Wilfred Owen only published five poems during his lifetime, but his harrowing descriptions of combat have since made him into one of the towering figures of World War I literature. Just 21 years old when the war broke out, he enlisted in the British army in 1915 and later took part in heavy fighting in France. “I have not been at the front,” he wrote his mother. “I have been in front of it.” After being diagnosed with shellshock in 1917, Owen was sent to convalesce at a hospital in Scotland. He soon began writing about his experiences at the urging of fellow poet Siegfried Sassoon, and by 1918 he had produced several now-famous works including “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” “Strange Meeting” and “Dulce et Decorum Est,” which describes a gas attack in grim detail. Despite his increased opposition to the war—he described soldiers being sent to “die as cattle”—Owen returned to the front lines in August 1918 and was later killed while leading men across a canal in France. His mother received notice of his death on November 11, 1918—the same day that World War I finally came to an end.
