DULCE ET DECORUM EST
BY Wilfred Owen

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.

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.

while studying today, i chanced upon a really good wilfred owen poem abt ,no prize for guessing, wars. but i cant find it .screw. found this other poem instead. honestly i have not read through the whole thing but some of the phrases intrigued me.

many things happened tonight. as i told ben, things are fine because now i am only concentrating on track and studies, pushing everything else aside first. but these two got many things to worry abt itself. and you cant entirely push 'everything else aside '.

the other day i told my friend ,' i'm celebrating fathers day by accompanying daddy wherever he wants to go' (do take note my notes nvr left my hands throughout . from lunch to sentosa to henderson bridge)

the reply i got was 'crazy our fathers are definitely more impt to us than studies'

then i thought abt it. heck, family and religion are just two factors in our lives that are much more impt than studies. what abt the starving kids in africa, the homeless pple in indonesia, the aged and left-behinds in our own heartland... theres so much we shld be doing instead.

and look at me, i'm a teenager, barely 18. sometimesi wanna be cynical abt life and throw a tantrum. but can i do that? no. because of your immaturity and troubles, it has a ripple effect and affects us all. and hey look, it affects me. im being so selfcentred here. when i look at your trouble, your situation, i really pity yall. i respect yall but i see sadness when i look at you. andi tell myself, when i grow up, i dont want to end up likethat..

i hate thinking so because i wanna see them as role models, but in this particular aspect, no,no way. ofcourse as long as the vow is not broken, things still can be salvaged. the qn is, will you do your part?

i think only i will get this whole chunk of words. dont speculate anything. ask me if interested, ill tell you if i'm comfortable abt it. for tonight, leave me to die.