Wilfred Owen - Lest We Forget (Lino Print)

*Previously on sale for £30, now £15*

Wilfred Owen (18th March 1893 - 4th November 1918).
A hand-carved, hand-printed Linocut Print, limited to only 250 editions.

* 10% of each sale of this print will be donated to the Royal British Legion.

4th November 2018 was the centenary of Wilfred Owen’s death, so this was my homage to England’s most famous war-time poet. His mother found out about her son’s death a week later, on Armistice Day. Oh, the irony. Poor woman.

Lest we forget.

“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.

ITEM SPECIFICS:
This design is a signed, limited edition of only 250 prints. As with all handmade items, each one will vary slightly, making it completely unique.
It is printed with water-based ink on unbleached, ivory paper that is approximately A5 in size.
The image itself measures roughly 135x105mm.