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.
Notes
Dulce et decorum est Pro Patria mori is from Horace. Owen wrote in a letter to his mother: "The famous Latin tag means of course It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. Sweet! and decorous!"
Written in 1917 and first published in 1920.
Early drafts of the poem contain the dedications 'To Jessie Pope etc' and 'To a certain Poetess'. Before World War I, Pope was the author of children's books and light verse, her war related verse was collected in 1915 in Jessie Pope's War Poems and More War Poems.
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Comments
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Spelling!
From guest Bingo (contact)
Great comments, but the spelling and grammar on this site is horrendous! If you like poetry and language, don't you care that you're debasing it by spelling "what" "wot" and not even bothering to write in a clear, intelligible way? sorry to be a pedant but if you like words, use them with some respect. I don't mean language is set in stone or that there aren't many forms, but there's change and then there's pointless, lazy misuse... -
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Whilst I tend to agree with the general thrust of your argument I would like to point out a few things.
1. I trust you are referring to the visitors and not the workers when you say "on this site"
2. Many of our readers are not using English as their first allowance and are to be applauded for any intelligible comment that allows us monoglots to understand them.
3. By exposure to the words of clearer writers we can teach better usage by example more easily than shaking our fists at the stumbling efforts of others.
Finally I would point out that this is a better subject for the furum section than in the middle of an appreciation of Owen's poem.
Jim
So here is a link to such a discussion forum
http://oldpoetry.com/board/topic/1638
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Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori
From guest Zarah (contact)
what i love bout dis poem is dat it is written with passion and experience. I learnt a bit bout Jessie pope but she did not actually go and fight in the battlefields as mr owen did so she had no experience and her poems were written without experience but with a passion that is trying to persuade which differs to the passion that owen wrote with (his heart). -
This Poem
Many studies are i comparison of this poem to Pope's 'Who's for the Game?'. This poem is (as said) a direct response to the latter. The amazing language techniques, vocabulary and graphic writing present Owen's obvious poetic skill. His argument was probably aided by the fact that he was very passionate about dissuading the reader from war, and he experienced it first hand. Neither poem can be historically reliably through their biasness and purposes, however I feel this to be the most truthful.
I hope this point is considered and found useful. -
Brilliant
From guest mags (contact)
the tone, spontaniety and depth of the language captures the horror of war, thats wot Owen intended. It was not to glorify or give credence to war or the whole idea of victory, the victors. It is anti war, anti propaganda, it bis as relevant today as it was in 1917 -
who is ......
From guest stacie (contact)
who is ' my friend' that wilred reffers to in his poem ??? -
''my friend''
From guest Jade (contact)
when Wilfred Owen uses the phrase 'my friend' who is he refering too? -
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For my friend "guest Jade"
If you had read down the comments you would see that I answered this question in May!
When Owen says you (in this poem) and when he says my friend he is refering to the reader - whoever is reading the poem becomes "you"
Jim
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From guest Roxy (contact)
What was the poets attitude towards war.? Can anyone please explain this to me.. -
Title
From guest Jackie (contact)
This title is just Dulce Et Decorum Est (it is a sweet and fitting thing) so when the poem start with Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, there is the contrast between the 'sweet and fitting thing' and the horrors of war. it is to throw the readers straight into the war. -
From guest dorinda massingham (contact)
with the excepton of William Shakespear Owen is Englads greatest poet who held humanity in the palm of his hand -
From guest verity (contact)
"Pro Patria" means "for your country". The whole phrase "Dulce et decorum est/Pro patria mori" means "It is sweet and fitting/To die for your country" -
From guest robin white (contact)
I am reminded also of the poignant moment in Spoon River Anthology, when the youthful soldier who had bene killed in the civil war wonders And this granite pedestal Bearing the words, "Pro Patria." What do they mean, anyway? -
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori
From guest Masina Faletolu (contact)
I love this mans poems.Its so touching and surreal.His descriptive language gives this effect of suffering and sadness.It must have been hard to be in WW1 and the army,navy and air forces are looked after very well today but just readig these sort of poems emphasize the lack of caring for these soldiers in WW1.Im currently studying Wilfred and Jessie Pope. Its great fun and I am glad Wilfred Owens memory is carried through his exquisite poems. God Bless them and may they rest in peace... The Old Lie: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. Faafaetai -
"Dulce Et Decorum Est"
From guest Cindy Taylor (contact)
Could someone please identify the poetic techinques used in the poem, and explain how the reinforce his theme. I could sure use this A.S.A.P. Thanks, -
One of the greatest war poems ever written. And Owen did not condescend to translate the Latin. He assumed his readers would understand. Although "sweet and fitting" might have been a good translation in 1917, I would say a better translation into "modern" English would be, "How WONDERFUL and NOBLE it is to die for one's country".
