I have so much respect for those who can recite poetry.
@robertbuchanan9234
Ай бұрын
I recited it, on paper, for my English higher exam, aged 16. Very powerful poem, has stayed with me for 50 years.
@videocurios
10 жыл бұрын
An utterly brilliant man reading an utterly brilliant poem Thanks R.I.P
@bigturnip
7 жыл бұрын
He's not reading it, he's reciting it. Hitchens had a huge catalogue of poems, quotations, essays and passages from books that he could recall with staggering precision.
@jofinsky8400
4 жыл бұрын
Wrong! Hitch is reciting the poem from memory.
@seanmoran2743
Жыл бұрын
War mongering intellectual globalist reading Wilfred Owen Oh the bloody irony
@thebones
11 жыл бұрын
So to difficult to read to the end of this poem without choking up, I'm so glad I discovered this reading, Hitch delivers it beautifully in his inimitable style despite the rising, 'choking' emotion of the last half of the poem.
@jofinsky8400
4 жыл бұрын
Not a reading; it's a recitation from memory.
@mangeshnanoti1
8 жыл бұрын
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 tired, outstripped Five-Nines 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 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.
@boredmalcontent
8 ай бұрын
From memory or copy and paste??
@jj80808
6 ай бұрын
@@boredmalcontentbro, he's not hitchens reciting from memory, who cares lmao Thanks to op for commenting this for those who want to read the text along with the vid
@CoolHandLuke7
10 жыл бұрын
That's the Hitchens that I think a lot of the absolutist progressives, and certainly religious right wingers, missed. The lover of history and literature.
@seanmoran2743
Жыл бұрын
Your joking right ! He was a modern day jacobin who would have been at home in 1789
@joeelliott4983
3 ай бұрын
So far removed we are from war. If he were only here to see the current climate. Ever critical. In such a divisive time, now he is needed more than ever.
@thescribbler5300
6 жыл бұрын
Christopher is still here with us, writing stalks death, he is here in his work, awaiting rediscoverey, forever at your pleasure.
@whiskeytuesday
5 жыл бұрын
Litera scripta manet
@RedneckBarStoriesRonVincent
3 жыл бұрын
Read brilliantly and a poetic monologue that has the real presence of a conversation that grabs you by the throat.
@senior_ranger
4 жыл бұрын
I've read that poem many times, but never so moved as with this recitation!
@stevenmiller184
Жыл бұрын
A favorite poem of mine. He recites it in such a narrative way, not the way I hear it in my head.. it gives it a brutal immediacy . Now days, to speak such contempt for stupid slaughter on the battlefield would be expected, but in Edwardian England, where "I vow to thee my country" was sung... for Wilfred Owen to speak and write these words .. an act of incredible courage and honesty. It is said that his mother received the notice of his death on the battle field while the church bells were pealing in celebration of the Armistice. An entire generation lost over the Arrogance of the Aristocracy and the stupidity of Colonialism.
@brownwarrior6867
6 жыл бұрын
War is pointless and futile but without men like Owen writing such harrowing and beautiful accounts to describe the real horror of mans brutality towards other men then it would be left to the protagonist to explain it. As an ex soldier I salute Wilfred Owen. Hitchens and people like Hitchens may fully understand the context and meaning but they will never fully understand the pain of what these men went through.
@thecriticalriposte
5 жыл бұрын
I am a vet and I don't see how you could possibly say those last two lines with a straight face.
@Propagandhizer_07
3 жыл бұрын
The Critical Riposte the last two lines of the poem or this comment?
@seanmoran2743
Жыл бұрын
He was happy to send American troops for he’s Warmongering Agenda
@alberich3099
Жыл бұрын
which is absolutly fucking idiotic to say. Hitchens experienced more atrocities as a reporter in Northern Ireland Lybia and Iraq than many soldiers will see in their line of duty. I served in Kosovo, hearing first hand accounts of what the serbs did. Serving in Afgahnistan later, to see fucking disgusting things alquaida did to girls. But nothing compared to what some of the reporters went through and saw during their stay prior to NATO-troops beeing there, or some of the reporters I've met who who reported directly from Rwanda. The elitism that only soldiers can understand is absurd, idiotic and as dangerous as the lie of dulce et decorum est. Or are you implying (considering your profile picture) that an atheist cannot ? Which would make your statement even more idiotic.
