Poem 001

DULCE ET DECORUM EST₁

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, 
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, 
Till on the haunting flares² we turned our backs 
And towards our distant rest³ 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 hoots⁴ 
Of tired, outstripped⁵ Five-Nines⁶ that dropped behind.

Gas!⁷ Gas! Quick, boys! –  An ecstasy of fumbling, 
Fitting the clumsy helmets⁸ just in time; 
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, 
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime⁹ . . . 
Dim, through the misty panes¹⁰ 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,¹¹ 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 cud¹² 
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, 
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest¹³ 
To children ardent¹⁴ for some desperate glory, 
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est 
Pro patria mori.¹⁵

8 October 1917 - March, 1918

1 DULCE ET DECORUM EST - the first words of a Latin saying (taken from an ode by Horace). The words were widely understood and often quoted at the start of the First World War. They mean "It is sweet and right." The full saying ends the poem: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - it is sweet and right to die for your country. In other words, it is a wonderful and great honour to fight and die for your country 

2 rockets which were sent up to burn with a brilliant glare to light up men and other targets in the area between the front lines (See illustration, page 118 of Out in the Dark.) 

3 a camp away from the front line where exhausted soldiers might rest for a few days, or longer 

4 the noise made by the shells rushing through the air 

5 outpaced, the soldiers have struggled beyond the reach of these shells which are now falling behind them as they struggle away from the scene of battle 

6 Five-Nines - 5.9 calibre explosive shells 

7 poison gas. From the symptoms it would appear to be chlorine or phosgene gas. The filling of the lungs with fluid had the same effects as when a person drowned 

8 the early name for gas masks 

9 a white chalky substance which can burn live tissue 

10 the glass in the eyepieces of the gas masks 

11 Owen probably meant flickering out like a candle or gurgling like water draining down a gutter, referring to the sounds in the throat of the choking man, or it might be a sound partly like stuttering and partly like gurgling 

12 normally the regurgitated grass that cows chew; here a similar looking material was issuing from the soldier's mouth 

13 high zest - idealistic enthusiasm, keenly believing in the rightness of the idea 

14 keen 

15 see note 1 

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This poem describes war and its effects on the poet himself. “Dulce et decorum est

pro patria mori” actually means “How sweet and pure it is to die for one’s country”.

Owen in this poem describes how this is not at all true and that it is in no way

patriotic to die for your home land. In fact he describes this as

“The old Lie”. This is a very graphic, realistic and emotional account of the War.

In the first verse there is a description of the soldiers’ shell-shocked status and of how

all their senses are numbed. Owen recalls the jagged, impassive state of the soldiers.

The description of the fighters on the Western Front,

“Bent double, like old beggars under sacks”,

contradicts the whole idea that the soldier is upright, dignified and heroic.

“Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through the sludge”,

also describes the condition of the men. The phrase “Knock-kneed”, is a good use of

alliteration to illustrate the appearance of the soldiers. Words and phrases that depict

that they are stunned are, “blood-shod” ,“lame”, “blind”, “Drunk with fatigue”.

Owen manages to keep the state of the soldiers constant throughout the first

four verses. They can only fling him into the

wagon.

Although he, and most of the others, manage to fit the gas-masks and therefore fall

silent, there was still somebody out there, shouting.

“His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin”,

shows that it is so horrific that the devil would flinch at it. ”

This shows the reality that he is done for, he is already dead and the fact that nobody

can help him “In all my dreams before my helpless sight”

The helpless man throws himself at the poet,

“He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

“If in some smothering dreams” shows that these terrible images would stay with you

too if you were in his position. ” helps the reader picture that there is

someone on fire or being burned by lime, a powder used to burn dead bodies. I don’t think I would be able to stand

it, the horrific dreams, the flash backs of your friends dying beside you and yet you

could do nothing apart from go out there and die just like the so many other men.

All these quotations form a slow-moving verse, which is necessary to picture the

slow-moving soldiers.

“But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

And floundering”

This quotation “like a man on fire or lime. ”

This poem changed the way I feel about war and its effects on people and how it

destroys them, not just physically but mentally. I think this is needed to show the

adrenaline rush of the surprise, it also fits in well with the quick and exciting pace of

this verse. ”

When a candle is about to go out it makes a guttering noise as if it is dying exactly

like the man.