Critical Analysis of Dulce Et Decorum Est If you were asked to choose a poem to be included in an anthology of great twentieth century poetry, what would it be and why?

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If you were asked to choose a poem to be included in an anthology of great twentieth century poetry, what would it be and why?

If I were asked to submit a poem for an anthology of great 20th century poetry, I would choose 'Dulce et Decorum est' by Wilfred Owen. The reason that I chose this poem is because the reader gets a clear picture of what the western front was really like during world war one. Owen creates this picture by using vast amounts of imagery and uses his word choice to keep the reader enthralled in his work and the thought provoking theme.

Owen's use of imagery gives the reader a picture of the cruel and ghastly conditions in the trenches during world war one. This makes 'Dulce et Decorum est' ones of the greats of twentieth century poetry. In Line one, Owen creates an image of the soldiers walking back from the front line.

"Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,"

This image is created by using a simile to compare the soldiers to beggars. It shows that when the soldiers got a break to come back to the support trenches that they were often tired and injured. This gives the reader a shock as it goes against the stereotyped image of the soldiers that the people back in Britain had of them being tall, upright, fit, young men that they seen walking through the streets in parades. In line seventeen, Owen tries to wreck the idea of dying for your country being honourable by describing the effects on him as he walked behind the body of the dead soldier.

"If in some smothering dreams you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes...