We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Dulce Et Decorum Est

from Still In The War, Boys! by The Crows Of Albion

/

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    CD version of the album

    Includes unlimited streaming of Still In The War, Boys! via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days

      £8 GBP or more 

     

about

One of the great war poems written by Wilfred Owen - this was written at Craiglockhart hospital circa 10th October 1917
POETRY FORM: Sonnet

lyrics

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 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.

credits

from Still In The War, Boys!, released October 3, 2014
Words by Wilfred Owen
with thanks to the Wilfred Owen Society for allowing the use of this poem in this collection

license

all rights reserved

tags

If you like The Crows Of Albion, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Saxophonist Isaiah Collier chats about his new LP and the influence of Pharoah Sanders.
listen now