Vocabulary in Dulce et Decorum Est

Hunched over so severely that the body is folded nearly in half, suggesting extreme exhaustion or the weight of a heavy burden pressing a person downward.

Having knees that knock or buckle inward while walking, here describing soldiers so worn out that their legs can barely hold them upright.

Old women, typically thought of as ugly and frail; Owen uses the word to show how war has aged and broken young soldiers beyond their years.

Thick, wet, muddy muck underfoot — the kind of deep, clinging mud that covers the battlefields of the Western Front and makes every step a struggle.

To walk slowly and heavily, with great effort, as if every step costs more energy than a person has left to give.

The loud warning blasts or signals — here the sound of gas-shell alarms — that alert soldiers to incoming danger on the battlefield.

Handling something clumsily and with difficulty, especially under panic or poor conditions, as soldiers struggle to fit their gas masks in time.

The awkward, ill-fitting gas masks soldiers wore over their heads; called 'clumsy' because they were difficult to put on quickly and restricted vision and movement.

Flickering and fading out, like a candle flame about to die; here it describes the gassed man's life and consciousness sputtering and failing as the poison takes hold.

Twisting and contorting the body in pain, making uncontrolled, agonized movements that cannot be stopped.

A caustic white chemical substance; here it refers to the corrosive effect of the gas on the soldier's body, burning and destroying tissue as if eaten by a chemical.

Raw, painful wounds or blisters on the skin; in this poem they describe the open, festering injuries left on the soldier's body by the burning gas.

Making a wet, bubbling sound deep in the throat, as if liquid is blocking the airway; here it describes the horrifying sound of blood and fluid filling the dying soldier's lungs.

Ruined and rotted by the foamy, bloody fluid that gas poisoning forces up through the lungs and mouth, leaving the body visibly destroyed from the inside.

Intensely eager and enthusiastic, burning with passion; Owen uses it to describe the dangerous, misguided zeal with which civilians encourage young men to rush off to war.

A Latin phrase meaning 'to die for one's country'; Owen quotes it as the final words of the Roman poet Horace's maxim and labels it 'the old Lie' that sends men to pointless deaths.

Latin for 'it is sweet and fitting'; the opening words of Horace's famous saying that dying for your country is a noble and glorious thing, which Owen directly challenges and rejects.