Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

Wilfred OWEN

Perhaps the most famous anti-war poem ever written.

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,
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.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

Thank you for adding this Robert. It is without doubt the most descriptive poem that could only have been written by someone who had had actually experienced those horrors

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

Lymington still has some cobbled streets.
OK walking down.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

The harbour.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

A watering hole.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

Who's chair!

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

Nice selection of poems for the remembrance RJ.

Lovely snaps Sweetie, I’m afraid those cobbles would play havoc with my high heels
That’s a grand big bottle of Jack though, Gummy had better hurry up before we scoff the lot.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

I’m the same RJ, progress just floated over my head and continued on to be what it is today.

He was a slave to progress, my Uncle Jack
Alway looking forward and never looking back
Bought a burial plot at the age of twenty three
With a second hand headstone thrown in for free.

He had all sots of creams lotions and pills
And bottles of stuff that would cure all ills
But tragedy struck when he got drunk in a Bar
When he staggered outside he was hit by a car.

R.I.P. Uncle Jack.

Do you ever wonder why active Volcanos don’t get married and settle down?

I was on about the annual visits of missionary priests to the local parishes a few posts back, then I remembered this very old chestnut.

Two old ladies coming from the church after the missionary priest delivered his sermon.

Rosey: “That new preacher can certainly shout Mary, roars like a Tiger”
Mary: “Yes Rosey, and bawls like a Lion”
Rosey: “How do you know that Mary!?”

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

lovely pics SP warms the cockles of me heart - there was a lovely little village down that way - cobbled of course that I used to pass through sometimes - well browse a while - it was reknowned for its old world charm and quaintness - Hythe was it?? - the camera work is coming along spiffingly too!

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

I'm learning. I will go to Basingstoke soon.
Any requests?