Wilfred Owen was strongly against war. He could not see what it achieved, only the suffering it caused. After becoming shell-shocked in 1917 he took a hatred to war and began to write poetry to express his sentiments on the subject. As he had been through it, his poetry was very impressive and showed a lot of feeling. He also spent some time at a hospital in Edinburgh which was part of his inspiration for some of his poems.
             In Wilfred Owen's poem 'The Send-off' he talks about soldiers leaving for the front line that he expects will never come home. Owen uses words like 'they' and 'all' to give us an idea of the numbers. These words also show the anonymity of the many soldiers that were sent off. The public were not happy to see them off, but instead were somber and depressed. The men who were leaving were 'grimly gay' with a low moral. They knew what their fate would be. The few that did manage to return home, were not met with a party, but were left to find their own way home.
             'Dulce et Decorum Est' is about the type of conditions the soldiers endured. It concentrates on a battlefield incident and points out the horror of war. Owen uses the present participle to prolong the actions – 'fumbling', 'stumbling', 'drowning', 'choking'. This helps to create a painful image in our minds and shows us some of the horrific actions these men went through. The poem shows the lack of moral, like 'The Send-off', and also the inadequate conditions and the death that men had to put up with every day. The last line sums up what Wilfred thinks of war. 'The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.'-It is sweet and honorable to die for one's country. The capital letter on the word 'Lie' tells us that he knew that phrase as a lie, and naturally called it that. The poem describes one
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