Wilfred Owen
(1921)
Wilfred Owen. 1963. "Dulce et Decorum Est." Wilfred Owen The Complete Poems and
Fragments. Edited by Jon Stallworthy. London: Chatto and Windus.
The Great War, as many European nations refer to the conflict between 1914 and 1918, was a bloody
contest heavily influenced by the Industrial Revolution. Death and destruction became efficient as
machine guns, tanks, poison gas and airplanes were introduced into the battlefield. On the Western
Front, trenches dominated the front lines that stretched through France and into Belgium.
Soldiers involved in this conflict spent their time in misery and hopelessness. Some expressed their
feelings through writing. Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) volunteered for service in the British Army in
1915. As an officer, he served with distinction. Wounded in June 1917, and sent to hospital near
Edinburgh, Owen met Siegfried Sassoon, another war poet, who encouraged Owen to continue his
writing. Owen returned to France in August 1918, won the Military Cross in October, and was killed in
action on November 4, 1918, one week before the Armistice. In the selection below, Owen bitterly
mocks the wastefulness of war by casting doubt on the Latin proverb "Dulce et decorum est pro patria
mori," meaning "It is sweet and honorable to die for one's country."
Dulce et Decorum Est
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 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 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.
Glossary
Gas
The battlefields of World War I saw the first use of poison gas. This poem describes a gas attack -probably mustard gas, which blinded and blistered all exposed flesh, and, if inhaled, stripped off the
mucous membranes of bronchial tubes causing bleeding and ultimately death.
Questions
1. Describe the life of the soldiers in the trenches.
2. Describe the gas attack. What happens to the soldier who fails to get his protective equipment
on in time?
3. What is the mood of the poem?
4. What is the message about war that Owen is trying to get the reader to understand?
Read the article from the following website:
http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/trenchlife.htm
Write a letter home from the trenches to a loved one. It should be at least one page and include
several of the details from the article or examples from the poem above.