Dulce et Decorum est

Among Wilfred Owen’s most famous poems, “Dulce et Decorum Est” was written in 1917 while he was in Craiglockhart War Hospital in Scotland, recovering from injuries sustained on the battlefield during World War I. The poem details the death of a soldier from chlorine gas told by another soldier who witnesses his gruesome end. Owen himself died in action on November 4, 1918 in France at the age of 25. He published only five poems during his lifetime. “Dulce et Decorum Est” appeared for the first time in print in the posthumous Poems (1920) and is now considered one of the greatest poems of the tumultuous period. This, and other poems of Owen’s on the topic of war, became renowned for the poet’s unflinching look at the physical horrors of warfare as well as his condemnation of those who glorified service.

The poem’s Latin title is taken from a famous line from the Roman poet Horace: “Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori” (Lines 27-28), which translates to “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.” This quote was widely used to support war efforts and as a general military philosophy in England at the time. Owen originally sarcastically dedicated the poem to his contemporary Jessie Pope, a woman poet who wrote popular pro-war poetry aimed at young men, comparing war to a game and urging them to enlist.