Wilfred Owen is a famous poet who wrote during the First World War. He led a short life due to his death fighting in the war. People say that if he had survived the war, he would have become one of the great poets along with Louis Caroll and Shakespeare. I have chosen to study three poems: "Dulce et Decorum est", "Disabled", and "Exposure". Owen creates a picture of the war in each of the poems. I shall look at the message that Owen is trying to put across to the reader, and the poetic techniques and language he uses to portray his message. .
Although Owen has written poems about other subjects, he is best known for his small collection of war poems. The beautifully sculpted poems give a grim portrayal of the horrors of World War One; the terrible conditions, the pointless waste of life and the barbarity of the human race.
Owen is able to give the reader a vivid picture of the reality of the war because he personally fought in the war. He enlisted in the Artists' Rifles group in 1915 in support of World War I, and after training in England, was commissioned as a second lieutenant. Owen was wounded in combat in 1917 and evacuated to Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh after being diagnosed with shell shock. There he met Siegfried Sassoon, who served as a mentor and introduced him to well-known literary figures like Robert Graves and H.G. Wells. At this time he wrote his most important poems. Owen rejoined his regiment in June 1918 and was killed on the 4th of November that same year. The news of his death reached his parents on the 11th of November; the day of the Armistice. .
"Dulce et Decorum est" is one of Owen's most renowned poems. The title is in Latin, and when translated into English, it means "It is sweet and fitting". The poem is written from the point of view of one of the soldiers; often saying "we" did this, or "we" did that. Owen could be referring to his personal experience during the war.