New content for isolated times: a weekly poem to keep our spirits up. Read, listen, and enjoy.
Dulce Et Decorum Est- Wilfried Owen (Oct. 1917- Mar. 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 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,
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.
*This Latin phrase is from the Roman poet Horace: „It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country“.
Frankly, this is not the most positive poem. However, I chose it because it transports such a powerful message. Obviously, Wilfried Owen employs explicit irony when he says that it is glorious to die for one’s country. By depicting a scene during the first World War in which he uses different techniques in order to visualise it for the reader, he wants to depict a true image of what it means to fight during the war. Hence, he positions himself against the propaganda which took place during the First World War and which aimed to glorify the war in order to attract people to join it. During this pandemic, I have been thinking a lot about how the media tries to depict the Corona Virus and its consequences for how some of our world leaders reacted to it initially. In quite a few countries, leaders did not take the consequences of the pandemic seriously enough. This shows us that looking behind the scenes which are offered to us through media platforms is still relevant today and especially during the current situation.
For a language exercise based on this poem, check out the practice section.
