Remembrance Day

Today marks 98 years since the end of the dreadful Great War, and we shall never forget the tragic loss of life, and incredible courage displayed by the young men who fought for their respective countries during World War One, and sadly so many other conflicts since

Today we share one very famous poem from a Great British Patriot who fought on the frontlines, and documented the horrors in which he witnessed. Wilfred Owen, one of the prominent war poets, has left a collection of works behind that provide an insight to life in the trenches. Sadly Owen died one week before the armistice was signed, his legacy immortalised through the works he created. Dulce et Decorum is one of his best known works, today we share the poem as a mark of respect to all those who gave their lives in the World War One, along with all other conflicts.

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 res 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.

**DULCE ET DECORUM EST is a Latin saying, it was widely quoted at the start of the First World War. The words mean "It is sweet and right." Within the context of the poem, the Latin reads Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori – It is sweet and right to die for your Country”**