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poem
From guest Dirk (contact)
Who is probably the "you" he is speaking to at the end of the poem Dulce et Decorum Est ? What role did he/she play in the War Poetry ? -
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For Guest Dirk
Dirk my friend, you are the you he is referring to, you are the person reading the poem, you are the one he is trying to convince.
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one of my favourites...
This is one of my favourite poems ever! The imagrey is the so powerful and i love the ending! x -
similies
From guest rachel (contact)
"like old beggars" "coughing like hags" What do they mean? Someone plz explain! xxxx -
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similes...
They are crouching and bent over like old beggars because they are in the trenches and coughing like hags because of the gas etc.
Apart from the gas the condition in the trenches in the war was terrible.
x
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From guest joe cafild (contact)
this peom is one of the best peoms i have ever read it really depicts the solider it also show how war is not a very good, it shows the horrors of war. i think that wilfred owen was a man that wasn't afraid to show how he felt about something -
From guest Vanita (contact)
i really like this poem, i have been studying it in school for the last half term, and now it has become one of my favourite war poems. however i personally think that wilfred owen . -
From guest Raul (contact)
To I-Like-Rhymes, Owen's intended audience in all of his poetry was the common man, bcoz Owen wrote this poetry to make a point to them..... to show the common, poorer man that the war was futile and that all government propoganda was a lie.... owen was born from a poor background, he was not a part of the british aristocracy, and his poems are directed to the average man... not to say that educated literary circles did not recognize and appreciate his work... and if the common man was his intended audience, then why did he use this latin phrase that few understood???? the phrase definitely make the poem stand out and adds a certain charisma making it exceptionally interesting, but there always is a deeper reasoning behind it!! so, do u have theories so as to what this deeper meaning could be?? please cheers -
Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori
From guest Raul (contact)
Does anyone know why Owen used this LATIN phrase in his poem??? Why latin, a language that was not understood by most at the time. ?? The best I could come up with is because it makes the poem more interesing, but there has to be a deeper reasonning behind it, so if anyone has any theories can you please tell them to me??? (i have a presentation on this 5 days from now, so please) -
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To guest Raul,
Wilfred Owen's Poetry, A Study Guide by J.F. McIlroy [ISBN 0435185675] is a very good reference.
In it he describes Owen's early life. As you say he was not of aristocratic or wealthy background but neither was he grindingly poor. He was unable to afford a University education but was sufficiently well educated ro gain teaching post in England and in France.
The vast majority of his work (554 out of 673 known poems) were in letters to his mother and others were in correspondence to people such as Sassoon whom he met at Craiglockart. Indeed this poem was begun whilst at Craiglockart and completed, apparently, in Yorkshire. The final version is from a letter to his mother and was printed posthumously. It is clear both from the original dedication and the last 4 lines that this was written for Jesse Pope
McIlroy devotes 4 pages to this one poem and they are worth finding and reading but he gives no other reason for the quote than that that Owen himself uses. Owen writes about “The old lie ‘Dulce et decorum est…’” and it is in that Latin form that most people, and certainly Jesse Pope, would have known it.
What is well known is that Owen used to love peppering his letters and other writings with quotations from other famous writers of the past. Perhaps this was to show to others that, although he had not been able to get a place at University, he was still as well read as (he believed) they were. A type of one-up-manship that I am sure the psychologists would appreciate. -
For guest Raul
Owen was a well educated person writing for other well educated people. He, like most of his generation and class, had learned Latin and would have learned that particular phrase in school.
His poetry was not originally intended for mass circulation but for private purposes. If he envisioned publication at all it would have been in the up-market papers such as The Times and, perhaps, in a limited edition booklet.
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From guest saffy (contact)
anything on the line 'bitter as the cud'? what was the cud? plzplz help! this essay is due in rly soon and i so much more work to do!! -
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To guest Saffy and others.
