Published Versions

There are two versions of the poem that are widely anthologised.  Probably the most common was published in 1964 in an edition of poems edited by C. Day Lewis.  The other was published in 1929, edited by Edmund Blunden.  You can compare both versions on the both print versions: a comparison page.

The 1964 version is also on the main print version: a study page with links to the transcripts.

Manuscripts

There are four manuscript versions of the poem.  These are labeled A, B, C and D.  The compare manuscripts page allows you to view any two at the same time.

Transcripts

Included are the three available transcripts of the manuscripts A, C and D in order to help with the reading of the manuscripts. 

Letter and Biography

This site also contains an extract from a letter to Owen's mother about the poem and a short biography.

Tutorial and comments

Included is a commentary and tutorial on Owen's poetic techniques and on Dulce et Decorum Est adapted from Wilfred Owen: Tutorial.*                            

Links to external sites                                                               

These are specified with an asterisk *

Like most of his poems Dulce et Decorum Est was published posthumously--that is, after he died.  It was started at Craiglockhart* War Hospital near Edinburgh where he was evacuated from the front suffering from shell-shock.  This was June 1917.  He continued to work on the poem until around March the next year, probably at Scarborough or possibly Ripon in the north of England.

Owen's time at Craiglockhart was instrumental in his development as a poet for it was here that he met Seigried Sassoon who was already established as a poet and who encouraged his writing.  Owen edited the hospital journal, The Hydra*, where he published some poems along with Sassoon.  Owen published only four poems during his lifetime.

There are four manuscripts of the poem.  Two are at the British Library in London, two in the English Faculty Library at Oxford.  For the purposes of this study the four manuscripts will be referred to as manuscript A, B, C, and D, A being the last and D the earliest.  The chronological sequence of the middle manuscripts, B and C, is unknown.

Before he died, Owen was preparing his poems for publication; there are hints that a typescript was being readied for publication but none has been found.  Editors are left with interpreting a multitude of manuscripts in order to prepare published editions of his poetry, often with little indication of the chronological dating of the various manuscript versions.   Dulce et Decorum Est is a good example of a poem that exists in various manuscripts and with little certainty about either the chronological dating of the middle two or of some of Owen's final intentions.

This study allows you to compare all the manuscripts of this most famous of war poems and to consider the types of changes made by both Owen and his editors.

Compare both print versions

All except four of Owen's poems were published posthumously which has resulted in interesting discrepancies in published editions of the poem.  As a starting point for your manuscript study, the two main differences between these versions have been underlined and linked to a transcript of the final manuscript.  If you look at his final manuscript (A) you can see why these different interpretations occur.   

Compare the main print version with the manuscripts

Another good starting point is to go to the main print version page--the version of the poem you will see most often in collections and anthologies.  Here links take you to different versions of the transcripts that clearly show Owen was working through various alternatives for the segments highlighted.  You should start to ask yourself why certain changes have been made and how you think they might change the poem.

Some prompt questions are designed to get you thinking about some of these changes.

Compare the manuscripts

As you start to look at some of the changes that have been highlighted in the print version, you will probably start to find many other variations of your own in the transcripts.  You can follow through all the revisions by looking at the original manuscripts, which are generally quite easy to read. 

In order to make comparisons between the manuscripts easier, you can compare any two at the same time.  Click on the compare manuscripts page from the menu selection for your own study to begin.  It's a good idea to choose one manuscript as a "base" manuscript, such as (A) or (D), and follow through particular revisions.  

When you look at the manuscript versions you will find words, phrases and lines that are altered between versions.  In some cases, whole passages are changed or deleted all together.  Owen has been praised for his craftsmanship in refining the words, sounds and images of his poems.  See if your study bears this out.

Try to decide whether you think the changes affect the way you understand or appreciate the poem.  Although some of the changes may be small do they add up to something bigger? 

"Final" changes

The poem obviously gave Owen considerable difficulty and it is interesting, if you look closely at the final manuscript (A), that there are final changes being made--but we cannot be certain how to interpret some of these since the alterations are not always clear.  That is why you will find certain lines different in the two print versions.

The "middle" section

Perhaps the middle part of the poem gave Owen the most trouble since this is where most of the major deletions occur.  This part describes the gas attack*and the death of the anonymous soldier.  A whole passage is deleted before the description of the gas attack--try to consider what affect this has on the power of the poem.

The "end" section

The end part was also under constant refinement and subtle revisions.  The lines "his head was like a bud, / Fresh as a country rose, keen and young" remained in each version of the poem and were only crossed out on the final manuscript (see Trancript A).  Perhaps the lines sound rather weak compared to all the images of death around them--but you might have your own views on this.  Whatever the reason, these lines were to remain in the poem until the last moment. 

Original dedication and topical allusions

You will see that the original manuscript was dedicated to a poet called Jessie Pope.  Pope published  "jingoistic" poems in newspapers such as the Daily Mail and the Daily Express urging young men to enlist and was the author of numerous children's books as well as of Jessie Pope's War Poems (1915), More War Poems (1915) and Simple Rhymes for Stirring Times (1916).  

