- 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.
*MySmiley*
structured procrastinator
structured procrastinator
They will not grow old as we who are left grow old.
- 11/11/2009 11:04:15 AM
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Dulce et decorum est
- 11/11/2009 11:10:12 AM
448 Views
That is a very good poem. *NM*
- 11/11/2009 01:15:37 PM
150 Views
In the US, it's Veteran's Day, which is much more relevant now all the WWI vets are dead.
- 11/11/2009 08:14:57 PM
456 Views
Re: In the US, it's Veteran's Day, which is much more relevant now all the WWI vets are dead.
- 11/11/2009 10:14:41 PM
440 Views
Frank Woodruff Buckles, 108 years old, is the last surviving US veteran of WWI
- 12/11/2009 02:24:29 AM
398 Views
Yes.
- 12/11/2009 12:58:15 AM
450 Views
How does Germany remember its fallen soldiers?
- 12/11/2009 04:20:21 AM
400 Views