BBC News. http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z38rq6f (accessed July 10, 2014).

BBC. " BBC iWonder—How Did Pack Up Your Troubles become the Viral Hit of WW1?" BBC News. http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z3ypr82#zg3s4wx (accessed July 12, 2014).

Brook, Adriana. "Keeping Up Morale." McMaster University Library, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. https://library.mcmaster.ca/archives/exhibits/worldwar_morale (accessed July 12, 2014).

Brooks, Saxon. "Wilfred Owen 1893 - 1918." The War Poetry Website. http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owena.htm (accessed July 8, 2014).

Brown, Matthew. "I'll Have Mine Annotated, Please: Helping Students Make Connections with Texts." English Journal , March 2007.

Carradice, Phil. "BBC Blogs—Soldiers' Poetry of the First World War." BBC News. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/blogwales/posts/soldiers_poetry_of_world_war_one (accessed July 8, 2014).

Common Core State Standards Initiative. " English Language Arts Standards » History/Social Studies » Grade 9-10" Common Core State Standards. http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RH/9-10/ (accessed July 13, 2014).

Common Core State Standards Initiative. "English Language Arts Standards » Reading: Literature » Grade 9-10." Common Core State Standards. http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RL/9-10/ (accessed July 13, 2014).

Copping, Jasper. "The WW1 Poetry They Didn't Let You Read: Ribald and Risqué Poems from the Front." The Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/10307703/The-WW1-poetry-they-didnt-let-you-read-Ribald-and-risque-poems-from-the-front.html (accessed July 12, 2014).

Duffy, Michael. "Keep The Home Fires Burning." First World War.com. http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/packupyourtroubles.htm (accessed July 14, 2014).

Duffy, Michael . "The Second Battle of Ypres, 1915." First World War.com. http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/ypres2.htm (accessed July 24, 2014).

Duffy, Michael. "Vintage Audio – Pack Up Your Troubles." First World War.com. http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/yourkingandcountrywantyou.htm (accessed July 13, 2014).

Duffy, Michael. "Vintage Audio - Your King and Country Want You." First World War.com. http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/yourkingandcountrywantyou.htm (accessed July 13, 2014).

Durham County Public Office. "Transcript of a Letter from Second Lieutenant Gamble, 20 November 1915." http://www.durhamrecordoffice.org.uk/Pages/TranscriptGambleletter20Nov1915.aspx (accessed July 13, 2014).

Fricker, Martin. "Song that Won War: It's a Long Way to Tipperary and a Long Time to Pay Royalties." The Mirror. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/song-won-war-its-long-3160289 (accessed July 12, 2014).

Fussell, Paul. The Great War and Modern Memory . 25th anniversary ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Gayle, Damien. "Poetry Does not Help Children Understand the Great War." Mail Online. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2580804/Poetry-does-not-help-children-understand-Great-War-says-Paxman-Teaching-children-works-Owen-Sassoon-passes-half-baked-prejudices.html (accessed July 12, 2014).

Gioia, Dana. Can Poetry Matter? Saint Paul: Graywolf Press, 1992.

Grocke, Vicky . "Compulsory Education." https://www3.nd.edu. https://www3.nd.edu/~rbarger/www7/compulso.html (accessed July 9, 2014).

Hardenbergh, Nicky. "Massachusetts Compulsory Attendance Statutes from 1852-1913." Massachusetts Compulsory Attendance Statutes from 1852-1913. http://www.mhla.org/information/massdocuments/mglhistory.htm (accessed July 9, 2014).

Harpham, Geoffrey Galt. The Humanities and the Dream of America . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.

Hawking, Richard. "'Stepping Out of the Gloaming' : A Reconsideration of the Poetry of Walter de la Mare." The Official Walter de la Mare Society Website. http://www.walterdelamare.co.uk/29.html (accessed July 9, 2014).

The Heart of the Matter: The Humanities and Social Sciences for a Vibrant, Comeptitive, and Secure Nation . Cambridge: American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 2013.

