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प्रश्न
Wilfred Owen paints a horrific picture of a nightmarish memory on the battlefield. How does Duke et Decorum Est become Owen's condemnation and bitter response to war?
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उत्तर
Dulce et Decorum Est is a poem Wilfred Owen wrote following his own experiences fighting in the trenches in northern France in World War One. Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori, which is a line taken from the Latin Odes of the Roman poet Horace, means It is sweet and proper to die for one's country. In his poem, Wilfred Owen takes the opposite stance. He is in effect saying - It is anything but sweet and proper to die for one's country - in a hideous war that took the lives of over 17 million people. A poem that still resonates today, with brutal language and imagery, written by a young soldier recovering from his wounds, brave enough to return to the battlefield. The poet explains that It's just another day on the battlefields of World War I. As our speaker lets us know right away, however, "normal" isn't a word that has any meaning for the soldiers anymore. They're all mentally and physically ravaged by the exertions of battle.
And then it gets worse. Just as the men are heading home for the night, gas shells drop beside them. The soldiers scramble for their gas masks in a frantic attempt to save their own lives. Unfortunately, they don't all get to their masks in time. Our speaker watches as a member of his crew chokes and staggers in the toxic fumes, unable to save him from an excruciating certain death. Now fast-forward. It's some time after the battle, but our speaker just can't get the sight of his dying comrade out of his head. The soldier's image is everywhere: in the speaker's thoughts, in his dreams, in his poetry. Worst of all, our speaker can't do anything to help the dying soldier.
Bitterly, the speaker finally addresses the people at home who rally around the youth of England and urge them to fight for personal glory and national honor. He wonders how they can continue to call for war. If they could only witness the physical agony war creates – or even experience the emotional trauma that the speaker's going through now – the speaker thinks they might change their views. In the speaker's mind, there's nothing glorious or honorable about death. Or, for that matter, the war itself.
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संबंधित प्रश्न
Have you are wondered why soldiers are always clad in green? This is to enable them to camouflage themselves during wartime. Hiding in the jungles, their green attire blends into the surrounding trees and shrubs, making it difficult for the enemies to spot them.
Long before man-made use of camouflaging, insects have already adopted the tactic of disguise to escape from the clutches of their predators. By having body colour close to those of the rocks and dried leaves, they can escape from being pursued by the predators.
Butterflies and moths have developed a variety of camouflage strategies since they are quite defenceless and their predators are abundant. Possessing wings which resemble dried leaves help certain butterflies and moths to hide among heaps of dried leaves when predators are around.
Fortunately, not all insects choose the art of disguise to escape from their predators; otherwise, the world would be so dull and colourless. There are insects which assimilate the bright body colours of bees and wasps to escape from being pursued by their predator. Long ago, birds have already learnt to avoid brilliantly coloured wasps and bees in fear of their painful stings. Hence, over millions of years, many harmless insects have assimilated the bees and wasps by imitating. their bright body colours and shapes. In this way, they appear dangerous and hence ward them off.
The beefy, not only appears like the bumblebee in terms of body colour, even its hums sound similar too. The only difference is that the beefy does not have a stirring and is hence harmless. The hoverfly is another insect which imitates. the body colours of the wasps. Their bodies are striped yellow and black. The only deviations are that hoverflies do not have stings, and they have only one pair of wings each while wasps have two pairs each. These variations are hardly noticed by the predators and hence help them to escape.
A1. Complete the table with the information from the passage : (2)
| Insects | Similarity | Difference |
| Bumblebee - Beefy | ||
| Wasp - Hoverfly |
A2. Complete the tree diagram : (2)
A3. Find out : (2)
‘Nature has given a self-protection mechanism to insects’.
Find out at least two examples from the passage to prove this statement.
A4. Vocabulary - (2)
Find the words from the passage for :
(i) animal or bird that hunts other for food
(ii) to get free from danger
(iii) to prevent something from harming
(iv) to make a copy
A5. Personal response - (2)
‘Soldiers disguise themselves to prevent enemies to spot them’.
Give two more examples when the disguising technique is used by humans.
A6. Grammar - (2)
Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed :
(i) They have only one pair of wings.
(Make it negative without changing the meaning)
(ii) Insects have already adopted the tactic of disguise to escape from the clutches of their predators.
(Replace infinitive with gerund and rewrite)
(B) Summary : (3)
Summarise the above extract with the help of the points given and suggest a suitable title.
Camouflage of soldiers and insects - reason and ways for disguising - assimilation of insects - need of imitation.
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