War poetry: Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen fought in the First World War and wrote some of the most powerful poems about it. His work shows how poetry can challenge what people are told about war.

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Owen in context

Wilfred Owen (1893 to 1918) served as an officer on the Western Front. In 1917 he was treated for shell shock at Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh, where he met the poet Siegfried Sassoon, who encouraged his writing.
Owen was killed on 4 November 1918, one week before the Armistice of 11 November. Most of his poems were published after his death.
Early in the war, many poems presented fighting as noble and glorious. Owen showed its horror.

'Dulce et Decorum Est'

The title comes from a line by the Roman poet Horace: 'Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori', meaning 'It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country'. Owen describes a gas attack and a soldier dying horribly, and ends by calling that famous phrase a lie.
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Wilfred Owen, 'Dulce et Decorum Est' (drafted 1917, published 1920), lines 1 and 2

'Anthem for Doomed Youth'

This sonnet asks what funeral rites the dead soldiers receive. Instead of church bells and choirs, they get only the noise of guns. 'Passing-bells' are bells rung when someone has died.
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Wilfred Owen, 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' (drafted 1917, published 1920), line 1
Worked example

What is the effect of the simile 'like old beggars under sacks'?

  1. The soldiers are young men, but they are compared to old beggars.
  2. Beggars are poor, tired and ignored; sacks suggest heavy loads.
  3. So war has made young soldiers broken, exhausted and pitiful, not heroic.

Answer: Comparing young soldiers to 'old beggars' shows that war has aged and exhausted them, destroying the heroic image of the soldier.

Key idea

Owen, an officer killed one week before the Armistice, exposed the horror of the First World War. 'Dulce et Decorum Est' attacks the idea that dying for your country is sweet and fitting; 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' shows soldiers dying without dignity.

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Extra practice

2 more questions

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  1. 'coughing like hags'. What technique is used?

    1. A metaphor
    2. Onomatopoeia only
    3. A rhetorical question
    4. A simile
    Show the answer

    Answer: A simile

    It compares soldiers to old women using "like".

  2. Who first wrote the line 'Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori'?

    1. Shakespeare
    2. The Roman poet Horace
    3. Wilfred Owen
    4. Homer
    Show the answer

    Answer: The Roman poet Horace

    Owen quotes Horace ironically.

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Sources and references

Checked by the GCSE-ready editorial team, 17 October 2026. Last updated 2 October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix it.