The Old Lie: Dulce et Decorum Est...

Dulce et Decorum Est

  By Wilfred Owen

       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,

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.*    (source)

*Latin phrase is from the Roman poet Horace: “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”

Wilfred Owen was a British World War 1 soldier and poet. His poems speak of the horrors of battle and are not sentimental or patriotic. As Canadians, we often recite In Flanders Fields, with its post-battle images of poppies, larks and crosses. But Owen is not afraid to say, as he quotes Horace.

"The old Lie: It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country."

Owen died in action on November 4, 1918, one week before Armistice. He was 25 years old.

Today we commemorate those who died in the world wars of the 20th century. I grew up seeing the personal pain suffered by families who lost loved ones during these wars. When I was in grade 7, students in my homeroom took turns reading a poem of their choice before we recited the Lord's Prayer and sang the national anthem. I remember selecting some poem about the war, and as I read it, our teacher, Mrs. Mummery, began to cry. She did not speak of her loss and we did not ask, but we felt her sorrow. My best friend's father, Laurence Higgins, lost his arm in battle in Italy. He returned to Canada, married, had a family, worked full time, and hid his emotional pain for many years. I am privileged to have known him and his story.

I feel the poppy emblem, which is 100 years old this year, has been romanticized and commercialized. Wars continue around the world, but we seldom feel the effects of them in Canada, our free and safe first-world nation. Injustice abounds, and people in many countries do not enjoy peace and safety. While we remember the dead, we must remember...

  

veterans who fought and suffered physical and emotional scars,

the millions of civilians who have suffered because of war,

the refugees displaced by ongoing conflicts,

      and those suffering in current wars.

John August Swanson was a Mexican-American artist who died earlier this year. His art is colourful and symbolic. I love his work called Psalm 85 which depicts a world that flourishes with justice, peace, truth and kindness.

(Find the words below in this picture)

"Justice and Peace shall kiss, 

Truth shall spring out of the earth. 

Kindness and Truth shall meet, 

Justice shall look down from the heavens."

The Mennonite Central Committee of Ontario designed a peace button a few years ago. Mennonites are pacifists, but many served in the wars in non-combat positions. They continue to work for peace and justice in local communities and around the world. We remember, but we must learn from the sacrifices of the past as we push forward and work for a better world.