Dulce et Decorum Est
1 Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
2 Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
3 Till on the haunting flares we turned out backs,
4 And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
5 Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
6 But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind;
7 Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
8 Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
9 Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!--An ecstasy of fumbling
10 Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
11 But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
12 And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime.--
13 Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
14 As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
15 In all my dreams before my helpless sight
16 He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
17 If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
18 Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
19 And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
20 His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,
21 If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
22 Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs
23 Bitter as the cud
24 Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
25 My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
26 To children ardent for some desperate glory,
27 The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
28 Pro patria mori.
poem by Wilfred Owen
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Related quotes
The Latin One
[ lyrics: wilfred owen/music: j.c. lombardo ]
Bent double like old beggars in sacks
Knockkneed and cursing or coughing like hags
Men marched on sleeping some without boots
Fatigue drunken deaf still to the hoots
Of breaking gas shells
Dropping softly behind
But limped on bloodshod
All went lame all went blind
Gas gas quick boys fumbling helmets in time
Someone still screaming a man in fire or lime
Under a grey cloud dim dark through green light
In all my dreaming before my helpless sight
He plunges at me
Choking guttering drowning
Put in a wagon he had to keep pace
As his eyes melt to his face
If you could hear blood
Gurgling from ruptured lungs
If you could witness
Vile sores on innocent tongues
You would not tell me
Not with such pride and such zest
The lies of history
Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori
Some desperate glory
Pro patria mori
As witness disturbs the story
Pro patria mori
Stand firm boys breathe the glory
song performed by by 10000 Maniacs
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori
In 'Dulce Decorum Est' grim realities has Owen told?
Images he witness bore cut into nerve retina of eyeballs?
“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, outstripped Five Nines that dropped behind.”
Wilfred was a conscientious objector, who never believed
in war. Owen believed he had no right to protest against war,
if he had never fought in it. Wilfred wrote realistic anti-war
poems. “Dulce et Decorum Est” is a protest against war.
The lie “Dulce et Decorum Est pro patria mori” Owen denounces
declaring it is not sweet and honourable to die for your country.
Stark grim dark is contrast between false lie and truth reality
powerfully in an account of friend dying soldier demonstrated
Symptoms of chlorine or phosgene gas are correctly described
The 'misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw
him drowning' are accurate descriptions of poison gas covering battlefield Owen haunted by agony memory horrific deaths declares 'In all my dreams
before my helpless sight He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning' attests. Words 'gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs describes, gassed lungs filled with fluid, producing similar effects, as when a person drowns
in water. ‘Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! An ecstasy of fumbling’ intones
instant cinematic descriptive reality, suddenly reader you must bear witness, to secret scientific weapons research horrors humankinds worst deeds
“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 (Owen declares)
My friend, you would not tell with such zest
The old lie: Dulce et Decorum Est pro patria mori”
because it is not sweet nor honourable to die such deaths
poem by Terence George Craddock
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Pro Patria Mori
World War 1 Soldier Tailem Bend by Illawarrian
Pro patria mori
Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
For generations
we've sold these goods
to young boys
who burn for glory.
Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Indeed, how sweet,
Pray tell
Poppy covered warrior.
Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
How sweet was the Somme?
Such little ground
was gained with
half a generation gone.
Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
When weapons
far outpace the men
what an empty word
is glory.
poem by John F. McCullagh
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I saw men
I saw men wetting their pants
when the first bullets fly past them
in their first contact with the enemy
and I saw men,
shot out of their military boots
and lying broken and covered with blood.
I saw men burnt to ashes
by white phosphorous
in a shot out Ratel IFV
and I saw men
left limbless by landmines.
