Nicholas Carpenter

“Dulce et Decorum Est” Short Assignment, 10 April 2020

Help Received: Spellcheck, googled the Latin lines

Question 1: Changes in the manuscripts. A difference between the final version and the manuscripts is that the manuscripts include four lines (from “Then somewhere near the front…” to “…Poison hit us in the face”) which are omitted in the final. The line immediately preceding that section is also different, as the manuscript references “five-nines,” which based on the context I presume to be a type of artillery shell, while the final reads “gas-shells” instead. Another difference is the wording of the fifth line. One manuscript reads, “Dragging the worst amongst us, who’d no boots,” while the final reads, “Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots.”

Question 2: Opinion on Changes. I think the changes were good. The four omitted lines seem to add relatively little information of value for the reader, so cutting straight from “Of gas-shells dropping softly behind” to “Gas! Gas!…” makes the poem flow more smoothly. Also, the change from “five-nines” to “gas-shells” makes the line more easily understood by readers unfamiliar with contemporary military jargon. At any rate, the change is entirely necessary with the next four lines omitted because some context is lost. Lastly, I believe the change to “Men marched asleep” is a more succinct word choice and a more powerful mental image than “Dragging the worst amongst us.”

Question 3: Paraphrase of final version. We walked through the mud on our way to the rest station, many limping there virtually blind and deaf. Gas shells landed nearby and we rushed to put on our gas masks. Through the lens on my own mask I could see a man drowning in the gas. We threw him on a wagon, but the damage was incurable. If you could see it yourself, you would not be so quick to encourage the youth to go to war for their country.

Question 4: Theme. The theme of this poem is about the suffering in war. The last lines are a sharp reprimand for those who encouraged Britain’s young men to join the war. I did a google search on the Latin lines and what I found on the internet matched my guess fairly closely, about how it is noble to die for your country. Owen is saying the war is a nightmare of unimaginable suffering; the troops are fatigued and broken, facing artillery shells and poison gas.