Dulce et Decorum Est
by Wilfred Owen
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 tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped 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 flound'ring 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.
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 devil's 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.
Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) is the most famous and greatest of all "war poets" (with perhaps his close friend Siegried Sassoon), but he is far more than that. The terse forcefulness of his verse marks it as truly modern. His influence is immense; he is the most studied of English writers after only Shakespeare. This is his most well-read poem, written not long before his death, which came during the final week of World World I, the war whose horrors are so associated with his poetry. The title and last line "...Dulce et Decorum est/ Pro patria mori" come from an ode of Homer and mean "it is sweet and right to die for your country." The line was used by propogandists of the war.
A reading of "Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen:
Wilfred Owen's wikipedia page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Owen