This poem was written by Wilfred Owens in a response to those that were giving speeches during WWII to encourage or rally the young men to the war. It depicts a the horrific death of a young man who was not fast enough to get his gas mask on during an attack. When he died, his body was flung upon a cart and dragged home, nothing noble or sweet about the life he "gave for his country" The final line of the poem is from Horace's Odes which means "It is sweet to die for one's country."


I do not have a specific question, but I would like to hear any thoughts or opinions of this poem.


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 disappointed shells 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 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,
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
+++++++++++
11-07-02, 10:24 AM
maiku
This poem was one of a number of anti-war poems by British poets like Owens, Siegried Sassoon and others that appeared in response to World War I, not World War II. Since then, the same old lie has been repeated with high zest over and over.

As the popular folk song says, "When will they ever learn? /Wann wird man je verstehn?"

Shelley said that poets were the "unacknowledged legislators of the world." The only thing we learn from how closely attended to Owen's powerful voice has been, is that the truths poets
like him have spoken of again and again are certainly unacknowledged.

11-07-02, 12:33 PM
cattywampus
This is a fine poem, full of vivid images and with a commendable use of language and economy.

Maiku, I don't understand what "lie" you are referring to. Could you elucidate? (I know you know what that means!)

Catty (who loves grand poetry like this) razz

11-07-02, 01:04 PM
maiku
"Lie" is a quotation from the poem itself, in the next-to-last line.

I'm happy we agree, catty, about this poem. It is powerful.

May I add that I've also seen your flattering comment in answer to the "Eugenics" post, and although I'm not sure if I'm erudite or not, I never stop trying to learn more from valued contributors like you. May the good genes you so clearly possess never vanish from our pool!

11-08-02, 01:26 AM
sonnet26
...a contemporary comparison; death, during conflict, is never beautiful or sweet.

Patriot Game (Dominic Behan)

Come all you young rebels & list while I sing
For the love of one's country is a dangerous thing
For it banishes fear like the speed of a flame
And it makes us all part of the Patriot Game

My name is O'Hanlan and I've just gone 16
My home is in Mahnagh, that's where I was weaned
I've read about heroes and I wanted the same
Just to play out my part in the Patriot's Game

Been nearly two years since I wandered away
With the local battalion of the bold IRA
I gave up my boyhood just to drill and to train
And to play out my part in the Patriot's Game

And now as I lie here, my body all holes
Well I think of those traitors who bargained and sold
And I wish that my rifle had given the same
To those Quislings, those low down quislings
Who sold out my Patriot Game.

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