"Dulce Et Decorum Est" is a poem by Wilfred Owen that challenges old conventions in its portrayal of the realities of war.
As a writer of some good, some bad, and mostly mediocre poetry, I have often wondered what it is that makes a great poem great. I found myself disillusioned and mystified by the whole business. I could never compare to Yeats, whose words I once spray-painted on a wall because I loved them so. Nor would I be a Shakespeare; a creator of works in a definitive form, the sonnet.
And there I was, stuck. I had no patience for formula and rigidity, as I saw it. I knew what e…