Hibberd, Dominic. "Georgian Poets (act. 1912–-1922) by Dominic Hibberd." Oxford DNB article: Georgian poets 2014-01. http://www.oxforddnb.com/templates/theme-print.jsp?articleid=95604 (accessed July 9, 2014).

House, Alexandra. Poetry in Schools: a Survey of Practice, 2006/07. . London: Ofsted, 2007.

Hutchcroft, Anthony. "In Flanders Fields Poem The World's Most Famous War Memorial Poem By Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae." Flanders Field Music. http://www.Flandersfieldsmusic.com/Thepoem.html (accessed July 24, 2014).

Joannou, Ashley. "Poet Goes from Newsprint to Verse." Yukon News. http://www.yukon-news.com/arts/poet-goes-from-newsprint-to-verse/ (accessed July 12, 2014).

Johnston, John H.. English Poetry of the First World War; a Study in the Evolution of Lyric and Narrative Form. . Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1964.

Lee, Stuart. "Intro. to WWI Poetry: War Poetry as Historical Fact?." The First World War Poetry Archive. http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/education/tutorials/intro/history.html (accessed July 12, 2014).

Llewellyn, Jennifer, Jim Southey, and Steve Thompson. "The Human Cost of World War I." AlphaHistory. http://alphahistory.com/worldwar1/human-cost/ (accessed July 10, 2014).

National Assessment of Educational Progress. "Reading Framework for the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress." National Assessment of Educational Progress. http://www.nagb.org/publications/frameworks/reading/2013-reading-framework.html (accessed July 10, 2014).

Otten, Nick. "How and Why to Annotate a Book ." AP Central. http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/courses/teachers_corner/197454.html (accessed July 9, 2014).

Parsons, I. M.. Men who March Away; Poems of the First World War . New York: Viking Press, 1965.

Patterson, Michael. "In Flanders Field, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae." In Flanders Field, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm (accessed July 24, 2014).

Petri, Alexandra. "The Common Core 70 Percent Nonfiction Standards and the End Of Reading?." Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2012/12/07/the-common-cores-70-percent-nonfiction-standards-and-the-end-of-reading/ (accessed July 10, 2014).

Prior, Neil. "The woe behind Pack Up Your Troubles." BBC News. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-25968407 (accessed July 12, 2014).

Sadler, John, and Rosie Serdiville. Tommy Rot WWI Poetry They Didn't Let You Read. . New York: The History Press, 2013.

Somers, Albert B. Teaching Poetry in High School . Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1999.

Stout, Janis P. Coming out of War: Poetry, Grieving, and the Culture of the World Wars . Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2005.

"The 1870 Education Act." UK Parliament. http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/livinglearning/school/overview/1870educationact/ (accessed July 9, 2014).

Wells, K. A. "Music as War Propaganda." Music As Propaganda In World War I. http://parlorsongs.com/issues/2004-4/thismonth/feature.php (accessed July 12, 2014).

Williamson, Andrew. "Dulce et Decorum est." - Modernism Lab Essays. http://modernism.research.yale.edu/wiki/index.php/Dulce_et_Decorum_est (accessed July 12, 2014).

1. Michael Duffy, "Battles—The Second Battle of Ypres, 1915."

2. "In Flanders Fields," http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm

3. "In Flanders Fields," http://www.flandersfieldsmusic.com/thepoem.html

4. Alexandra House, "Poetry in Schools: A Survey in Practice, 2006-07,"

5. Elena Aguilar, "Five Reasons Why We Need Poetry in Schools."

6. Ashley Joannou, "Poet Goes from Newsprint to Verse."

7. Geoffrey Galt Harpham, The Humanities and the American Dream.

8. Alexandra Petri, "The Common Core's 70 Percent Nonfiction Standards and the End of Reading?"

9. Common Core State Standardzzs

10. W. H. Auden, "The Poetry of Andrei Voznesensky."

11. Damien Gayle, "Poetry Does not Help Children Understand the Great War."

12. Joe Patti, "Then What Are We Fighting For Anyway?"

13. Elena Aguilar, "Five Reasons Why We Need Poetry in Schools."

14. National Assessment of Educational Progress, "Reading Framework for the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress," 6.

