Dulce et Decorum Este
Dulce et decorum este Pro patria mori by Wilfred Owen is one of my all-time favorite poems. The translation of the latin "Dulce et Decorum Est" is "Sweet and fitting it is." The translation of "Pro patria mori" is "To die for one's country." These were obviously sarcastic jobs at the glorification of war. If I remember correctly from my 100 level lit class (The great Dr. Z.) Owen served in WWI & actually sacrificed his life in the “war to end all wars.” I love this poem for its honesty & straight forwardness. Last semester I wrote a paper on Dulche et Decorumeste analyzing the poem & it actually got handed out as an example to the class. My mom was proud.
Dulce et Decorum Este
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
& 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 clusy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
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,
& 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 este
Pro patria mori