@JamesMolyneux62
Жыл бұрын
This is a wonderful reading of this great poem. Hitchens approaches it as a reporter doing a commentary, and it draws you in and enhances Owens biting imagery.
@jamesalbertwhyard4956
11 жыл бұрын
I miss him too, but we must view such scholarly and human intellect as a gift, too briefly enjoyed, and too soon ended. I know of no other so human...
@richersonkate
3 ай бұрын
Remembering 2nd Lieutenant Edward Archibald Beauchamp, wounded at Givenchy, December 21st 2014, and died the next day at Lille. Faithful. 💐
@MrTomte09
8 жыл бұрын
Without a doubt, one of the greatest intellects of the 20th & 21st centuries
@Bamsefar87
4 жыл бұрын
Why have I never seen this before. One of my favorite debaters reciting one of my favorite poems. Too good to be true.
@anthonycorsi6409
Жыл бұрын
Has there ever been anyone better at anything? I think not! I miss this guy !
@jakw97
Жыл бұрын
Nothing has made me smarter and more aware than Hitchens.
@Kasad9
11 жыл бұрын
How does he manage to commit so many poems and songs to his memory?
@TheHolandos
Жыл бұрын
Quite possibly the best recitation of this poem. The brilliance is that Hitchens lets the poem speak for itself. His passionate delivery is oblivious to the dramatic standard flourishes actors tend to bring when they perform the piece.
@Noddy93
11 жыл бұрын
most wonderful thing... if you had no previous knowledge of the poem you'd simply think Hitch was answering a question.
@puppy1584
Жыл бұрын
Magic, he recited this marvellous work as in a conversation - quite brilliant.
@briankane9224
9 жыл бұрын
had the honor and pleasure of working, studying and drinking with Christopher for 25 years. And I'm missing his wit, charm and intelligence every day. It breaks my heart how things turn out but life goes on.
@josephsuh8934
8 жыл бұрын
Do you have any personal stories that you think capture him?
@briankane9224
8 жыл бұрын
+Joseph Suh of course sir I have many. For a whole year I was a personal assistant and one of his graduate students and wrote a long cover story about his life and experiences. After my dad died in 1986 Christopher became a second father to me and treated me like another son.
@josephsuh8934
8 жыл бұрын
Would you mind sharing one? Thank you for the response Brian.
@briankane9224
8 жыл бұрын
+Joseph Suh since I spent so much time over the years connected to Christopher it's hard to pinpoint so many experiences with him. I am still planning on writing of my favorite episodes and back in the 1990s told him jokingly that I would write his official biography. he called me his Boswell. lol
@briankane9224
8 жыл бұрын
+Joseph Suh I first started meeting with him around 1985 at the British embassy in Washington DC. I was his graduate student and also wrote a profile of him in 1997 but after my dad died in 1986 he became like a substitute father to me always calling me and giving me fatherly advice.
@alanwilson4860
3 ай бұрын
The man can speak.
@Sandyfaceroll
7 жыл бұрын
thank you for posting this
@Kannot2023
3 жыл бұрын
Christopher Hitchens saw all this as a war correspondent.you feel his emotion. Btw this poetry appears in his last writing, Mortality
@seanmoran2743
Жыл бұрын
And yet pushed a globalist warmongering agenda
@neilleinwohl8288
7 жыл бұрын
Remembered and recited so matter of fact that it is if you are hearing it first hand in a conversation with Wilfred Owen.
@woodentie8815
6 жыл бұрын
Neil, don't be such a dick.
@PickledShark
3 жыл бұрын
Hey great great grandfather died as a young irish man fighting on the front lines of the Great War. This poem always makes me think of him and weep
@SeagullsGather
6 жыл бұрын
hitchens and owen? a perfect combination.
@keithbentley6081
3 жыл бұрын
He was merely a youth when he wrote that. Ian Curtis too when he wrote his masterpieces. Oldies like me sometimes don't pay enough respect to our young guns.
@UKCALLING99
Жыл бұрын
The way he told that gave me goosebumps
@thumbtack40
11 жыл бұрын
lovely piece
@MrTomte09
6 жыл бұрын
This telling of the poem comes to me, The Hitch reading it, every time I hear or read a visceral patriot or war mongering nationalist slobbering their poison.
