Dulce et Decorum Est – Poem Written By Wilfred Owen (FULL TEXT)
DULCE ET DECORUM EST – In this topic, we are going to read the full text of the poem Dulce et Decorum Est written by Wilfred Owen.
As mentioned above, it was written by English poet and soldier Wilfred Owen during World War I and was published in 1920.
The name is from Horace’s Ode 3.2 or Valor and i means “it is sweet and fitting”. This is followed by the phrase pro patria mori, or “to die for one’s country” in English.
The poem is known for its horrific imagery and condemnation of war. It combines two sonnets and is formed by 28 lines.
Here is the full text of the poem uplifted from Poetry Foundation:
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,
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.
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