Greater Love

“Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen (1920)

Perhaps the most famous of all of Owen’s poems—and one of the most powerful poems of World War I—this searing indictment of jingoism takes a famous pro-war statement of the Roman poet Horace (“It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country”) and instead presents it as a cruel lie that leads to the waste of youthful idealism and potential. Like “Greater Love”, it was published posthumously in 1920.

“Futility” by Wilfred Owen (1920)

Another poem from the posthumous 1920 collection Poems, "Futility" forms an excellent thematic trio alongside “Greater Love” and “Dulce et Decorum Est.” In this poem, Owen works with another contrast, pairing the warmth of the sun, a reassuring symbol of daytime and peace, with a young soldier’s dead body, which remains indifferent to the sun’s rays. As with “Greater Love” and “Dulce et Decorum Est,” this poem reflects Owen’s deep moral outrage at the mass loss of life caused by World War I.

“Attack” by Siegfried Sassoon (1918)

A poem by Owen’s friend and contemporary in both poetry and arms, “Attack” describes the horrors of trench warfare, revealing the poet’s despair at the violence and destruction he witnessed on the battlefield.