Dulce et Decorum Est lesson plan Introduction Look at the following photos: Education Umbrella 1
Ask students if they know what event these photos come from. (World War I, 1914-1918). Ask students to imagine the feelings of the men in the photos. If possible, have students come to the board and write their ideas next to the photos. Examples could include, scared, frightened, cold, wet, tired, confused, exhausted. Focus on the last photo. What has happened to the men? (They have been attacked with poison gas). Why is each man holding the man in front of him? (Because the gas has blinded them.) Development Ask students if they have studied or know anything about WWI. If they are familiar with it, ask the following questions: - Where did it take place? - Which were the main countries involved? - How many soldiers were killed? - What is meant by "trench warfare"? Tell the students they are going to read a poem by Wilfred Owen. Explain that Owen was a British soldier who fought in WWI on the Western Front (France) and wrote many famous poems based on his experiences. He was shot and killed in France on the 4th of November, 1918, one week before the war ended. Distribute the poem and ask students to read it alone in their own time. Answer any questions about vocabulary. When the students are ready, read the poem aloud as a class. Understanding the poem Put students in pairs. Have them answer the questions, quoting the line(s) that support their answers: 1. Where is the poet going? Where has he come from? (To their "distant rest." They have travelled from the front line: "Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs") 2. How do he and the other soldiers feel? (Very tired: "Drunk with fatigue.") 3. How do the soldiers look? ("Like old beggars"; weak and malnourished: "Knock- kneed"; covered in blood: "Blood- shod"; in bare feet and barely able to walk: "Many had lost their boots / but limped on... all lame") 4. What happens as the soldiers are marching? (There is a gas attack: "Gas! Gas!") Education Umbrella 2
5. What do the soldiers try to do to protect themselves? (Put on their gas masks: "An ecstasy of fumbling / Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time") 6. Does every man manage to fit his helmet in time? (No: "But someone still was yelling out and stumbling.") 7. What happens to the man? (He dies in agony: "flound'ring like a man in fire or lime") 8. What lasting effect does this incident have on the writer (Owen)? (He still sees the man in his dreams: "In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, / He plunges at me.") 9. How could one summarise Owen's final message? (If you saw such a thing you would never repeat the slogan, Dulce et Decorum Est; there is no glory in war.) Owen's poetical devices Iambic pentameter How many syllables are there in the first line? (10) Read the first line, stressing every second syllable. How many syllables are stressed? (Five.) This form is called iambic pentametre. Rhyming scheme Read the final word of each line. What kind of rhyming scheme does Owen employ? (A, B, A, B / C, D, C, D/ etc., ending with a rhyming couplet.) Similes A simile is a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with a different thing, often using 'like' or 'as.' Find six similes in the poem. 1. Bent double, like old beggars under sacks 2. coughing like hags 3. And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime 4. through the misty panes and thick green light, / As under a green sea, I saw him drowning 5. His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin 6. Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud / Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues Language What language does Owen use to create a sense of death and despair? Complete the lists with the nouns, verbs and adjectives that create the mood. Education Umbrella 3
Nouns Verbs Adjectives Beggars Coughing Lame Education Umbrella 4
Grammar Most of the poem is written in two tenses - past simple ('we turned') and past continuous ('someone was yelling'). Find other examples of these tenses. Which is the only line not written in these two tenses (He plunges at me). What tense is this? (Present simple). What effect does this have? (Coming in the middle of the poem it functions as a kind of pause between the first half of the poem, in which Owen describes the gas attack, and the second half, in which he describes the attack's aftermath and the psychological effect it has on him and that he thinks it would have on those who are enthusiastic about war. The brevity and simplicity of the line is also very powerful.) Activities 1) Imagine you are Wilfred Owen. Write a letter to a friend back home describing what happened and the effect it has had on you. Use some of the language from the poem: - past simple; - past continuous; - present simple; - nouns, verbs and adjectives that create a sense of death and dismay; - similes. 2) Look at the following photo: The photo is of an Australian soldier carrying a wounded comrade during the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915. In this battle many thousands of British, Australian, New Zealander and Turkish troops were killed. It took place on a peninsula in the southwest of what was then the Ottoman Empire and is today Turkey. Education Umbrella 5
Imagine you are a soldier fighting in the Battle of Gallipoli. Write a poem about an experience there that, like Owen's, makes you realise that there is no glory in war. Model your poem on Owen's 'Dulce et Decorum Est': - written in iambic pentameter; - first lines in past simple and past continuous tense describe something awful; Education Umbrella 6
- pause in the middle to describe the effect this has in the present; - continue with 'If you...' and ends with: 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. Before you begin, list some of the nouns, verbs and adjectives you might use. Consider that the Battle of Gallipoli took place during the summer in an area that is very hot and dry. The frequent shelling caused the vegetation to catch fire, which created huge clouds of thick smoke. The terrible battles left hundreds of rotting corpses on the battle fields. Many men died from awful diseases, such as dysentery, and sometimes from dehydration due to the scarcity of water. Education Umbrella 7