Some Desperate Glory

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 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.

This is a wonderful war poem by the First World War poet, Wilfred Owen, who died right at the end of the war.  Apparently, just as his mother opened the door to hear the church bells ringing joyfully to announce the Armistice, she received the telegram which brought the news of his death.   It gives such magnificent and shocking images of the weariness of the men and the horror of the gas attack. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori means "it is sweet and right to die for your country" but Wilfred Owen tells us that is an "old lie".  In The Catcher in the Rye, Mr. Antolini tells Holden "the mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, but the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one."

We had a very nice Remembrance Day ceremony today at school and I would like to thank everyone who helped make it meaningful and put so much thought and effort into it.  All the speeches were powerful and I enjoyed the music and the visual images as well.  Tomorrow many of us will go to our local cenotaph to pay our respects to the people in the community who have risked everything in armed conflicts.  I wonder if people will ever figure out how to solve their differences without trying to kill each other.   We appear to have made some progress with elections and courts and the legal system, but it is shocking how quickly those institutions can be lost when we aren't vigilant.  It is interesting that we are embroiled in an election right now in our cities and towns.  The turnout for municipal elections is shamefully small and, when you think of it, our civic government is really the one that has the most influence on our day to day lives, so any of you who are 18 should find out about the issues and vote and if you aren't old enough, encourage your parents to do the same.  I have been poring over the newspaper and the candidates' webpages trying to figure out who would be the best mayor, councillors and school board trustees for Port Moody.  It is a big responsibility to be a voter, but also a big opportunity and no one should take it lightly.