I came across this poem in English class when we had a project on Poems from the 1st World War. I thought it was quite impressive so I wanted to share it with you :) I'll write an explanation at the end.
It was written by Wilfred Owen who was a British poet and a soldier. This is one of his best known poems.
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.
This poem doesn't need much explanation because the meaning is quite obivous I only wanted to explain something about the last stanza:
The "friend" he talks about was a woman who wrote the slogans for the war posters which made young man join the war. Her name was Jessie Pope. She talked about war like it was a game. She told young boys things like 'Fighting for your country is fun! It's a good thing. Come on, join the army. You don't want to be a coward do you?' but she had no idea how it actually was at the front. She had no idea about the actual horrors of war. That's how he came with the sentence, 'The old lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.' Which means The old lie: It is sweet and honourable to die for one's country.
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Poems I came across
ŞiirI DO NOT OWN THESE POEMS. These are just poems I came across. These are poems I thought were funny, meaningful or just really special :)
