The War Poems Quotes

“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 disappointed shells 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 floundering 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, The War Poems

“What passing bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifle's rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers, nor bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill demented choirs of wailing shells,
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes,
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall,
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each, slow dusk a drawing down of blinds.”
― Wilfred Owen, The War Poems

“Sleep mothered them; and left the twilight sad.”
― Wilfred Owen, The War Poems

“And in his eyes
The cold stars lighting, very old and bleak,
In different skies.”
― Wilfred Owen, The War Poems

“But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.”
― Wilfred Owen, The War Poems

“He's lost his colour very far from here,
Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry”
― Wilfred Owen, The War Poems

“For by my glee might many men have laughed,
And of my weeping may something have been left,
Which must die now.”
― Wilfred Owen, The War Poems

“Wading sloughs of flesh these helpless wander,
Treading blood from lungs that had loved laughter.”
― Wilfred Owen, The War Poems

“Voices of boys were by the river-side.
Sleep mothered them; and left the twilight sad.”
― Wilfred Owen, The War Poems

“Shall they return to beating of great bells
In wild train-loads?
A few, a few, too few for drums and yells,
May creep back, silent, to village wells,
Up half-known roads.”
― Wilfred Owen, The War Poems

“There breasts were stuck all white with wreath and spray
As men's are, dead.”
― Wilfred Owen, The War Poems

“But let my death be memoried on this disc.
Wear it, sweet friend. Inscribe no date nor deed.
But let thy heart-beat kiss it night and day,
Until the name grow vague and wear away.”
― Wilfred Owen, The War Poems

“The dust that fell unnoted as a dew,
Wrapped the dead city's face like mummy-cloth”
― Wilfred Owen, The War Poems