Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori

[Donut]

For anybody here who is getting excited about war starting, who wants to kick ass, who believes it's "fun" to watch men die or who have confused the imminent war with some kind of PC 'shoot-em-up' I offer this poem from WWI by Wilfred Owen. It's not pretty!

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!-An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire of 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,
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.

[ 03-20-2003, 09:24 AM: Message edited by: Donut ]

[Thoran]

Just as powerful today as when I first read it many years ago. I don't think there are many here who are gung-ho about this war, I for one am very sad. I believe this needed to be done, but that doesn't change the fact that men are dying today.

[Ronn_Bman]

No, it's not pretty at all.

[Nachtrafe]

*SIGH* Donut...Do you, honestly, believe that anyone here is 'excited' about the war? There's a bit difference between understanding the necessity and thinking it's fun. Man...I thought that you knew people here better than this. [img]graemlins/nono.gif[/img]

FWIW...I...well...'like' isn't necessarily the best word...but, I am very moved by the poem. It does a good job of highlighting some of the horrors of war. Thanks for posting the poem. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Ziroc]

Donut, I don't think anyone is jumping up and down about the war. Happy that people will die is wrong. I am closing this, since it WILL create flames.