British and Proud

[garinda]

For me nothing sums up the sacrifices that are made for us in wars, by our armed services, than the poem Dulce et Decurum Est, by Wilfred Owen.

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 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. 8 October 1917 - March, 1918

DULCE ET DECORUM EST - the first words of a Latin saying (taken from an ode by Horace). The words were widely understood and often quoted at the start of the First World War. They mean "It is sweet and right." The full saying ends the poem: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - it is sweet and right to die for your country. In other words, it is a wonderful and great honour to fight and die for your country

[Bernard Dawson]

Originally Posted by garinda

For me nothing sums up the sacrifices that are made for us in wars, by our armed services, than the poem Dulce et Decurum Est, by Wilfred Owen.

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 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. 8 October 1917 - March, 1918

DULCE ET DECORUM EST - the first words of a Latin saying (taken from an ode by Horace). The words were widely understood and often quoted at the start of the First World War. They mean "It is sweet and right." The full saying ends the poem: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - it is sweet and right to die for your country. In other words, it is a wonderful and great honour to fight and die for your country

Some of Owen's early poems are a lot more jingoistic.But obviously life in the trenches changed his attitude.

[garinda]

Originally Posted by Bernard Dawson

Some of Owen's early poems are a lot more jingoistic.But obviously life in the trenches changed his attitude.

They are.

Actual experience, not just of war, changes lots of attitudes.

Rudyard Kipling, the most jingoistic writer, had his eyes opened to the full horror of the First World War, after the death of his only son, in 1915.

Dulce et Decorum Est is all the more moving, when read in context, and how like many other poets and writers, Owen came to the conclusion that war isn't glorious at all.

[Bernard Dawson]

The sad irony was that he was killed in action a week before the end of the war.His mother apparently received the telegram informing her of his death on armistice day.

[MargaretR]

I think that many young men join the armed forces with little idea what they are letting themselves in for.

The 'army life' is glamourised as a combination of world travel, cameraderie and adventure, when in reality it is offering your life to be used by your government.

When these young men realise that they are being used, not to protect their homeland, but to grab another country's natural resources, then the desertion rates go up.

BBC NEWS | UK | At least 1,000 UK soldiers desert