Dulce Et Decorum Est
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Dulce Et Decorum Est (written in 1917 and published posthumously in 1921) is a poem written by English poet and World War I soldier Wilfred Owen. The work's horrifying imagery has made it one of the most popular condemnations of war ever written.
The 27-line poem, written loosely in iambic pentameter, is told from the persona of Wilfred Owen. It begins with a depiction of war-weary soldiers marching "through sludge," "blood-shod" and "drunk with fatigue". As mustard gas shells begin to fall, the soldiers scramble to put their gas masks on. In the rush, one man clumsily drops his mask, and the narrator sees the man "guttering, choking, drowning." The image of the man dying permeates his thoughts and dreams, forcing him to live this grotesque nightmare over and over again.
In the final stanza, Owen writes that if readers could see the body—the "eyes writhing", the "face hanging", the "vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues"—they would cease to send young men to war while instilling visions of glory in their heads. No longer would they tell their children the "Old lie," so long ago told by the Roman poet Horace: "Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori" ("It is sweet and proper to die for one's country").
- 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.
Throughout the poem, and particularly strong in this last stanza, there is a running commentary, a letter to Jessie Pope, a civilian propagandist of World War I, who encouraged—"with such high zest"—young men to join the battle, through her poetry.
Originally, the poem was written as a personal letter to Pope. Owen later decided, however, to address his poem to the wider audience of all supporters of the war. In the last stanza, however, the original intention can still be seen in Owen's bitter, horrific address.