DULCE ET DECORUM EST

[Tyler Durden]

DULCE ET DECORUM EST

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 gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick boys!--An ecstacy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering 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,
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, Died-France, 1918.

Let us practice war no more.

[Cronus Protagonist]

1. Thanks for that poem - took me back to high school

We memorized it at one point and I forgot it until now.

Click Here To See Fair & Balanced Buttons, Stickers & Magnets

[TXlib]

9. I read and memorised it too, in 10th grade.

I'm surprised * hasn't tried to ban that poem.

[Maple]

2. Thank you.

Beautiful.

[burrowowl]

3. Pax vobiscum eom

[skip fox]

And see Pound's use of this beautiful poem in

"Hugh Selwyn Mauberley" section 4.

[Davis_X_Machina]

4. I read Owens' poem...

...and play Eric Bogle's "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda", every Veterans' Day for my HS Latin classes.



And now every April I sit on me porch
and I watch the parade pass before me
And I watch my old comrades,
how proudly they march,
renewing old dreams of past glory.

And the old men march slowly, all bent, stiff and sore
the tired old men from a forgotten war
And the young people ask, 'What are they marching for?'
and I ask meself the same question.

And the band played Waltzing Mathilda'
and the old men answer to the call
But year after year their numbers get fewer
some day no one will march there at all.

And their ghosts may be heard
As they march by the billabong,
'Who'll go a waltzing Matilda with me?'

And usually the students wind up asking "Why is this grown man crying?"

Vobis Terra Levis Sit

[Another Bill C.]

5. Eric Bogle also wrote Green Fields of France

"Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enclosed and forever behind the glass frame
In a old photograph, torn and battered and stained
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame."

[Zuni]

6. I am glad all this WWI poetry is being resurrected here

a touching tribute to the men who died.

[Davis_X_Machina]

7. Almost no WWI vets left.

All these were honored in their generations,
and they were the glory of their times.
Some of them left a name behind them,
so that their praises are still sung.
And some there be, which have no memorial;
who are perished, as though they had never been;
and are become as though they had never been born.
But these were merciful men,
whose righteousness hath not been forgotten
Their bodies are buried in peace;
but their name lives on for all generations.

The Great War -- WWII was just an upgrade-and-maintenance release, Great War 2.0 if you will -- was the single worst catastrophe visited on mankind in recorded history. We're still seeing its consequences in the Middle East.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

11. I think we've (Canada) got about a dozen. Not sure about the US

[Tyler Durden]

13. You've got 10.

#11 died this week in Nova Scotia

Requesit en Pace.

[sybylla]

8. This poem is in my list of 100 best ever

Wilfred Owen's poems are very striking and move me deeply. I'm glad to see you posting this here.

Thanks.

[northzax]

10. not to forget Erich Maria Remarque

The first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke in pieces.


any school that does not require this book is failing in it's duty.

[brook]

12. Thank you.

The poetry is a perfect memoriam. And Waltzing Matilda's melody is a welcome 'ear bug'at the moment.