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         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.