Dulce et decorum est

This poem is so beautiful in so many ways. The notion that these men are fighting for honor and pride and putting themselves through a literal hell, is just so beyond respectable that I can't even really find words to express it. I appreciate what the soldiers are doing now, but in comparison to the soliders of the time in this poem, they have it just a -little- bit easier. The men in these poems got, "drunk with fatigue" (line 7) instead of any other substances. They see their enemy face to face, which some soldiers never get to experience due to our advances in technology. War wasn't just a game with people calling shots on both ends, it was people in the ground getting very serious. That's how beautiful this poem is. That's what I thought until reading the last two lines. "The old Lie; Dulce Et Decorum est pro patria mori" (lines 27-28). Those words mean that it is sweet and right to die for your country. Those two lines have more impact than the rest of the poem. The way they phrase those last two lines,..starting off with the old Lie. It shows that they know that they are being lied to, that they are being treated like hell but still going through something because they are being told it is right and honorable, they still do it. Those two lines will stick with me.