I believe the answer is along these lines.
In the death throes of a gas attack it is not uncommon for a victim to vomit their stomach contents and for those bitter dregs to lay in the throat. This is, I believe, the literal meaning of bitter cud refered to by the poet. The cud is a term normally used to refer to the regurgitated contents of a cow that it re-chews. However it could perhaps, in the poets eyes, also refer to the jingoistic rubbish spouted by so many armchair warriors that stuck in the throat of many fighting soldiers.
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From guest Mandy (contact)
obscene as cancer - does anybody know when or why these words were added in before "bitter as the cud"? The version I learned ages ago (1970s) didn't have the words, but they seem to be there in most versions I've read since. -
From guest HSJ (contact)
this was actually of meant to be sent to jessie pope who was a journalist which promoted The war. she used to try and lure young men in to join the war by saying that the war is fun and its all just a happy game. wilfred owen was appalled by this and wrote "Dulce Et Decorum" as a letter which then went on to being published. -
This should be compulsary reading for all politicians.
"If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,. . . . "
Death in war is not sweet or decorous. It is bitter and ugly.
It may be necessary sometimes but it should always be the very last resort.
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helpppppppppppp
From guest Rukhsar (contact)
hey im doin this poem in English and i need to annotate the last the two stanza's about the mood and atmosphere basically anythin...! plzzz explain and helppp -
i recently studied this poem in class as a short text and when u actually look at any of owens poetry you get a feeling of what it was like being in the front line, i may put my essay on here that i wrote about this poem, but i like the way he uses many language techniques, purposly or not. he is amazing!
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To wonder how many of you over there in yankee land read this and think of WW1. The latin text is not Owens,it is a line from a monument dedicated to American civil war soldiers who were imprisoned in the wonderful Dartmoor prison and who died there.
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As it says in the existing poem notes up above "DULCE ET DECORUM ......" is actually a Latin 'TAG' from a Latin poet. Its presence at Dartmoor or anywhere else is irrelevant to the meaning.
OLD POETRY RESEARCH TEAM
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"It is sweet and proper to die for one's country"
WW1 proved this was so wrong. Owen was a courageous poet who spoke his mind through his poetry. This poem is filled with the horrors of WW1, the intense imagery and irony help him to epxress his feelings almost with a sneer at the original Latin saying.
The war dead also proved this to be incorrect.
bent double, like old beggars under sacks
these were our fighting forces , some only in their 20's described as 'old men' nothing sweet and proper here. -
Good Poem x
From guest Heyyyyy =] (contact)
This is a really good poem. I'm doing an essay on it for English x -
HELP ME! I LOVE THE POEM - NEED FEW ANSWERS THO!!!!
From guest lilk (contact)
brilliant! love the poem! i love how he shows emotions through various techniques. can anyone help me? i need help understanding the comparision between jessie Pope being 'My Friend'. i know that it is directly speaking, but how can i explain the emotion that owen might have been going through when he wrote this line directly to Jessie Pope! i really like this site - very convienient for everyone, but i really need help. if anyone knows a bit about this, please comment, as i hope that others will find this info a bit interesting!!!!! thank you, and hope you can help me! guestxxxxxxxxxxx -
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To guest lilk.
There are two possibilities I believe. One is that Pope and Owen could be friends despite holding different points of view. Not evrybody has to become an enemy simply because they have a different opinion.
But my own personal interpretation is that the friend refered to is in fact the reader (any reader) and that it is the reader who is being told not to believe the ancient lies (or the newly written ones).
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From guest akif (contact)
i think that the poem was quite intresting and i think owen used a great amount of compelling simmiles in his poem about the war. -
English x =D
From guest Guest Emily (contact)
Im doing this poem in english and i need to find out what 'Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori' means. Any ideas at all ? Many Thanks. Emily =] Thanks Thanks =-) >=) Ahumm Reply To Me If You Kno Very Desprate =D x -
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To guest Emily,
I hate to upset you but the meaning is already given on the site in the notes below the poem.
In effect Owen is saying it is sweet to die in the service of one's own country!
