Dulce et Decorum Est Wilfred OwenMarch 18, 1893 – November 4, 1918
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.
Haunting and oh so vivid, the words. From a military standpoint I'm quite fond of the three different uniforms displayed - a tribute not just to branches of service but generations.
OMG - I'm stunned. I spent some time looking at the image before I read the poem. And the image, overlayed with lines of the poem is already so deep and stirring. The whole poem makes it very powerful. Wonderful.
Wow. The poem is very powerful and beautiful and sends chills up my spine. Your photo and its treatment works very well with the words, and is an excellent combination of old and new.
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