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.
Of 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.
Wilfred Owen (1893 – 1918)
DULCE ET DECORUM EST
(With explanatory notes)
- Title→ “Dulce et Decorum est”:
- The first words of a Latin saying.
- The words were often quoted at the start of World War 1
- The title means “It is sweet and becoming”
- The title is ironic and its intention is not to induce pity but to shock civilians who believed war was a noble act.
STANZA 1
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock – kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
- This line is contradictory to what we think of as soldiers. We think of soldiers as standing up strait, full of honor and pride, in top physical condition, and very clean and well kept.
- Instead, Owen describes the soldiers as bent over, dirty from walking in the sludge, and very tired from their long walk.
- Here, the soldiers are struggling back to safety.
- A horrific image is created through the use of a simile.
- The image is portrayed by Owen can be compared to the condition of “old beggars” and “hags”
- Picturing “old beggars under sacks” tells us that these men are weary, but also gives as a hint that they are scared of what is ahead of them.
- The simile “coughing like hags helps to depict the soldiers’ poor health and depresses state of mind.
- Owen makes up picture the soldiers as ill, disturbed and exhausted.
