Wilfred Owen

1. Wilfred Owen

2. Autobiography/Scrapbook

3. My birth certificate (1893)

4. My application for admission to WWI

5. I wrote all my famous antiwar poems of life in the trenches in less than two years.

6. Tank crossing a trench

7. Long-range artillery

8. Machine guns

9. I was caught in a shell explosion in 1917 and was injured and sent home with shell shock/neurasthenia. I returned in 1918.

10. “Gas! GAS! Quick boys!” Gas canisters

11. Gas shells exploding

12. “Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, / As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.” Soldiers wearing gas masks in the trenches

13. Gas victims lining up at treatment station

14. “…vile, incurable sores…” Treating mustard gas victims

15. My grave at Ors Village Cemetery. I was awarded a Military Cross for Bravery, but I was killed in a German machine gun attack seven days before the Armistice in 1918. I was only 25.

16. About my poem One of my manuscript pages for “Dulce.”

17. Mustard Gas Effects: • Produces hydrochloric acid when in contact with moisture (lungs, eyes) • 12 hours before develop symptoms • Blisters exposed, moist skin (lungs, eyes, armpits, groin) • Rots body inside and outside • Attacks/blinds eyes • Causes nausea/vomiting • Strips mucous membranes in bronchial tubes • Causes bleeding of lungs and pulmonary edema (lungs fill with fluid and feel like you’re drowning) • Victims often strapped to beds to restrain • Causes death in 4-5 weeks

18. My poem: “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 tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

19. 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.

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; 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.

21. Analysis: “Dulce Et Decorum Est” Allusion to Roman poet Horace: “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” (“It is sweet and becoming to die for one’s country”). It is mocking the glorification of war. 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. Stanza 1 - Sets scene of war

22. 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. Stanza 2 – Action of gas attack Stanza 3 – Aftermath

23. 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. Stanza 4 – My attack on those at home who are unaware of reality of war

24. “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 tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind. Irony: Written in heroic quatrains, usually seen in noble narratives with heroic view of war Meter: Loose iambic pentameter – may show departure from structure of military Simile: Young men in wretched condition Diction: Used for light, turning backs on light Diction: Camp for exhausted soldiers, but also death Diction: Soldiers are already “dead” (“lame,” “blind,” “drunk,” “deaf”) Diction: Normally shod a horse – animal imagery makes man a tool Diction: Noise from shells in the air – makes shells seem innocuous

25. 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. Diction: Medical term for morbid state of nerves where mind is only occupied with one thing – contrasts with excited connotation Diction: Early name for gas masks – protective gear (White chalky substance that can burn live tissue) Onomatopoeia: Sounds in throat of choking man (Glass in eyepieces of gas masks) Simile: Drowning from gas Diction: Present tense shows recurring dream

26. 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. Diction: War supporters like patriotic writer Jessie Pope who glorified war – wrote children’s books Diction: Loss of dignity (“flung”) The overall tone is CONDEMNING. Owen is condemning those like Horace, Jessie Pope, and war supporters who believe “the old lie” that war is noble and heroic. Diction: Timeless idea that war is noble and heroic Simile and Alliteration: Face is corrupted Diction: Cow’s regurgitated grass – what soldier’s spit-up looked like – animal imagery Metaphor: Horrible memories (Idealistic enthusiasm) (Eager)

27. “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 tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind. Starts with MISERABLE tone - Men are miserably marching during war

28. 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. The next tonal shift is during the narrator’s flashbacks to the gas attack when his fellow soldier is dying. The tone here is TROUBLED. Tone shifts to URGENT during the gas attack while they try to get masks on

29. 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. The poem ends with the condemnation – the tone here is DISGUSTED, SCORNFUL, HARSH, and RIDICULING

30. Theme: CHALLENGING SOCIETY – known as one of the most popular condemnations of war What does the poem tell us about history? Reveals conditions of war, specifically during WWI What does the poem tell us about humanity? There has been war since the beginning of time. There are many views of war, and this is mine. Since I was a soldier, my perspective carries credibility. Humans often promote or glorify their ideas without fully understanding the reality of a situation. I explain suffering during the war and its aftermath. I illustrate both group and individual suffering so that outsiders can gain insight into my reality of war.

31. Connections to my work Contrasts with Owen Seaman’s “Pro Patria” and Rupert Brooke’s “The Soldier” WWI Nurse: “I wish those people who write so glibly about this being a holy war and the orators who talk so much about going on no matter how long the war lasts and what it may mean, could see a case…of mustard gas in its early stages—could see the poor things burnt and blistered all over with great mustard-coloured suppurating blisters, with blind eyes…all sticky and stuck together, and always fighting for breath, with voices a mere whisper, saying that their throats are closing and they know they will choke.”

32. John Singer Sargent’s Gassed

33. Questions?

34. Works Cited "Dulce Et Decorum Est." Emory University. 18 Feb. 2007 <http://www.english.emory.edu/LostPoets/Dulce.html>. Gilbert, Steven G. "Milestones and Discoveries in the 1900s- 1930s." A Small Dose of... 13 Mar. 2006. 18 Feb. 2007 <http://www.asmalldoseof.org/historyoftox/1900- 1930s.htox.php>. Mentzer, Ray. "Weapons & Equipment." Photos of the Great War. 30 Apr. 2001. 18 Feb. 2007 <http://www.gwpda.org/photos/greatwar.htm>. "Mustard Gas." Spartacus Educational. Feb. 2007. 18 Feb. 2007 <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWmustard.htm>. "The Wilfred Owen Multimedia Digital Archive." Virtual Seminars for Teaching Literature. Sept. 1998. Oxford University. 18 Feb. 2007 <http://www.hcu.ox.ac.uk/jtap/>.