I saw men making the best
of what life dealt them
and fighting to survive
against the odds
and gaining victory,
against a outnumbering foe
and still believing the old lie:
Dulce et decorum est
pro patria mori
[References: Dulce et decorum est by Wilfred Owen. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.=> 'It is sweet and right to die for the homeland”]
poem by Gert Strydom
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Daddy's Falling Angel
Pull these scars off my eyes
Lost from the world
A child searching for her dad
You left me there alone
With hime to rape my world
And I lived through the years a girl
Pleading why
In my dreams last night I saw your face
You held me and washed away my tears
Then I woke to realize you're gone
I'm drowning in solitude again
I thank God for my mother's love
Through years of broken innocence
She carried me through the light
In my dreams last night I saw your face
You held me and washed away my tears
Then I woke to realize you're gone
I'm drowning in solitude again
When you realize that fate is gone
Just look at me and say goodbye
So tell me how you fell
So tell me how
As these years and time go racing by
I'm drowning in solitude again
No, this won't kill me
In my dreams last night I saw your face
You held me and washed away my tears
Then I woke to realize you're gone
I'm drowning in solitude again
This won't kill me
poem by Bootiful Kid
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Swimming in Time
Swimming in Time
By: Adam M. Snow
I am lost yet found;
in time surround;
past and future follows.
I see the door;
neither open nor closed;
and divine nevermore.
I'm swimming in time;
seeing your life and mine;
and all that gleams;
in this time divine.
This is beyond reality;
beyond mortality;
swimming in time.
I feel no pain;
not crazy nor sane;
neither light nor dark.
I'm but one yet not alone;
between space and time;
in the looking glass shown.
I'm not dead nor am I alive;
but a ghost that thrive.
I swam through time;
to see your dreams delight;
down an isle in a gown so white.
I'm swimming in time, time again;
being resurrected now and then.
I see the sun covered in blood;
waiting here for the endless flood.
The sandman awakes to children cries;
as mother nature dies.
The people wander with hearts of weary;
as the stars grew dark in the night;
they lay to rest their soul so dreary;
hoping that time would finally cease;
and everything would be at ease.
I am swimming in time.
there's no fantasy;
nor is there ecstasy.
It's a bad nursery rhyme;
and everyone is blind;
yet I am within my dreams;
trapped in time.
I'm my own shadow;
staring at me;
through a broken window.
I'm not blind yet I cannot see;
all my pass desires.
This is my only crime;
now I am drowning in time.
I'm caged yet free as time despise;
and all the truth feels like lies;
here all alone, lost in time.
there's no rest for the weary;
as we suffer sick and dreary.
I am stuck in time;
trapped in abyss;
nevermore will I feel bliss.
I am one broken in two;
again, nevermore will I be new.
I hear the echo;
it calls to me;
telling me I should let go;
of all my doubt and misery.
For all time sake;
I lay here, now wide awake;
no more swimming in time;
now gone is the night;
sun now greets me with morning light.
poem by Adam M. Snow
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Street Of Dreams
I heard the sound of voices in the night
Spellbound there was someone calling
I looked around no one was in sight
Pulled down I just kept on falling
Ive seen this place before
You were standing by my side
Ive seen your face before tonight
Maybe I just see what I want it to be
I know its a mystery
Do you remember me on a street of dreams
Running through my memory
On the street of dreams
There you stood a distant memory
So good like we never parted
Said to myself I knew youd set me free
And here we are right back where we started
Soemthings come over me
And I dont know what to feel
Maybe this fantasy is real
Now I know I see what I want it to be
But its still a mystery
Do you remember me on the street of dreams
Running through my memory
On the street of dreams
You are on every face I see
On the street of dreams
Solo
Tell me have you always been
On the street of dreams
Will we ever meet again my friend
Do you know just what it meand to be
On the street of dreams
Never know just who youll see do ya
On the street of dreams
You can be who you want to be oh yeah
I can hear you calling me
I can feel you haunting me
Haunting me
song performed by by Rainbow
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Drowning
Everything is so complex
Everyday is like a test full of opsticals
That almost seem impossible
And I'm thinking just another breath not a minute left.
How long have I been drinking?
Pass the glass pint hit the flash light now break it.
People say I'm a star but I still think ill never make it.
