The Armistice Day I remember most clearly was in my grandmothers house when I was about 8 or 9. As the morning wore on, she reminded me several times that we were to stop whatever we were doing at 11 oclock to remember the dead. It was, she said, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. So when 11 oclock came we did stop, she stepped away from the kitchen counter and opened the back door, I stopped coloring at the kitchen table and stepped out with her. At that moment every church in town began tolling its bells. It was the most moving, silent tribute I have ever heard. This is a day of peace, a day to remember the cost of war. For many years I read this poem on Armistice Day to remember its meaning. 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 tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped 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. Wilfred Owen Thought to have been written between 8 October 1917 and March 1918
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 23:16:41 +0000
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