Ninety years ago, the guns fell silent

[Sticks]

This Armistice day marks the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I

Most likely we will see the last of the WWI vets as one of them is 108

Willie McBride (http://ingeb.org/songs/wellhowd.html)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ntt3wy-L8Ok

This clip is from the final segment of Black Adder goes forth, set in WWI

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=nyevNgtvA1A

The final scene where they went over the top was only done in one take, they could not face redoing it.


So please remember if you can those who fell at eleven o'clock this armistice day

[Red Moon]

I studied this poem at school and it has never left me....

Dulce Et Decorum Est
by Wilfred Owen

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 disappointed shells 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 floundering 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.

[Callum]

Haha Red we are doing that poem in school at the moment.

[Z]

Originally posted by Red Moon
I studied this poem at school and it has never left me....

Dulce Et Decorum Est
by Wilfred Owen

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 disappointed shells 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 floundering 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.

I studied that poem and wrote about it in my exams two years ago, it's a very effective poem, particularly because it's so blunt about the brutality of war.

[MarkWaldorf]

Oh god War poems...*faints* So much thinking!

[Nicky.]

We watched this DVD in school, they switched all the lights off in the room we were in, the whole room was in darkness and while watching the DVD, I welled up so much :sad:

It was showing this little girl crying and holding a sign saying 'Please remember my daddy' .. when the lights went back on I looked around and everyone had welled up.. it was so sad :sad:

We then had a 2 minutes silence at 11 o clock .. I was nearly in tears thinking about this time 90 years ago :sad: xxx