Dulce et Decorum est

Content Warning: The section features references to and descriptions of war and its effects on the human body, physical descriptions of the effects of chemical warfare, and discussions of post-traumatic stress disorder.

War poetry that addresses the horrors of war goes back to Homer’s ancient Greek epic The Iliad. However, it was often downplayed by those who wanted poetry to fit the concept summarized by Roman poet Horace, alluded to at the end of “Dulce et Decorum Est.” During the beginning of World War I, several poets wrote work that focused on the honor, heroics, and glory of service. The best of this latter type might be found in the English poet Rupert Brooke’s “The Soldier” with its famous lines, “If I should die, think only this of me: / That there’s some corner of a foreign field / That is for ever England” (Brooke, Rupert. “The Soldier.” 1915. Poetry Foundation. Lines 1-3). The worst might have been similar to Jessie Pope's verse, such as: “Who knows it won’t be a picnic – not much-/Yet eagerly shoulders a gun? / Who would much rather come back with a crutch / Than lie low and be out of the fun?” (Pope, Jessie.