The original quote is from the Latin poet Horace
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
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From guest Ruowei :] (contact)
I had this poem for my school's unseen poetry test. D: Interesting one though (: -
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THIS WILL HELP YOU
From guest Nomad (contact)
This is a speech I did on this poem after I recited it. Grade 11 English...Hope it helps Dulce et Decorum est, is an anti-war poem by Wilfred Owen written in 1917 which is the Modern era. The poem has strong attitudes, beliefs and values of the heinous World War. Using compelling similes ‘His hanging face like devils sick of sin’, vivid imagery, ‘as under a green sea I saw him drowning, alliteration, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, and various other poetic devices, Owen has painted a realistic image of what World War 1 is like. Owen's use of exact diction and vivid figurative language emphasizes his point, showing that war is terrible and devastating. In the second stanza Owen has used literal imagery to show the realistic and horrific discourse of war, and to paint a picture in our heads of what a gas bombing is like, he uses words like guttering, choking, and drowning to reflect what it was like when a person is dying slowly. In the third stanza Owen concludes his piece with the most important message ‘THE OLD LIE Dulce ET Decorum EST Pro Patria Mori which means - How sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. He does this by very graphic description. The rhyme scheme for the poem ABABCDCD and so on takes the poem at a nice pace. As Dulce et decorum est is a modern era poem it does not have poetic form as a poem in the Victorian or Romantic era. In the poem Dulce et Decorum est, Owen has used all the techniques I have described to you to tell the reader that war is horrid and it shouldn’t be sweet and fitting to die for your country, this is one of his main messages that he wanted to put across in his poem. To make this possible Owen use graphic imagery, the images can draw such pictures that no other poetic means can, such as "Come gargling from the froth corrupted lungs." This can be disturbing to think about. It shows troops being brutally slaughtered very vividly; it evokes images in the reader's mind. This is how Owen has made the poem so effective. It is a poem written to face the lies of the nobility of war and the glory of human sacrifice. The amount of loss and damage in the First World War was extraordinary and we should remember the sacrifices that were made if we are to prevent future wars. In Conclusion this poem will be passed down through the generations to provide the reader with the horrid truths of war and what it really was like Dulce ET Decorum Est. Pro Patria Mori – How sweet and fitting to die for ones country. -
famous people
From guest Sophie (contact)
i would like to no if any famous people have quoted or read this poem out before at a significant time. or anything along those lines -
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To guest Sophie,
It sounds like our sister site, Quotes, is the one for this information. You'll find the link at the bottom of the page.
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From guest Sarah (contact)
i have to write an essay on this poem for my english exam tomorrow, so nervous never going to be abe to remember all the quotes -
From guest to die for one's country (contact)
wilfred owens poem is amazing and im so glad someone told jessie pope off for trying to convince kids that they can get glory through going through hell "the old lie: is sweet and right to die for one's country" what a load of crap -
Comparisons
From guest guest (contact)
I am doing a compare/contrast essay on this poem and Jessie Pope's Who's For The Game. I have discovered very few similarities and was wondering if anyone could help -
War
From guest Blah (contact)
Wilfred Owen hadn't actually served when he wrote this poem; he died 2 days before the war ended and it was published posthumously. -
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no, sorry but you're incorrect. he DID serve and died IN the war two days before it ended!!!!
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How Can You NOT Feel the Words?!!?!?!
This is one of my all time favorites!!! Owen was a great emotional writer. You can feel every word that he writes!!!!! A couple years back I read "Song of Napalm" and Owen's poem brought me right back to it. Now, I have two side by side poems that I have really become attached to! -
From guest Amyh (contact)
Although i can understand Owen's resentment of Jessie Pope, I cant help but think that perhaps Owen should of taken the simplicity of Pope's poems and used it in his own as i find the language he uses only really can be truely understood by a certain people whereas Pope's poem were understood by practically everyone who read them. -
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Whilst I can appreciate the problem Amyh, don't you think it would be awfully dull and uninteresting if all poets wrote the same way? The contrast between Pope's style and that of Owen is as interesting as is the contrast in their points of view.
These 2 poets obviously knew and read each other's work and I believe the knowledge of what was being written by one influenced in some small way the writing of the other. Thus the different styles and viewpoints helped them develop perhaps.
