Dulce et Decorum Est
Wilfred Owen
1893 to 1918
Track 1
Reconstruct the poem by dragging each line into its correct position. Your goal is to reassemble the original poem as accurately as possible. As you move the lines, you'll see whether your arrangement is correct, helping you explore the poem's flow and meaning. You can also print out the jumbled poem to cut up and reassemble in the classroom. Either way, take your time, enjoy the process, and discover how the poet's words come together to create something truly beautiful.
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Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime.—
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
Pro patria mori.
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.