![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/poppies-field2-300x200.jpg\")
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Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
\nKnock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
\nTill on the haunting flares we turned our backs
\nAnd towards our distant rest began to trudge.
\nMen marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
\nBut limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
\nDrunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
\nOf tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
\nGas! Gas! Quick, boys! \u2013 An ecstasy of fumbling,
\nFitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
\nBut someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
\nAnd flound\u2019ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
\nDim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
\nAs under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
\nIn all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
\nHe plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
\nIf in some smothering dreams you too could pace
\nBehind the wagon that we flung him in,
\nAnd watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
\nHis hanging face, like a devil\u2019s sick of sin;
\nIf you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
\nCome gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
\nObscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
\nOf vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
\nMy friend, you would not tell with such high zest
\nTo children ardent(14) for some desperate glory,
\nThe old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
\nPro patria mori.<\/p>\n
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(ed. \u2013 DULCE ET DECORUM EST are the first words of a Latin saying taken from an ode by Horace. These words were often quoted at the start of the First World War. They mean \u201cIt is sweet and right.\u201d The full saying ends the poem: \u201cDulce et decorum est pro patria mori\u201d which is \u201cIt is sweet and right to die for your country.\u201d)<\/em><\/p>\n