Critical Evaluation of the Poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen

In today's society there are many different styles and strengths of writing. Poems which are short and to the point can be the hardest hitting and the best at delivering a message. 'Dulce et Decorum Est' by Wilfred Owen is one such poem which genuinely shocked me. Unusually, the author of this poem was actually a soldier in the war.
The main point Owen tries to convey in this poem is the sheer horror of war, which is quite shocking.
In the first stanza Owen describes the men and the condition they are in and through his language shows that the soldiers deplore the conditions. Owen then moves on to tell us how even in their weak human state the soldiers march on, until the enemy fire gas shells at them. This sudden situation causes the soldiers to hurriedly put their gas masks on, but one soldier did not put it on in time. Owen tells us the condition the soldier is in, and how, even in the time to come he could not forget the images that it left him with. In the last stanza he tells the readers that if we had seen what he had seen then we would never encourage the next generation to fight in a war.
…