The Glory of Battle?

This poem, written by Wilfred Owen during World War I, is a poignant commentary on the false conceptions of the glory and honor of warfare. Owen wrote this poem as a counter-argument to Jessie Pope's propaganda piece, "Who's for the game?" that encouraged young men to join the battle with "such such high zest." The phrase, "Dulce et Decorum est" was first used by the ancient Roman poet, Horace, whose poem translated to:

"How sweet and fitting it is to die for one's country:
Death pursues the man who flees,
Spares not the hamstrings or cowardly backs
Of battle shy youths"

Now having explained its background, give you Wilfred Owen's, 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 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
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."