And I'm thinking just another prayer not a second left.
I feel there's something missing
Sometimes I hate that chaos surrounds me when all the answers I see go around me.
Am I drowning?
Am I fading away?
OR am I living up to all your dreams that made me this way?
Am I drowning?
Am I drowning?
Am I drowning?
Am I drowning?
I've been to hell and back looking for the answers to life.
Looking at myself trying to get things right.
And I'm feeling just another breath not a minute left.
I feel the darkness lifting.
There was a time
That I questioned if Id ever be alright.
Running getting high staying trapped by sleepless nights.
And I'm thinking just another breath not a minute left.
I feel there's something missing.
I'm running from myself and all the things I don't like.
Living every night like it's the last night.
And I'm thinking just another prayer not a second left.
I need to stop resisting.
Sometimes I hate that chaos surrounds me when all the answers I see go around me.
Am I drowning?
Am I fading away?
OR am I living up to all your dreams that made me this way?
Am I drowning?
Am I drowning?
Am I drowning?
Am I drowning?
Drowning in the drama lost in the lies trapped by the currents of life caught in the rip tides.
Drowning in the drama lost in the lies trapped by the currents of life caught in the rip tides.
Drowning in the drama lost in the lies trapped by the currents of life caught in the rip tides.
Drowning in the drama lost in the lies trapped by the currents of life caught in the rip tides.
Am I drowning?
Am I drowning?
Am I drowning?
Am I drowning?
Sometimes I hate that chaos surrounds me when all the answers I see go around me.
Am I drowning?
Am I fading away?
OR am I living up to all your dreams that made me this way?
Am I drowning?
Am I drowning?
Am I drowning?
Am I drowning?
Drowning in the drama lost in the lies trapped by the currents of life caught in the rip tides.
Drowning in the drama lost in the lies trapped by the currents of life caught in the rip tides.
song performed by by Crazy Town
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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River Of Tears
Its three miles to the river
That would carry me away,
And two miles to the dusty street
That I saw you on today.
Its four miles to my lonely room
Where I will hide my face,
And about half a mile to the downtown bar
That I ran from in disgrace.
Lord, how long have I got to keep on running,
Seven hours, seven days or seven years?
All I know is, since youve been gone
I feel like Im drowning in a river,
Drowning in a river of tears.
Drowning in a river.
Feel like Im drowning,
Drowning in a river.
In three more days, Ill leave this town
And disappear without a trace.
A year from now, maybe settle down
Where no one knows my face.
I wish that I could hold you
One more time to ease the pain,
But my times run out and I got to go,
Got to run away again.
Still I catch myself thinking,
One day Ill find my way back here.
Youll save me from drowning,
Drowning in a river,
Drowning in a river of tears.
Drowning in a river.
Feels like Im drowning,
Drowning in the river.
Lord, how long must this go on?
Drowning in a river,
Drowning in a river of tears.
song performed by by Eric Clapton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Green Soldiers
The Armies marched with banging drums
That made ill the streams, made black the dreams.
The Armies marched with cracking horns,
Each soldier robed in robes of green.
With green swords they cut her down,
Greyed her hairs and dimmed her smiles.
Their drums rung around her ears,
Their trophies hung within her tears.
But, in the night Turning Tide
Brought Light, who shone to crack the ice
That Time had made cold and hard
Around each green soldiers heathen heart.
Whispers. Whispers in my ears and in the hills.
'The ice will crack; the blood will flow',
The ice did crack, the blood ran cold
And drowned each green soldiers heathen soul.
We stood just to watch them die,
Let them bleed until their hearts bled dry.
