Dulce et Decorum Est

Wilfred Owen fought for the British army in World War I. Many of his poems are about his perspective and experiences as a soldier in one of history’s most horrific wars.

Keep the SOAPSTone (Subject, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Speaker, Tone) method in mind as you read and reflect on the poem.

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-shod¹. All went lame, all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells² 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.³ —
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, guttering⁴, 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
Bitter as the cud⁵
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.⁶

¹ shod: shoed; i.e., fitted with shoes
² World War I was characterized by the first widespread use of chemical weapons in the form of gas (such as phosgene, chlorine, and mustard gas).
³ lime: the chemical calcium oxide, not the fruit
⁴ gutter: to burn weakly and unevenly, like a candle about to go out
⁵ cud: partially digested substance that ruminants (e.g., cows and goats) chew on for the second time after it has been in the first stomach
⁶ “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” is a line from the Roman lyrical poet Horace’s Odes (iii 2.13). The line can be rendered in English as “It is sweet and appropriate to die for one’s country,” or “It is sweet and fitting to die for the fatherland.” [from Wikipedia]