There is no question that war is an ugly thing, and there is also no question that of all the conflicts in recent history, the first world war was one of the most horrific. However, as horrific as all war is, around the time of World War I a prevailing theme in both European and American culture was that it was honorable and beautiful to fight for one's country and often die. This culture of glorifying war can be seen in writing from poets like Jessie Pope, who wrote patriotic verses trying to motivate men to sacrifice themselves for their nation. Conversely, in the poem Dulce et Decorum Est, essentially a direct response to both this misplaced romanticism for war and to Jessie Pope's work itself, writer and ex-soldier Wilfred Owen shares