@jofinsky8400
4 жыл бұрын
He's not reading it; he's reciting from memory.
@fartgoobermonkey1667
6 ай бұрын
I love the 0:38 part
@karangmail15
12 жыл бұрын
@Capcomski The title and description needs to be changed to "Recited" instead of "Read".
@needicecream100
12 жыл бұрын
I wish so much I could remember what I read only half as much as him.
@TheClassicWorld
6 жыл бұрын
Not happy that my brother was given, by serious teachers, no less, a copy which reads: Deaf even to the hoots of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
@reichensperger1847
5 жыл бұрын
Agreed. And I've seen this "corrected" version of the poem now across the internet. If you don't know what a five nine was, you should look it up and then explain to your students (a German 150 mm. gas shell equals 5.9 inches) and not give them a dumbed-down version.
@HAPPYTHELEAF
Жыл бұрын
The good die young...
@bombousboy
12 жыл бұрын
R.I.P.
@mattpopemusic
10 жыл бұрын
what is this from? which programme?
@TheClassicWorld
8 жыл бұрын
+Matthew Pope An interview.
@karangmail15
12 жыл бұрын
@shrapn0 While I agree with your sentiment, I offer a minor correction. Don't you think a better question to ask RPenta would be "Do you think Muslims are represented by Al-Qaeda or the most reactionary forces within Islam?" One has to be careful to separate Islam, as stated in the Quran and Hadith, from Muslims. Once you ask my proposed question, it is clear that most Muslims dislike Al-Qaeda and are resisting it to a greater extent than any force in the west.
@johnorona99
13 жыл бұрын
*swoons*
@lucreciekatembo4325
3 жыл бұрын
His face in the thumbnail 🤣
@TheWildheartmuse
11 жыл бұрын
Fitting to listen to today: 11 at 11. Today we still glorify war and those with small brains and big chests stir up fire once more and we send our young men off to early death. Why? Why have we not learned from all the horror we have seen?
@Mattsretiring
11 жыл бұрын
Hello all, I am chasing the lecture in which Hitch finishes the lecture by reciting W.B. Yeats An Irish Airman Foresees His Death. Can anyone point me to where I can find this again? Thank you
@PickledShark
3 жыл бұрын
Funny, that one brought me here, as I remembered this one after hearing that. It’s a podcast podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/christopher-hitchens-audio/id386252369?i=1000085608161
@Taiternator
13 жыл бұрын
@1044gt have looked desperately for it and can't find it! help?!
@soslothful
2 жыл бұрын
Poisoned gas. Not one of humanities' better moments.
@bts100
13 жыл бұрын
A beautiful poem, impressively recited from memory, but I can't help thinking that Hitchens' stop-start delivery makes it sound like he's parodying his own way of speaking.
@Ryan44567
13 жыл бұрын
@TheVideoRepo How so? I'm not trying to troll or be an ass. I sincerely want to know why you think this.
@markdami
11 жыл бұрын
He didn't mispronounce it.
@akf2000
10 жыл бұрын
is he reading from memory!?
@Pirispanen
10 жыл бұрын
Yes he had incredible memory.
@LewisOsborne
9 жыл бұрын
It's studied in all British schools, so it's ingrained in our memory.
@1969JohnnyM
9 жыл бұрын
Asif Khan This poem used to be on the O'level English Literature syllabus so everyone of a certain age know it, even after 30 years I still know it of by heart. I do not know if kids are taught this poem today though..
@akf2000
9 жыл бұрын
John Maddin it's a wonderful poem, completely stops you in your tracks
@TheClassicWorld
8 жыл бұрын
+John Maddin This is not key, it is key that he remembered countless other poems and limericks etc and the Bible and the Qur'an, the Torah and so on had read all of his books of which rested upon his countless book shelves within his house of which seemed rather to be a library and nothing else - of which there must have been 2,000 books and no less.
@shrapn0
12 жыл бұрын
@GenghisCohen1 Were they better off under Hussein?
@rob0749
4 жыл бұрын
Rarely have I seen a poem read with such a monotone indifference, but what can one expect from such a nihilistic gentleman.
@MagnificentFiend
11 жыл бұрын
Your second sentence scans perfectly into trochees - perhaps you could spend time on poetry?