Alas! things could never be the same
With her smiles so dim and her hairs so grey.
poem by Floyd Zimmerman
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Shametown
I see the world through the eyes of an idiot
Talkin big white trash (? )
Before the girls an boys inside of my soul
They take my path (? )
In the mirror there I see my fathers face in glass
I know I am not anyone yet too afraid to ask
I will pawn you my watch
Pawn you my chain
Pawn you my new diamond ring
Pawn you my watch
Pawn you my chain
Pawn you yeah most anything
Get your clogs on the floor
Step up step up step up an do more
Hey little girl is your door still open
The devil still inside
Seen your face he left the place
Took everything inside
Hey by the way I forgot to mention
I let it just slip out
Today is the day of salvation
An aint gonna tell no lie
Some through the water
Some through the flood
Some by the fire
But all through his blood
Some through the water
Some through the flood
Some by the bullet
But all through his blood
song performed by by 16 Horsepower
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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My Garden
What life is this we call our home?
All dreams now bent and broken bones,
and laughing are we clowns?
Death decay and drowning.
I carry my secret untold
This my hammer strike
Upon the forge of fire in passion burnt
What life?
What lessons have we learnt?
Stolen out of time
Into recession
Into abyss
Still stolen life of mine.
You catch me watching you
Eagle eyes and open thighs
Do you wish to know my lips
As I desire to bathe in your saliva
Blood sweat and tears come too
All a bath I bathe of you
What dreams now what desires
How secret are our fires
Watch fire and laugh
Aztec bloodlust ember glow
Tell me the tales I seek to know
I shall hear what I wish
Tell me a tale of the forest
I'll tell you a tale of the fish
Two directions swiftly met
Let us remember now to forget
Not all
Old friends of memory reborn
Dreams born adrift
Come see my garden grows
poem by David Lacey
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The Price Of War
Their mangled and broken bodies
return home in flag draped caskets.
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori
while a band plays patriotic
hymns for their services rendered
and a choir to give them a voice.
If I may be so bold to say
that I see no sweetness in death
nor the acclaimed gloriousness
that lyrical poets have penned.
what I see is sugarcoated
rationale for warmongering
dolts. I see no glory in that.
Mortem est pretium bellum.
poem by Albert Ahearn
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Sad Green Eyes
You look at me with sad green eyes,
I'm overcome with feeling-
Such deep emotion they disguise,
Yet send my senses reeling; They speak to me of loneliness
And feelings unexpressed,
Of hopes and dreams unrealized
And love gone uncaressed; They cry to me of urgency
To experience it all-
But here you are in limbo
With your back against the wall; I wish I had the answers
To the questions they impose-
I'm drowning in those sad green eyes
And the sorrow only grows; If I had one magic wish,
You know what it would be?
To see instead of sad green eyes
Green eyes that smile for me.
You Really Got Me
Lime green lime green and tangerine
Are the sickly sweet colours of the snakes I'm seeing
Lime green lime green and tangerine
Are the sickly sweet colours of the devil in my dreams
Lime green lime green and tangerine
Are the sickly sweet colours of the snakes I'm seeing
Lime green and tangerine
Are the sickly sweet colours of the devil in my dreams
It gets to Friday and I give you a call
song performed by by Cure
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Unanswered Poem
She was at a distance
Walking On the road
Eyes glued on my house
Seeing her
My heart started singing
My mind in ecstasy
I prayed to god
Hoped
Today she would
Knock at the door
Nearing my house
She turned her face
The other side
Smilingly
Passed my house
Did not even bother
To have a look it
Seeing this
My heart started choking
Ecstasy of the mind
Turned into gloom
Writhing with pain
In my heart
In sheer despair
I clenched my fists
And said
Oh! God
When will you listen to
My prayer?
