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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGeorge McGovern quote
Im fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in. ~ George S. McGovern
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George McGovern quote (Original Post)
Laura PourMeADrink
Dec 2015
OP
Thank you for sharing. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - "It is sweet and
Laura PourMeADrink
Dec 2015
#4
tblue37
(65,328 posts)1. Do you know this poem?
Dulce et Decorum Est
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 gas-shells 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 floundring 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 devils 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.
Owen wrote this in response to popular jingoistic war poems back home in Englands. He was killed in WWI one week before the armistice ended the war.
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 gas-shells 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 floundring 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 devils 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.
Owen wrote this in response to popular jingoistic war poems back home in Englands. He was killed in WWI one week before the armistice ended the war.
retrowire
(10,345 posts)2. i love reading a new poem every day.
thank you!
this was visceral and haunting.
GeoWilliam750
(2,522 posts)3. Also, The War Prayer
http://warprayer.org/
It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)4. Thank you for sharing. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - "It is sweet and
glorious to die for one's country.
If....you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face