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Wild with all regrets

Dulce et Decorum est


Presented by Chang-Sern Kim

(Another version of "A Terre".)


To Siegfried Sassoon
My arms have mutinied against me -- brutes!
My fingers fidget like ten idle brats,
My back's been stiff for hours, damned hours.
Death never gives his squad a Stand-at-ease.
I can't read. There: it's no use. Take your book.
A short life and a merry one, my buck!
We said we'd hate to grow dead old. But now,
Not to live old seems awful: not to renew
My boyhood with my boys, and teach 'em hitting,
Shooting and hunting, -- all the arts of hurting!
-- Well, that's what I learnt. That, and making money.
Your fifty years in store seem none too many;
But I've five minutes. God! For just two years
To help myself to this good air of yours!
One Spring! Is one too hard to spare? Too long?
Spring air would find its own way to my lung,
And grow me legs as quick as lilac-shoots.

Wild With All Regrets

Yes, there's the orderly. He'll change the sheets


When I'm lugged out, oh, couldn't I do that?
Here in this coffin of a bed, I've thought
I'd like to kneel and sweep his floors for ever, -And ask no nights off when the bustle's over,
For I'd enjoy the dirt; who's prejudiced
Against a grimed hand when his own's quite dust, -Less live than specks that in the sun-shafts turn?
Dear dust, -- in rooms, on roads, on faces' tan!
I'd love to be a sweep's boy, black as Town;
Yes, or a muckman. Must I be his load?
A flea would do. If one chap wasn't bloody,
Or went stone-cold, I'd find another body.
Which I shan't manage now. Unless it's yours.
I shall stay in you, friend, for some few hours.
You'll feel my heavy spirit chill your chest,
And climb your throat on sobs, until it's chased
On sighs, and wiped from off your lips by wind.
I think on your rich breathing, brother, I'll be weaned
To do without what blood remained me from my wound.

Wild With All Regrets


A brief summary:
A poem written to Siegfried Sassoon before his
discharge from the hospital the poem scrapes Owen
Wilfreds urge to survive the raging onslaught of the
war. We are introduced to the poem caught by the
tension and fear in his body, Owen is dominated by the
pressure created by war, Owen begins regretting the
life he has undervalued and wasted as his time towards
his seeming end draws closer. Forced to be humbled as
his time draws short Owen sees the world in a new
light, refuting his past thoughts of menial labour and
seeming to attain a kinship with his corporal team of
men who may die at his side

I cant read Take your book

As we know Owen Wilfred is clearly capable of reading


seeing as how he wrote several poems, we see Owen
pushing away the gift of his friend contrasting the title
in becoming one of Owens many regrets.

But Ive five minutes To Siegfried Sassoon

Owen writes realistically although we are aware of the


fact that Owen has written this outside of the
battlefield

In contrary with the title of the poem he denounces


this poem to his teacher and friend Sassoon, the time
spent together is reflected in this poem as Owen also
regrets leaving his company

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 floundering 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.

Dulce et Decorum est

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 devils 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


A brief summary:
Dulce et Decorum Est truly recounts Owens experience
with the battlefield as it describes the suffering and
fatigue endured for his unit, the poem describes Owen
left horrified and scarred by the specific death of his
comrade due to gas, Owen no longer sees honour in
death, mainly due to the invention of guns and bombs,
being killed by the pull of a trigger holds no glory and
Owen writing through the changing times has become
sorrowful of the countless innocent lives loss, in which
they cant be rewarded.

In all my dreams

all my dreams this only leaves us with a minuscule


portion of the terror this image held which continually
forced Owen to remember.

Left horrified of the war, even as Owen survived the


onslaught the tragedy has scarred Owens mind leaving
him with the permanent harrowing images of the
battlefield.

Death
Wild With All Regrets
The speaker describes his approach to death and how
he would cling to anything in the world if it were to
prolong life despite hardships or pain

Dulce et Decorum est


"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" - "it is sweet
and right to die for your country"

Owen ends the poem describing this phrase as an "old


Lie

he pleas readers not to tell this lie to children as what


he has been through was not 'sweet'

personification of death:

"Death never gives his squad a Stand-at-ease"

"mori" means die

Death is personified as an Army Commander

"Stand-at-ease" is a drill command that allows soldiers


to relax

capitalisation of "Lie" expresses the propaganda


towards war

The speaker describes how death does not allow


people to relax: death creates tension in the victim
before they die and also to the victims
friends/family

deaf even to the hoots softly behind

The soldiers walk without worry even as they facet he


imminent threat of death bombarding them from
behind

Shows the severe lack of morale in the team caused by


the fatigue from the war

Owen describes the physical pain of approaching


death due to war in both poems

Life
Wild With All Regrets
Owen becomes humble in the short moment between
the deciding battle of whether he lives or dies
regretting not spending his time enjoying the small
but precious moments he dismissed.
Your fifty years in store seem none too many, But
Ive five minutes.

