Compare contrast Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et decorum est" and Thomas McGrath's "Gone Away Blues"

Owen excels; McGrath falters Many wars have been fought in the history of mankind but none of them have resulted in as much suffering and loss of human life as the First World War. People who participated in that war were not prepared to face the brutality that the development of technology in warfare was about to cause. Millions of people died in that war and hundreds of people wrote about the war. Two of …

…follow a traditional art of writing poems, unlike McGrath's poem. Both the poems have resentment and frustration towards wars and the perpetrators of wars. But Owen's resentment can be understood and felt more effectively than McGrath's resentment because Owen shows a first-hand description of war. The reality in Owen's poem surpasses McGrath's poem, and therefore Owen's poem is much more effective and disturbing. Both poets ultimately convey the same message though: war is not beautiful.