malthaussen
Posts: 1060
11/11/2015
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100 years ago, a generation of young men tore each other to pieces to prosecute the ambitions of their rulers. On 11/11, some of us remember them.
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 gas-shells 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.
(Wilfred Owen, KIA 1918)
edited by malthaussen on 11/11/2015
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"Of two choices, I always take the third."
Will do all socials except Loitering or Private Evenings (all my Free Evenings are accounted for), and Affluent Photographer Betrayals only, please. I am not currently accepting calling cards.
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Sestina Valdis
Posts: 210
11/11/2015
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Thank you for sharing, Mal. I love Wilfred Owen ("Anthem for Doomed Youth" remains one of my favourites) but I just taught this poem in class a few weeks back, so seeing it here is slightly... disorienting! Still, I suppose that is proof that Owen's poetry lives on in the hearts of youth who do not have to worry about war, precisely because of the sacrifices of others...
edited by Sestina Valdis on 11/11/2015
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Sestina Valdis, the Saccharine Satirist.
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malthaussen
Posts: 1060
11/11/2015
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Don't know if I agree with the sentiment, though, Sestina. Lt Owen's poems may live on in some hearts, but the War to End All Wars didn't, and there are young men and women dying just as futilely now as ever have been. Just not so much in Western Europe, these days.
-- Mal
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"Of two choices, I always take the third."
Will do all socials except Loitering or Private Evenings (all my Free Evenings are accounted for), and Affluent Photographer Betrayals only, please. I am not currently accepting calling cards.
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/malthaussen
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Sestina Valdis
Posts: 210
11/11/2015
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That's true... I suppose that I speak from a very privileged and fortunate perspective. Didn't mean to come across that way at all. I do have to watch that sometimes because it's easy to forget and to take one's blessings for granted. One of my students did say that Owen's poems are very relevant, even today. I think I'd agree. He still has a lot that he needs to tell us.
edited by Sestina Valdis on 11/11/2015
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Sestina Valdis, the Saccharine Satirist.
Appearance and Misc. Accoutrements
A Past Scattered Across Discarded Stockings
Fei Xue, the Artful Assassin.
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Mr Sables
Posts: 597
11/11/2015
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Sestina Valdis wrote:
Thank you for sharing, Mal. I love Wilfred Owen ("Anthem for Doomed Youth" remains one of my favourites) but I just taught this poem in class a few weeks back, so seeing it here is slightly... disorienting! Still, I suppose that is proof that Owen's poetry lives on in the hearts of youth who do not have to worry about war, precisely because of the sacrifices of others...
edited by Sestina Valdis on 11/11/2015
I half agree and half disagree . . .
I think you're right that the poem still holds deep meaning, but - like Mal says - I think the reason why the message is so strong is because of its timelessness. It's like why "Hamlet" is still an incredibly popular play hundreds of years on, because it speaks about the basic human condition and a universal state of being, it holds true to it things that still hold true today . . . likewise, this poem is about the futility of war and the human suffering behind it. The final line translates to something like: "it is sweet and honourable to die for one's country".
There is so much war today.
The Rwanda civil war was absolutely brutal, with streets lined with the dead. The Ukraine at the minute is literally divided, with many suffering breaches of basic human rights . . . not to mention the enforced famine that led to mass genocide some decades ago. The Gulf War, both one and two, along with the World War II, and even the wars against Ireland and England, which led to the violent/gruesome deaths of civilians by the hundreds and thousands.
The brutality of World War I is simply the war that I think best symbolises the humanity of war. It's the paradoxically the last war in which we faced our enemies head on, rather than with bombs and distance, where you could see the whites of their eyes, but also a war in which the sheer brutality and carnage was first truly in the limelight . . . it literally defined post-traumatic stress, which led Owen into Craiglockhart, and one of its worst battles saw 250,000 and more dead, without a single yard of land gained or lost. It speaks about the cruelty we inflict on each other day after day after day . . . no rhyme, no reason . . . never learning, always repeating . . .
The reason why it stays in our hearts is because of the universal truth.
There is no glory in war.
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Sestina Valdis
Posts: 210
11/11/2015
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I think that the both of you are right. I'm sorry and I am rather disappointed in myself for saying something that was actually rather close-minded and, in some ways, even disrespectful... Still, thank you for helping me realise that, and doing it in such an eloquent and poignant way. I really am grateful!
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Sestina Valdis, the Saccharine Satirist.
Appearance and Misc. Accoutrements
A Past Scattered Across Discarded Stockings
Fei Xue, the Artful Assassin.
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Avatar by Daniel Ilinca.
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Estelle Knoht
Posts: 1751
11/11/2015
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Robin Mask wrote:
The reason why it stays in our hearts is because of the universal truth.
There is no glory in war.
I had a secondhand history textbook for secondary school from mainland China - every single line of history on that book oozes hostility and "glory".
I never knew this Owen's poetry (not really the sort that had much exposure to literature), but this is making all that terrible text come back. It's like the very antithesis of this poem.
edited by Estelle Knoht on 11/11/2015
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Estelle Knoht, a juvenile, unreliable and respectable lady.
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Monsieur Dummour
Posts: 29
11/11/2015
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It's sad these young men's death is considered heroic. it's just sad.
That is my immature opinion, as I'm 14 and I'm being raised by a family of pacifists.
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Estelle Knoht
Posts: 1751
11/11/2015
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Monsieur Dummour wrote:
It's sad these young men's death is considered heroic. it's just sad.
That is my immature opinion, as I'm 14 and I'm being raised by a family of pacifists.
If that's immature, what we can describe these people who still think going to war is cool & good?
I still die a little inside everytime when I hear people in Hong Kong say "Back in WW2 Japan should have wiped out the flith that is China" OR some mainlanders say "America should have nuked these Japan ghost harder so they will stop breeding".
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Estelle Knoht, a juvenile, unreliable and respectable lady.
I currently do not accept any catbox, cider, suppers, calling cards or proteges.
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Monsieur Dummour
Posts: 29
11/11/2015
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By "immature" i meant "coming from an immature person" My English isn't that fluent, sorry.
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Lisbella Peridot
Posts: 138
11/11/2015
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Monsieur Dummour wrote:
By "immature" i meant "coming from an immature person" My English isn't that fluent, sorry.
I reckon she meant she doesn't think you or your comment is immature.
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I also play Town of Salem and a few other games - still Lisbella Peridot!
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malthaussen
Posts: 1060
11/11/2015
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I think that WWI stands out, from a literary standpoint, because it was so disillusioning. An apt word, since The Great Illusion had just been published before the war, demonstrating to Europe's satisfaction that war was impossible in the modern age. The brutality, savagery, and futility of the trenches completely overturned the complacent world-view that man had evolved past such activities, at least in the "civilized" and "progressive" West. The shock was, clearly, devastating. Whereas WWII and the sequel would produce more of an "oh, no, not this again" attitude. Not to say good art didn't come out of other wars, but WWI's circumstances are unique.
-- Mal
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"Of two choices, I always take the third."
Will do all socials except Loitering or Private Evenings (all my Free Evenings are accounted for), and Affluent Photographer Betrayals only, please. I am not currently accepting calling cards.
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/malthaussen
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