Dulce et Decorum Est Learning objectives: 1. to consolidate your PEEL skills 2. TO develop understanding of the rest of the poem 3.How to prepare for the assessment next lesson

The PEEL paragraph (you have in your book) Owen presents the soldiers in stanza one as crippled by injury and exhaustion. He describes them as men who ‘marched asleep’ and who ‘all went lame; all blind’. The soldiers are operating on autopilot- they are so fatigued that they are not fully conscious which suggests they are receiving inadequate rest and care. The metaphor ‘marched asleep’ presents them not as alert and prepared as we would expect but potentially vulnerable to attack. Owen also shows how they are beset by injury and disability because they are limping ‘lame’ and suffering with eyesight problems ‘blind’; he emphasises the extent of this problem through the word ‘all’ stressing that every soldier falls victim to ill health which is a frightening statistic and in direct contrast to the images of athleticism and fitness shown in the recruitment propaganda.

PEEL paragraph by a fantastic 8F student O In the poem ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’, Owen presents soldiers who once held dignity, whose strength could be told just by posture, as life drained and weary: unable now to even hold the strong posture they’d once had. Owen also doesn’t agree with the act of brutal war. He describes the soldiers with the metaphor ‘drunk with fatigue’ suggesting that the soldiers are intoxicated with drowsiness; the conditions of war are so harsh and unforgiving it has exhausted once demanding soldiers and made them humble. The word ‘drunk’ suggests they are disorientated and unbalanced which frighteningly shows their vulnerability in battle. The quote could also suggest the men are so drunk with exhaustion they are used to the art of killing innocent men who have been tricked into thinking “it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country” by propaganda just as the innocent men.

Last lesson we looked at stanza two Gas!(7) Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets(8) just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime(9)... Dim, through the misty panes(10) and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

PEEL paragraph on stanza two In stanza two, Owen changes from observation to action as the soldiers experience a gas attack which is presented vividly in the present tense for the reader. Devices you could analyse: Direct speech Exclamative tone Monosyllabic command verbs Paradox / juxtaposition ‘ecstasy of fumbling’ Personification ‘clumsy helmets’ Present continuous tense ‘stumbling’ ‘yelling’ Sea / drowning metaphor Postponement of main clause Adjectives to convey confusion and submersion ‘thick’ misty’ ‘green’

Stanza 3 In all my dreams before my helpless sight He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. In the third stanza, Owen returns to the present and confesses how he is haunted by his war experiences; he is describing would be referred to now as post-traumatic stress disorder.

Stanza 4 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. Red question What does this simile suggest about the soldiers? Blue question How could the sores be symbolic? Green question What tone is used here? Owen promises Jessie Pop and those who believe the government’s propaganda with ‘high zest’ that if they had witnessed the horror of war, as he had, they would not feel war is sweet and just.

Your assessment O 45 minutes O Clean copy of poem O Tuesday 20 th p.1 Success Criteria O AF1 – effective use and embedding of quotes O AF3 – perceptive inference and interpretation O AF5 – imaginative and technically precise analysis of language, device and structure O AF6 – confident understanding of the poet’s attitudes and message O Preparation: prepare your 3 PEEL points plus intro

Remember to use effective vocabulary