by GSR Staff
"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, British poet, from "Dulce et Decorum est," thought to have been written between October 8, 1917 and March, 1918.
On July 28, 1914, Austria declared war on Serbia; on August 1, Germany declared war on Russia and then on August 3 declared war on France. August 4, Britain declared war on Germany, and fighting would continue in Europe for four years, claiming the lives of 8.5 million people from 16 countries, leaving another 21 million wounded and 3.6 million missing.
Learn more at the BBC’s special 100th anniversary page.
The Latin phrase at the end of the poem is taken from an ode by the ancient Roman poet Horace and was commonly quoted at the start of World War I (or the Great War). The meaning: "It is sweet and right," as in it is sweet and right to die for your country, an honor.