5 ms·
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 toward
by rayrrr 7y ago
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 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.
- kjs3 7y agoIncredibly powerful writing. You might give Wilfred Owen props for writing it.
- rayrrr 7y agoI was waiting for someone to do that for me. ;) Thanks. Agreed. Props to the WW1 poet Wilfred Owen 1893-1918.
- dmitryminkovsky 7y agoThanks for posting wow.
- robin_reala 7y ago(I put together a PD ebook collection of his work at https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/wilfred-owen/poetry https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/wilfred-owen/poetry)
- CydeWeys 7y agoYou didn't put it in quotes and you didn't attribute it directly. Why not attribute it correctly yourself? That's what's customary.
- rayrrr 7y agoHere are my three reasons not to be customary in this case: poetic license, public domain, and maximum impact.
- cmroanirgo 7y agoI remember reading this before, but don't recall the author... Who was it? Regarding the article: it seems to miss the obvious points, and sounds almost sociopathic in its use of literary lyricism to suggest that chemical weapons should be regarded as a viable weapon, if only it weren't for the military weaknesses it produces. > the narrative I got was fairly clear: we didn’t use chemical weapons because after World War I the nations of the world got together and decided that chemical weapons were just too horrible and banned them, and that this was a sign of something called ‘progress.’ The use of chemical weapons, as parent's comment writes, is indiscriminate in who and what it affects, whether it be enemy or own soldiers, or innocents: women, children, animals and even fauna. To have your skin melt, or your lungs liquified because some monster on the other side cooked up a recipe shows how inhumane and lacking in compassion people can be. I recall being told why modern military don't use high calibre rifles anymore (303 or 762): because a lower calibre tends to wound the enemy, which means that 2 or more enemy soldiers are needed to help their comrade out... Hence 1 smaller & lighter bullet can take out 2 or more of the enemy. That is, modern warfare is about incapacitating an enemy's ability to fight back. This is why sanctions, targetting infrastructure, stealth attack, etc, is what you see on the news all the time.
- ip26 7y agoAnother reason for low Calibre rifles- despite a cultural focus on marksmanship, internal studies found number of bullets fired was the number one predictor of enemy casualties. And the more bullets you shoot, the more you have to carry.
- LanceH 7y agoLiterally survivor bias.
- ThrowawayR2 7y agoI think it's well established in the literature that the modern military doesn't use the old larger battle rifle cartridges anymore because the extra range it offered was almost never needed and the smaller assault rifle cartridge allows more ammunition to be carried by each soldier.
- CSSer 7y agoLatin translation: “It is sweet and fitting to die for the homeland”
- kevas 7y agoThank you. Powerful
- cjslep 7y agoFrantic minds are terrified Life lies in a grave Silent death rides high above On the wings of revelation Multi death from chemicals Arrogance has won Annihilation must be swift Destroy without destruction Gods on the throne must be watching from hell Awaiting the mass genocide Soldiers defeated by death from a smell Bodies lie dormant no life Rising new souls on the lands where they fell Demons not ready to die Nothing to see where the sleeping souls lie
- gentleman11 7y agoBeautiful and terrible poem. Not even Nazi Germany or Stalin wanted to recreate those battlefields, even at Stalingrad and when the Nazis were on the run from the Russians. Whoever reintroduces these weapons is stepping in front of some real monsters in the history books