WILFRED OWEN - DULCE ET DECORUM EST

Wilfred Owen immortalized mustard gas in his indictment against warfare, "Dulce et Decorum Est." Written in 1917 while at Craiglockart, and published posthumously in 1920, the poem details what is, perhaps, the most memorable written account of a mustard gas attack.

The Latin title is from Horace (1^st century BC)  and it means “it is sweet and proper”. This is followed by the phrase pro patria mori, or “to die for one’s country” in English.

The poem is known for its horrific imagery and condemnation of war. It combines two sonnets and is formed by 28 lines. Read here.

https://myblog-inplainenglish.blogspot.com/2017/05/revising-wilfred-owen.html

THE MODERN AGE - 5^C LINGUISTICO

Click here and  here to revise Modernism in literature.

JULIUS CAESAR - 4^C LINGUISTICO

https://www.rsc.org.uk/julius-caesar/

https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/j/julius-caesar/play-summary

https://www.litcharts.com/lit/julius-caesar

THE BEAT GENERATION - 5^C LINGUISTICO

The Beat movement was an American social and literary movement, originating in the 1950s, and centred in the bohemian artist communities of San Francisco’s North Beach, Los Angeles’ Venice West, and New York City’s Greenwich Village. Its adherents, self-styled as “beat” (originally meaning “weary” (= tired), but later also connoting a musical sense, a “beatific” spirituality, and other meanings) and derisively called “beatniks,” expressed their alienation from conventional, or “square,” society by adopting a style of dress, manners, and “hip” vocabulary borrowed from jazz musicians. They advocated personal release, purification, and illumination through the heightened sensory awareness that might be induced by drugs, jazz, sex, or the disciplines of Zen Buddhism. The Beats and their advocates found the joylessness and purposelessness of modern society sufficient justification for both withdrawal and protest.  Read here.