Bracing against the incoming battle the speakers tone


holds the tone of regret as he now realises how
precious every second has become

I think on your rich breathing, brother

Metaphor his breath now holds a monetary value, the


speaker in his stressed time concerns breathing with
that of the wealthy, in this case those who will not die
in the coming battle

faced with the imminent threat of death people take


pity for the life they once had, the activities and
items which made it precious

Dulce et Decorum est

Towards our distant rest began to trudge

Owen describes the troops marching towards an


inevitable rest, whether they die in the battlefield or
they survive the ordeal

Trudge shows the harshness of the environment and


further stresses the exhaustion of the soldiers

My friend, you would not tell Pro patria mori

Owen recalls the horrific scene of his comrades death.

The death was more of an act of torture, watching him


as the poisonous gas slowly killed him, a horrendous
way to die.

Pity of war
Wild With All Regrets
the pity of war is that war makes people long for life
"I'd like to kneel and sweep his floors"

Diction - of "like to" gives the effect that this speaker


desires to do something no one else wants if it meant that
it would prolong his life

I'd love to be a sweeps boy

sweeps boys are boys that clean soot from chimneys


The soot blackens their skin

an awful job to have but if it meant that he could live he


would "love" to be one

Whos prejudiced against a grimed hand when his


owns quite dust

Rhetorical question - The menial labour no longer bothers


the speaker who longs to extend his life now
understanding the fear of death

war makes people desperate for the small things in life


we take for granted.

Dulce et Decorum est


"Drunk with fatigue"

Metaphor - Owen describes the suffering of the fighting


men, metaphorically implying that the soldiers are burnt
out to the point where they are not in their normal state of
mind as a result of their extreme fatigue

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!

The first iteration of Gas! shows the extremity of fatigue


in the team as the speakers first iteration gives off a
lifeless tone which suddenly becomes invigorated

The time taken to take the matter seriously by just


announcing gas once couldve been shown but wasnt as if
they had to contemplate the severity of death

Behind the wagon that we flung him in"

Diction of " flung" emphasizes the mistreatment of soldiers


during the war

"His hanging face, like a devils sick of sin"

Similie - Owen describes how the men are sick of fighting,


and how even the dead soldiers are sick of this war

Camaraderie
Wild With All Regrets
This theme is the basis of the poem. The sense of
"brothers in arms" is carried by soldiers, from trenches
to hospitals. It is shown during the first stanza when
Owen describes the broken soldier in his bed (My arms
have mutinied against me - brutes!
My fingers fidget like ten idle brats,) while a friend, of
which he met in the war, brings him a book to read.
This shows the companionship build by spending time
together in the trenches as the injured soldier is
treated with respect and compassion by his comrade.
This is reinforced by the connotation of the bond
between father and son while the injured man reflects
what it would have been like to be a father. I believe
that this idea represents how strong the bond truly is as
the soldier refers to the other one as his 'brother' (a
family bond, much like father and son).

Dulce et Decorum est


the theme is very present in Owen's poem, it is most notable in the
second stanza. The stanza describes a gas attack on the retreating
allied forces. One soldier is too slow to put on his own gas mask, and,
as Owen depicts the scene, we see it through the narrator's view (a
fellow soldier). The horror that follows can be directly compared to
'Wild with all Regrets' as both are about one man dying while his
companion is helpless to save him (only deference being the setting).
These poems both convey one of Owen's biggest problems, the pity of
modern war. I say modern war because Owen (through his poems) shows
a belief that war is human, war is natural, but not like this.
"Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori" a Latin quote meaning "it is
sweet and good to die for one's country". This idea is presented as a lie
in the final line of the poem showing that, although it was once true, it
can no longer be applied. Its pity is that war used to be emotional, one
would face there enemy and look them in the eyes and know they were
also human, then they would either best or be bested by sword or
shield or spear, and when they did then they would see who they had
killed, now it is robotic. You could shoot someone from a mile away and
not know who the were, how old, what nationality, what family? And
this is seen during the gas attack on fleeing allied forces. It creates
imagery in the spectator's mind about who was dying. I saw a young
man no older then 20. But you might have seen a man who is 30 or 40.
This imagery is that same idea of not knowing who was just killed.

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