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.

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

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[note 1] 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.

The earliest known manuscript is dated 8 October 1917 and is addressed to the poet's mother, Susan Owen, with the note "Here is a gas poem done yesterday (which is not private, but not final)."

The speaker of the poem describes the gruesome effects of the gas on the man, and concludes that anyone who sees the reality of war at first hand would not repeat mendacious platitudes such as dulce et decorum est pro patria mori: "How sweet and honourable it is to die for one's country".

[5] Throughout the poem, and particularly strong in the 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, e.g. "Who's for the game?"

[6] A later revision amended this to "a certain Poetess",[6] though this did not make it into the final publication, either, as Owen apparently decided to address his poem to the larger audience of war supporters in general such as the women who handed out white feathers during the conflict to men whom they regarded as cowards for not being at the front.

The title and the Latin exhortation of the final two lines are drawn from the phrase "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" written by the Roman poet Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus):

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori: mors et fugacem persequitur virum nec parcit inbellis iuventae poplitibus timidoque tergo.

The Classical Latin pronunciation reconstructed by scholars in the nineteenth century and generally taught in schools since the early 1900s (“dool-kay et decorum est, pro patria mor-ee”).

[9] In the opening lines, the scene is set with visual phrases such as "haunting flares", but after the gas attack the poem has sounds produced by the victim – "guttering", "choking", "gargling".

Owen wrote a number of his most famous poems at Craiglockhart, including several drafts of "Dulce et Decorum Est", "Soldier's Dream", and "Anthem for Doomed Youth".