"Dulce et Decorum Est"
By
Wilfred Owen
Transcription, correction, editorial commentary, and markup by Students and Staff of the University of Virginia
Title Page
POEMS
BY WILFRED OWEN
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
SIEGFRIED SASSOON
LONDON
CHATTO & WINDUS
1920 15 DULCE ET DECORUM EST 1BENT double, like old beggars under sacks, 2Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, 3Till on the haunting flares we turns our backs, 4And towards our distant rest began to trudge. 5Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, 6But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind; 7Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots 8Of gas-shells dropping softly behind. 9Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling 10Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, 11But someone still was yelling out and stumbling 12And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime.— 13Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, 14As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. 15In all my dreams before my helpless sight 16He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. 17If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace 18Behind the wagon that we flung him in, 19And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, 20His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin, 21If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood 22Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs 23Bitten as the cud 24Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,— 25My friend, you would not tell with such high zest 26To children ardent for some desperate glory, 27The old Lie: Dulce et decorum estDulceDulceOwen is citing from the Odes of the Roman poet Horace: "It is sweet and proper to die for one's own country." 28Pro patria mori.
BY WILFRED OWEN
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
SIEGFRIED SASSOON
LONDON
CHATTO & WINDUS
1920 15 DULCE ET DECORUM EST 1BENT double, like old beggars under sacks, 2Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, 3Till on the haunting flares we turns our backs, 4And towards our distant rest began to trudge. 5Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, 6But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind; 7Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots 8Of gas-shells dropping softly behind. 9Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling 10Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, 11But someone still was yelling out and stumbling 12And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime.— 13Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, 14As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. 15In all my dreams before my helpless sight 16He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. 17If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace 18Behind the wagon that we flung him in, 19And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, 20His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin, 21If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood 22Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs 23Bitten as the cud 24Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,— 25My friend, you would not tell with such high zest 26To children ardent for some desperate glory, 27The old Lie: Dulce et decorum estDulceDulceOwen is citing from the Odes of the Roman poet Horace: "It is sweet and proper to die for one's own country." 28Pro patria mori.