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war poem research
From guest lexie (contact)
this is a brilliant poem that shows how truly awful war was... i guess that you only really know how bad war is when you are envolved and this guy was!!! i can see why this poem was written in response to jessie pope's famous poem! im researching for a comparative essay at the moment and its v hard when your opiniated in such a strong way that i am argh!!!
any way.. this poem is FAB!! -
I think Patton and I agree about this one- it is better to make the enemy die for his country in writhing, abject pain and suffering! Thanks, von, for linking me to this gem of its times...
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One of the most vivid portrails of the dreadful drudgery of war. The everpresent misery and deprivation with death the most likely release. A far cry from the glory of serving ones country.
Jim S -
This is still a classic poem ... the last two lines say it all!
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This poem is so vivid, it is scary. Reading about the gas attack - nothing is left to the imagination. The utter exhaustion of the soldiers in the first lines is unimaginable. The horrors of war are not glossed over in this poem at all.
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A vivid poem, too accurate in its imagry not to be first hand experience. "Dim through the misty panes and thick green light" Looking at a green gas world through misted up respirators. We carried these things all though world warII anf fortunately never had to use them. We had a special impregnated cloth to help prevent misting up. For what us is a soldier if he cannot see? The gurgling, gargling of froth filled lungs is just too horrible a death to envisualise. The Geneva Convention outlawed the use of poison gas. This did not stop Saddamm using it against even his own people.
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if thought the poem is brill
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oldpoetry.com/poetry/52141
Who's for the Game – by Jessie Pope
this is the poem referred to above and perhaps should be read before reading Dulce et Decorum, perhaps then Owen's anger can be understood.
This poem is a description of a gas attack and the resulting dreadful death of one of the men – his only fault being tired and oblivious to the enemy's gas shells. This man who was seconds too slow in putting on his gas mask dies by choking on his own blood, the reader is spared none of the details. Owen's message I believe was, " If people in England could have witnessed his death then perhaps then they would not say it was sweet to die for one's country. The last 4 lines are said to be directed at Jessie Pope, known during WW1 as a journalist and author of 3 volumes of 3 'jolly patriotic poems'.
Vonnie
Edited on Dec 27, 6:33 p.m. because ''. -
am i totally wrong here or is there a version of this which contains the lines 'obscene as cancer' i'm sure it was there when i studied it for my gcse's. hmmmm. the other thing is if you've ever read any of jesse pope's poetry you really begin to realise why owen was so upset with her. there weren't many female poets from the era (not that you hear about anyway) that didn't go down the call to arms patriotic route. if anyone knows of any please let me know as i would very much like to read them and redress the balance! i like the onomatopaeia in 'coughing like hags' as well owen is a master when it comes to hidden 'bonus' bits of poetry. i don't usually like war poems, but only because they tend towards sameness, but owen is something else entirely. i often wonder what the last few months of the war stole from modern poetry when it took wilfred owen down.
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This poem sums up the futility of war to me. What a waste of young lives and for what?
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when a recruter called my housei told him to read this and then call me back, i never heard back from him though.
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OH! that's awesome! I wonder what thouhts ran through his head after he finished.
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I have always loved this poem. Since studying it at school it has never stopped bringing me to tears when I read it. The imagery is vivid, it's almost me walking behind that cart. You can feel his pain, and his disgust.
And the ending is superb-dulce et decroum est, pro patria morti "It is good and fitting to die for your county" love it!
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My favourite war poem. It never stops hitting me, no matter how many times I read it. I first heard it in the museum in Ipres, surrounded by smoke and green light and being spoken by a very low, soft voice. It was an incredibly moving experiance which still haunts me. In the version I know the line is "obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud" but maybe this is a later version.
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9.5/10
I guess it took him to be a soldier in a war to be against the war, too bad he died in the war right when it ended.
He probably would have been one of the best known poets of the 20th century. Of course to some - he is.
He is a great poet, one of the best of the 20th century, may be the best, because he was so vivid in his descriptions.
A great piece here.
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:O wow....thas intense .... wow.
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: This is the best anti-war poem that has ever been committed to paper, it has inspired me in my views towards war, which is impressive considering it was written over 70 years ago. I implore poets everywhere to analyse and interpret this poem, because it has changed my life. I studied it at school and from there on in I was hooked on poetry. His objective was to express the pity of war. The poetry is in the pity. This poem was co-written with Siegfried Sassoon another truly magnificent poet.
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