This five-page undergraduate paper examines the poetry of World War One and how it changed as the war dragged on. The author notes the optimism and patriotism of the prewar years, and compares it to the poetry of the war’s last days, which spoke only of disillusionment, hopelessness, betrayal, and despair. William Butler Yeats’ poem, “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death” and Wilfred Owens’ haunting “Anthem for a Doomed Youth” are emphasized, for they reflected the horror and futility of war, and spoke for the millions of young soldiers who had rejected the mindless patriotism of 1914 and had come to understand the hellish reality of inevitable death in battle.