@seanmoran2743
Жыл бұрын
Hilarious comments from the fan base about their favourite Saint How very Religious of you all 🤣
@mikeowens5150
11 жыл бұрын
I've always preferred Rupert Brooke's "The Soldier"
@thebones
11 жыл бұрын
Syria is a complicated mess too, god knows what is going to happen there.
@catcharide56
Жыл бұрын
A beautiful recitation but one that sticks in the craw a bit what with Hitchens’ cheerleading for the Iraq War. Owen wrote this as a response to a war hawk who encouraged young men to join the fight. I appreciate the irony but it’s sad that this was the hill he chose to die on.
@vigilante8374
Жыл бұрын
The Iraq war was not wrong because it was evil; it was wrong because it was stupid. It was wrong because it thought far too highly of the Iraqi nation, as a cohesive people. This distinction is very important to draw because millions of liberals will unironically say we went there to "steal their oil", which is a lie so bold and gargantuan and malign it would make even Donald Trump blush.
@Xenaisthebusiness
Жыл бұрын
There’s a small but relevant difference here I think. Hitchens never proposed anything that amounts to “it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.” Simply that Saddam should have long been removed from power and he gave his arguments for it.
@seansmith3058
3 жыл бұрын
Big cheerleader for the Iraq War. Do as I recite not as I do.
@DARKZZ510
3 жыл бұрын
LMAO
@ellystripes
6 жыл бұрын
Love Hitch and love Owen but not my favourite reading.
@jofinsky8400
4 жыл бұрын
Not a reading; it's a recitation from memory.
@shrapn0
12 жыл бұрын
@RPenta So you think Islam is represented by al-Qaeda and it's most extreme supporters?
@paulchaudhary1309
3 жыл бұрын
(MY POEM,MYSTIC, DON'T LAUGH WHILE EXPLAING THE POEM,IF YOU LAUGH YOU ARE THE FUNNY JOCKER.BE SERIOUS DECORUM POET,ALWAYS DEFACTO.AND .MY POEM CITADEL.FROM.A.RICHARD PAUL CHAUDARY.PREACHER AND POET.INDIAN.
@EnragedPorkchop
11 жыл бұрын
He mispronounced the Latin part. :( Beautiful poem, though.
@AlchemistOfNirnroot
8 жыл бұрын
You can't mispronounce Latin as no one knows what good Latin sounds like - thus the dead language.
@ColinJV89
7 жыл бұрын
What a bunch of shit. You can mispronounce Latin, and Hitchens does here. A single C always has a hard sound.
@Shemhazai7
6 жыл бұрын
yes this is true... it's "Duhl - kay et deck- orum est" and he pronounces it more like Italian, but that's fine.
@hnstnbrg
13 жыл бұрын
Ironic. Christopher Hitchens can claim responsibility for more dead bodies on wagons and sores on innocent tongues than most other journalists. 'Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori' could be his slogan.
@bigderekkeene
10 жыл бұрын
It makes me ill to watch Hypocritchens reciting one of the greatest poems ever written, when he himself was a frequent teller of the "old lie"
@jimmy2k4o
9 жыл бұрын
when did he tell this old lie? when?
@bigderekkeene
9 жыл бұрын
jimmy2k4o as soon as he promoted and supported the neo-con crusades in Afghanistan and Iraq
@jimmy2k4o
9 жыл бұрын
bigderekkeene he supported action in iraq long before the 'neo-cons' btw I don't see what is 'conservative' about supporting regime change, kinda the polar opposite of an opinion that could be labeled 'conservative' Anyway he didn't support the war 'because it be an honour to die for the U.S' he supported it because fascists were keeping iraq as their private property nd were giving the iraqis the lives of dogs, also with our history of supporting saddam he saw it as we owe'd the iraqis a large debt...... maybe you don't give a shit about iraqis and that's your right but don't pass judgement on the people who actually do care.
@mattbowers9832
9 жыл бұрын
jimmy2k4o He retracted his stances on those wars later
@jimmy2k4o
9 жыл бұрын
Matt Bowers no he did not, you liar, I've read everything hitchens has ever written and he never renounced his support for teh intervention, the only thing he said he felt regret for was how it was carried out, all the blunders, mistakes and gaffs while doing so. But he never renounced his position n the iraq war, how dare you force words and opinions into a dead man's mouth.
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