Above all I am not concerned with poetry. My subject is war, and the pity of war, The poetry is in the pity."-Wilfred Owen...
"Bent double, like old beggars under sacks." Is the melancholy air in which the famous poem- "Dulce et Decorum Est", begins. The content of this poem is based upon war and tragedy. Wilfred Owen tries to show the harsh reality of war, to people who were still content in believing it was noble and glorious. His message is that if only they could experience his "smothering dreams" which are but an echo of what his comrade suffered, then maybe they would change their beliefs. His reference to children in the line- "My friend you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory" was written probably because many of the young men who Owen was suffering with signed up because of the belief that war was glorious and noble. Owen is saying that if only the parents knew what would happen to their children if they fought in a war like this one they would never tell them what others had been told before.
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