15. The Heart of the Matter: The Humanities and Social Sciences for a Vibrant, Competitive, and Secure Nation " 6.

16. Alexandra House, "Poetry in Schools: A Survey in Practice, 2006-07," 4.

17. Alexandra House, "Poetry in Schools: A Survey in Practice, 2006-07," 6.

18. BBC News, "BBC iWonder—Has Poetry Distorted Our Views of World War One?"

19. Jasper Copping, "The WWI Poetry They Didn't Let You Read: Ribald and Risqué Poems from the Front."

20. BBC iWonder, "How Did Pack Up Your Troubles become the Viral Hit of WW1?"

21. Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory, 158.

22. Martin Fricker, "Song that Won War: It's a Long Way to Tipperary."

23. Michael Duffy, " Vintage Audio—Keep The Home Fires Burning."

24. Michael Duffy, "Vintage Audio— Your King and Country Want You."

25. Michael Duffy, "Vintage Audio—Pack Up Your Troubles."

26. BBC iWonder, "How Did Pack Up Your Troubles become the Viral Hit of WW1?"

27. BBC iWonder, "How Did Pack Up Your Troubles become the Viral Hit of WW1?"

28. K. A. Wells, "Music as War Propaganda: Did Music Help Win the First World War?"

29. BBC iWonder, "How Did Pack Up Your Troubles become the Viral Hit of WW1?"

30. BBC iWonder, "How Did Pack Up Your Troubles become the Viral Hit of WW1?"

31. BBC iWonder, "How Did Pack Up Your Troubles become the Viral Hit of WW1?"

32. Vicky Grocke and http://www.parliament.uk

33. David Carradice, "Soldiers' Poetry of the First World War."

34. Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory, 155.

35. Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory, 155.

36. Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory, 155.

37. I.M. Parsons Men Who Marched Away , 14-15

38. Richard Hawking. "Stepping out of the Gloaming: a Reconsideration of the Poetry of Walter de la Mare."

39. Dominic Hibberd, "Georgian Poets (act. 1912-1922)."

40. Dominic Hibberd, "Georgian Poets (act. 1912-1922)."

41. Ofted, "Poetry in Schools: a Survey of Practice, 2006/07."

42. I.M. Parsons Men Who Marched Away , 16.

43. I.M. Parsons Men Who Marched Away , 18.

44. Jasper Copping, "The Poetry They Didn't Let You Read: Ribald and Risqué Poems of the Front."

45. Jasper Copping, "The Poetry They Didn't Let You Read: Ribald and Risqué Poems of the Front."

46. Durham County Public Office, "Transcript of a Letter from Second Lieutenant Gamble, 20 November 1915."

47. Jasper Copping, "The Poetry They Didn't Let You Read: Ribald and Risqué Poems of the Front.

48. I.M. Parsons Men Who Marched Away , 20.

49. I.M. Parsons Men Who Marched Away , 20.

50. I.M. Parsons Men Who Marched Away , 21.

51. Andrew Williamson, "Dulce et Decorum Est."

52. J. Llewellyn et al, "The Human Cost of World War I," Alpha History

53. Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front .

54. Ogden Morse, "SOAPSTone: A Strategy for Reading and Writing."

55. Ogden Morse, "SOAPSTone: A Strategy for Reading and Writing."

56. Nick Otten, How and Why to Annotate a Book."

57. Ofted, "Poetry in Schools: a Survey of Practice, 2006/07."

58. Ofted, "Poetry in Schools: a Survey of Practice, 2006/07."

59. Albert B. Somers, Teaching Poetry in High School , 129.

Comments (0)

Be the first person to comment