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Pro patria mori. Latin phrase is from the Roman poet Horace: “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”. 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….
- Audio Poem of The Day
Audio recordings of classic and contemporary poems read by...
- Insensibility
Poems, readings, poetry news and the entire 110-year archive...
- Three World War I Poems
Dulce et Decorum Est; In Flanders Fields; The Owl; Related...
- Strange Meeting
Then, as I probed them, one sprang up, and stared With...
- The Last Laugh
Source: The Poems of Wilfred Owen, edited by Jon Stallworthy...
- Arms and The Boy
Source: The Poems of Wilfred Owen, edited by Jon Stallworthy...
- Audio Poem of The Day
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori[ a ] is a line from the Odes (III.2.13) by the Roman lyric poet Horace. The line translates: "It is sweet and proper to die for one's country."
The poem critiques the patriotic exaltation of war ironically right from the title 'Dulce et Decorum Est' to the end, declaring the war slogan 'Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori (it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country)' a lie.
"Dulce et Decorum Est" is a poem written by Wilfred Owen during World War I, and published posthumously in 1920. Its Latin title is from a verse written by the Roman poet Horace: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. [3] In English, this means "it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country". [4]
Owen uses a Latin phrase to expose the lie of glorious war and depict the horrors of chemical attacks in WWI. Read the full text, analysis, themes, symbols, devices, and context of this powerful poem.
A famous war poem by Wilfred Owen, who died in World War I, using the Latin phrase "sweet and fitting to die for one's country" as a contrast to the horrors of war. The poem describes the agony of a soldier dying from poison gas and the irony of the propaganda that glorifies war.
Owen quotes Horace's ode praising dying for one's country, but contrasts it with the horrors of World War 1. He challenges the old lie of glorifying war and shows the reality of gas, mud and death.