30-06-2012
601-51-06-12
poem by Nirantar Dr.Rajendra Tela
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Dig Deep
Looking Through Blood Shot Eyes Watching The Sunrise. Feeling So Tired, Just So Sick Of It. Pictures So Dead And Gone. Burnt Up In Flames. Still Trying To Keep Things The Same. But Its The Devils Game. And He Wins Again. Another Lost Friend. A Name Carved In Stone. Don't Tell Me Were Not All Alone. Cause I Know Better Then Anyone. I Live It Every Day. And It Doesn't Get Any Easier, Even When Pray. No More Faith, All My Desperate Attempts Have Left A Stale Taste. Just Wake Up Now. Hold Your Head Up High Even If You Don't Feels So Proud. Put The Smiling Face On. Come On Just Come On. Like It Even Matters. Let Me Rest My Head. Let Death Come Quick. Let The Misery Die With One Little Prick. An Invasion Of The Mind. Through Layers We Go. And Still It Doesn't Help. I'm Just As Confused. Another Game I Lose. In Life Memories Are For The Old. In Life The Heart Is For The Cold. In Life Perfection Is A Goal That Cant Be Reached. But Still We Try. We Have To So Everything We Do Can Be Justified. But My Soul Has Been Compromised. In Limbo With No Notion Of Where Im Even Going. But Still I Feel Must. Steady My Self, Ready My Self, Another Unconscious Transgression. Distant An Unchecked. No Sight Of Reality Yet. Just Where Did It Go. Its Got To Be Here Somewhere. So Dig Deep.
poem by Ace Of Black Hearts
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Desperate romantic
I am a desperate romantic
choking on the words that
can not seem to find,
lost in the the dark without you
waiting completely impatiently,
Im nothing but a desperate romantic
with eyes as red as the wine
im drowning in.
The Hell-Bound Train
A Texas cowboy lay down on a barroom floor,
Having drunk so much he could drink no more;
So he fell asleep with a troubled brain
To dream that he rode on a hell-bound train.
The engine with murderous blood was damp
And was brilliantly lit with a brimstone lamp;
An imp, for fuel, was shoveling bones,
While the furnace rang with a thousand groans.
The boiler was filled with lager beer
And the devil himself was the engineer;
The passengers were a most motley crew-
Church member, atheist, Gentile, and Jew,
Rich men in broad cloth, beggars in rags,
Handsome young ladies, and withered old hags,
Yellow and black men, red, brown, and white,
All chained together-O God, what a sight!
While the train rushed on at an awful pace-
The sulphurous fumes scorched their hands and face;
Wider and wider the country grew,
As faster and faster the engine flew.
Louder and louder the thunder crashed
And brighter and brighter the lightning flashed;
Hotter and hotter the air became
Till the clothes were burned from each quivering frame.
And out of the distance there arose a yell,
'Ha, ha,' said the devil, 'we're nearing hell'
Then oh, how the passengers all shrieked with pain
And begged the devil to stop the train.
But he capered about and danced for glee,
And laughed and joked at their misery.
'My faithful friends, you have done the work
And the devil never can a payday shirk.
'You've bullied the weak, you've robbed the poor,
The starving brother you've turned from the door;
You've laid up gold where the canker rust,
And have given free vent to your beastly lust.
'You've justice scorned, and corruption sown,
And trampled the laws of nature down.
You have drunk, rioted, cheated, plundered, and lied,
And mocked at God in your hell-born pride.
'You have paid full fare, so I'll carry you through,
For it's only right you should have your due.
Why, the laborer always expects his hire,
So I'll land you safe in the lake of fire,
'Where your flesh will waste in the flames that roar,
And my imps torment you forevermore.'
Then the cowboy awoke with an anguished cry,
His clothes wet with sweat and his hair standing high.
Then he prayed as he never had prayed till that hour
To be saved from his sin and the demon's power;
And his prayers and his vows were not in vain,
For he never rode the hell-bound train.
poem by Anonymous Americas
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The Force that Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower
The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.
The force that drives the water through the rocks
Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams
Turns mine to wax.
And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks.
The hand that whirls the water in the pool
Stirs the quicksand; that ropes the blowing wind
Hauls my shroud sail.
And I am dumb to tell the hanging man
How of my clay is made the hangman's lime.
The lips of time leech to the fountain head;
Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood
Shall calm her sores.
And I am dumb to tell a weather's wind
How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.
And I am dumb to tell the lover's tomb
How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.
poem by Dylan Thomas
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