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Final Version
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 tired, outstriped Five-Nines that 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 flound'ring 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."
Dulce Et Decorum EST This Latin name comes from Horace's Odes, Book 3, line 13: Dulce Et Decorum EST pro patria mori meaning it is sweet and honorable to die for the fatherland.
Five-Nines: artillery shells that made a hooting sound before landing.
Gas: Chlorine gas was used as a antipersonnel weapon in 1915 by the Germans at Ypres, in Belgium
Helmets: Soldiers carried gas masks as normal battle equipment
Thick green: The color of chlorine gas
The people who were gassed and survived
Gassed by John Singer Sargent
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