Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori

Context

Uses in art and literature

• Perhaps the most famous modern use of the phrase is as the title of a poem, "Dulce et Decorum est", by British poet Wilfred Owen during World War I. Owen's poem describes a gas attack during World War I and is one of his many anti-war poems that were not published until after the war ended. In the final lines of the poem, the Horatian phrase is described as "the old lie". It is believed, and illustrated by the original copy of the poem, that Owen intended to dedicate the poem ironically to Jessie Pope, a popular writer who glorified the war and recruited "laddies" who "longed to charge and shoot" in simplistically patriotic poems like "The Call".
• "Died some, pro patria, non 'dulce' non 'et decor'..." from part IV of Ezra Pound's "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley", a damning indictment of World War I; "Daring as never before, wastage as never before."
• In a 1915 school essay, German playwright Bertolt Brecht referred to the phrase as Zweckpropaganda and pointed out that "It is sweeter and more fitting to live for one's country", an essay for which he was nearly expelled.
• The title of Damon Knight's 1955 short story "Dulcie and Decorum" is an ironic play on the first three words of the phrase; the story is about computers that induce humans to kill themselves.
• The 1971 film Johnny Got His Gun ends with this saying, along with casualty statistics since World War I.
• In the film All Quiet on the Western Front, a teacher quotes this early on while talking to his class.
• In his book And No Birds Sang, chronicling his service in Italy with the Canadian army during World War II, Farley Mowat quotes Wilfred Owen's poem on the opening pages and addresses "the Old Lie" in the final section of the book.
• Tim O'Brien quotes the line in the book If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home.
• In Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, the Tarleton brothers are buried under a tombstone which bears the phrase.
• The last words attributed to the Israeli national hero Yosef Trumpeldor – "It is good to die for our country" – are considered to be derived from Horace's, and were a frequently used Zionist slogan in the early 20th century.
• In William Makepeace Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair, the quote appears on George Osborne's tombstone after he dies at Waterloo.
• In Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel: A Story of the Buried Life, after the outbreak of World War I, adolescent Eugene, encouraged by his teacher, Margaret Leonard, devours stories of wartime courage, and fueled by these stories, composes his own, to the ever-present literary-referenced commentary by Wolfe.
• Karl Marlantes' 2009 novel Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War features a mock-mass between Mellas and others, in which the line is satirically quoted.
• The British rock band Kasabian includes the phrase at the end of the music video for their song "Empire".
• The British rock band The Damned released a single named "In Dulce Decorum" in 1987.
• The song The Latin One by 10,000 Maniacs sets the poem by Owen to music and includes the phrase.
• American band Kamelot quotes the line in the song "Memento Mori", from their seventh album, The Black Halo.
• Scottish rock band The Skids include a song named "Dulce Et Decorum Est " on the album Days in Europa in 1979.
• British folk-metal band Skyclad uses the quote in the song "Jeopardy", in their album The Silent Whales of Lunar Sea.
• American band Globus included the phrase in the lyrics of "In Memoriam", from their album Break From This World, released in 2011.
• The British dark cabaret act The Tiger Lillies included a song called "Dulce et Decorum Est" on the album A Dream Turns Sour from 2014. This is a reading of the Wilfred Owen poem with music written by Martyn Jacques.
• In Kenneth Branagh's film version of Mozart's The Magic Flute, Sarastro's palace has the quote engraved across its entrance.
• The line is quoted in the 1966 movie Modesty Blaise, after a plane is apparently shot down.
• The line appears as a Morse coded message as part of a puzzle in the 2016 videogame Battlefield 1.
• In "A Drinking Song" from The Divine Comedy's album Promenade, the subject declares "Heaven be thanked we live in an age where no man need bother except on the stage with 'Dolce et decorum est pro patria mori'".
• In the 2021 movie The King's Man, the verse is cited twice: first during a mass for soldiers going to war, and again during Conrad's funeral.

  Use as a motto and inscription

Organizations

• The Portuguese Military Academy
• The 103rd Ground Reconnaissance Squadron of the Royal Netherlands Army
• The 10/27 Royal South Australian Regiment of the Royal Australian Infantry Corps adopted Pro Patria derived from the above line meaning "For One's Country" as their unit motto.

• Pro Patria is the motto of the Higgins or O'Huigan clan.
• It is the motto of the Sri Lanka Army as well as being inscribed on the collar insignia of the Royal Canadian Regiment.
• Pro Patria is the name of a neighborhood in Caracas, Venezuela.