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Line 3: − An ancient Latin poet wrote "Dulce et decorum est pro Patria mori", which means ""It is sweet and seemly to die for one's country."<ref>Horace, ''Odes'' (iii 2.13)</ref>.+ + + + + − Later, American satirist Ambrose Bierce would write "In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first."<ref>The Devil's Dictionary</ref>
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The word ''patriotism'' comes from Latin; the root is the same as ''pater,'' father, and literally means "fatherland."
The word ''patriotism'' comes from Latin; the root is the same as ''pater,'' father, and literally means "fatherland."
The [[Roman]] poet [[Horace]] wrote "Dulce et decorum est pro Patria mori", which means ""It is sweet and seemly to die for one's country."<ref>Horace, ''Odes'' (iii 2.13)</ref>.
Later, American satirist [[Ambrose Bierce]] would write "In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first."<ref>The Devil's Dictionary</ref>
Later still, [[World War I]] [[British]] infantryman and poet [[Wilfred Owen]] would wisely mock Horace's words by describing a soldier dying a particularly gory death on the battlefield, and saying "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."<ref>Dulce Et Decorum Est<ref/>
==References==
==References==
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