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I remember when we had to read this WWI inspired Poem in High School English.
I thought it was a pretty good one then.
And somehow, it had the opposite effect on me than it had on my friends.
It actually encouraged me to persue a life in the military.
I guess just killing the hollywood image isn't enought to kill the desires of the heart...
I didn't think that it in any way belittled the life of a soldier, it seems to try and promote the reality of the difficulty of a Soldier's life.
Not something to be romanticized.
Anyways, I wanted to hear what you guys thought.
Dulce Et Decorum
Est Wilfred Owen
Translation: *Dulce et decorum est, Pro patria mori. = (Sweet and fitting it is, to die for one's country.)*
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 disappointed shells 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 floundering 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...
I thought it was a pretty good one then.
And somehow, it had the opposite effect on me than it had on my friends.
It actually encouraged me to persue a life in the military.
I guess just killing the hollywood image isn't enought to kill the desires of the heart...
I didn't think that it in any way belittled the life of a soldier, it seems to try and promote the reality of the difficulty of a Soldier's life.
Not something to be romanticized.
Anyways, I wanted to hear what you guys thought.
Dulce Et Decorum
Est Wilfred Owen
Translation: *Dulce et decorum est, Pro patria mori. = (Sweet and fitting it is, to die for one's country.)*
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 disappointed shells 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 floundering 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...