“Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen is a poem about the First World War. Owen describes the horrors of war he witnessed after enlisting in the war. Before his encounter with war, he was a devoted Christian with an affinity for poetry, and after being influenced by war agitprop, he returned home to enlist in the army; Owen was a pacifist and was at his moral threshold when he had to kill a man during the war. The poem describes in detail what the soldiers had to endure, according to Owen: "many had lost their boots / but limped, shod in blood." Everything has become lame; all blind; / drunk with fatigue; deaf even to howls” (5-7). Owen’s conclusion to the poem is that “the old lie; dulce et decorum est / pro patria mori” (27-28), the Latin meaning “it is sweet and right to die for one’s country”, is not easy to say when you have experienced war. In his detailed poem, Owen writes about the true terrors of war and how, through the experience, you would probably change your mind about dying for your country. In Thomas Hardy's poem "The Man He Killed", he writes about the Boer War through a unique perspective. Hardy was a British poet who was a stonemason before pursuing a career in writing. Hardy grew up before World War I and writes about the Boer War with a uniquely contemplative perspective on the setting and era of the war. Hardy writes, “If he and I had met / in an old old inn, / we should have taken to the water” (1-3). Hardy talks about the situation, time and place, and states that if he and his enemy had met in a different place and under different circumstances, they would have had a drink together, but instead he "him shot him while he was shooting at me,” and killed him in his place. » (7-8). This perspective sheds new light on the situation...... middle of paper ...... er reflects and provokes empathy towards the enemy. Owen, on the other hand, elicits sympathy for soldiers in general when he describes one of the many hardships they endure on the battlefield. Hardy uses the setting as a testament to his point of view as he states, "we should have gotten wet/that's true for a lot of nipperkin!" / but at a distance like infantry” (3-5), and in doing so, Hardy implicitly derives his theme. Owen explicitly states his theme at the end of the poem in Latin with the words used by many soldiers at the time. Both poems are didactic and share similarities as well as differences, but ultimately shed light on a serious issue of war. Works Cited Owen, Wilfred. “Dulce et decorum est.” Dulce Et Décorum Est. Emory EDU, August 10, 2001. Web. April 4, 2014.Hardy, Thomas. “The man he killed.” Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, July 22, 2006. Web. April 6. 2014.