The dedication was later changed to "A Certain Poetess, " referring to all the poets in England, like Jessie Pope, who wrote highly patriotic verse.  An example of one of these poems is called Pro Patria* by Owen Seaman.  If you look at it you can see why Owen was angry at such verse that was ignorant of the true horrors of the war.  It is the complacency of the propagandists in England that seem to fuel Owen's anger more than the war itself--the real "enemy" for Owen were the likes of Seaman and Pope.  The similarity in the titles of the poem may well not be a coincidence--perhaps it is a deliberate allusion Owen had it in mind.   

The dedication  to "Jessie Pope etc" is excluded from the published versions.  However, its original presence can alter our understanding of the poem by revealing the extent of Owen's anger at such propagandists and by placing the poem in its true historical context.  For example, the "friend" of line 25 is usually interpreted as the reader or in "universal terms" meaning every body  (see Tutorial page for a standard "close" reading of the poem and traditional interpretation of "you").   However, it probably originally referred to the likes of Pope who were the original target of Owen's anger.

The gas attack* of the poem probably stems from an incident that Owen describes in a letter to his mother (19th January, 1917) where he describes the being overcome by tear-gas.  However, the gas attack in the poem is from the more destructive mustard gas or phosgene gas attacks which he would have witnessed.  He refers to the poem in a later letter (October, 1917), again to his mother, in which he states 'here is a gas poem, done yesterday, (which is not private, but not final). The famous Latin tag means of course It is sweet and decorous to die for one's country. Sweet! And decorous!' (Horace's Odes III:2.13*).  The tone of this letter, combined with possibly an oblique reference to a poem by contemporary Owen Seaman, "Pro Patria," again reinforce the historicity of the poem.

Some possible conclusions

If we look at many of the changes in isolation, they appear to be relatively minor or microstructural.   You will certainly find many cases of Owen refining vocabulary and images to create more of a sense of drama and impact.  Try to find examples of these.

However, if you look at the changes all together, they appear to create a major or macrostructural change.  The poem starts as a personal attack on Pope and ends up channeling this anger at a more universal audience and on a more universal level.   Are there any other major differences between the final version and the manuscripts? 

1. Owen is regarded as a craftsman with language, continuously refining words, images and sound effects. Does this study illustrate this?

2. Which version, C Day Lewis or Blunden, do you think is a) closest to the author's intentions

                                                                                          b) the better?

4. What is the effect of deleting the whole passage building up to the gas attack, beginning "Then somewhere near in front" in (A)?

5. What is the effect of deleting the lines towards the end in the final manuscript "his head was like a bud . . ."?

6. Does the loss of the original dedications make a difference to our understanding of the poem?

7. Do any of the changes in different parts of the poem work together towards creating a larger effect?

9. Do you detect a macrostructural change in the poem, affecting its meaning, or are the changes fairly low key or microstructural?

10. Are there any revisions or deletions made by Owen that you think he shouldn't have?

11. Are there any changes you would make to a published version of the poem having studied the manuscripts?

*The Wilfred Owen Multimedia Archive  Superb archive and manuscript collections relating to Owen and to the war, including virtual seminar (http://www.hcu.ox.ac.uk/jtap/)

*The Wilfred Owen Association Photographs, maps, virtual tours, links and much more (note this takes you to their web links page--click "back" for the home page) (http://www.wilfred.owen.association.mcmail.com/)

*Wilfred Owen: Poet From the Digital Metropolis Antwerp this site features many poems, references and links (http://bewoner.dma.be/ericlaer/cultural/owen.html)

*Biographical details This is part of the Wilfred Owen: Poet web site

*"Poison Gas" (part of The Wilfred Own Multimedia Archive): Fascinating archive of life on the front in the form of slightly satirical unofficial "Organ of the 3rd Batallion of Queen Victoria's Rifles."

*The Great War BBC/PBS site (http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/)

*The Great War Comprehensive background information (http://www.pitt.edu/~pugachev/greatwar/ww1.html)

*World War One Posters British propaganda posters from World War One (http://gulib.lausun.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/britpost/britpost.htm) Note: this link is difficult--you might need to start from http://gulib/lausun.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/

*Lost Poets of the Great War by Harry Rusche at Emory University, Atlanta: interesting perspectives and contemporary background material (http://www.cc.emory.edu/ENGLISH/LostPoets/)

The manuscripts and information on their background are from The Wilfred Owen Multimedia Digital Archive OUCS by Paul Groves and Dr Stuart Lee http://www.hcu.ox.ac.uk/jtap/

Transcripts are from Wilfred Owen: The Complete Poems and Fragments: Volume II: The Manuscripts of the Poems and Fragments edited by Jon Stallworthy (London: Chatto and Windus, 1983).

Biographical information is adapted from the Digital Metropolis Antwerp, Biography Wilfred Owen War Poet http://bewoner.dma.be/ericlaer/cultural/owen.html#biogra

The tutorial is adapted from Charles Sturt University NSW HSC Online, Wilfred Owen: Tutorial by Beverley Jackson Hooper BA, Dip Ed http://hsc.csu.edu.au/english/courses/general/gpoetry/owen/245/owen1.htm