English

Valentina Dickerson

27 April, 17:54

Which line in these excerpts attacks the myth that the sacrifices of soldiers are remembered and valued?

1. In winter trenches, cowed and glum,

With crumps and lice and lack of rum,

[ He put a bullet through his brain. ]

[ No one spoke of him again. ]

(Siegfried Sassoon, "Suicide in the Trenches")

2. 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

(Wilfred Owen, "Dulce Et Decorum Est")