Corollary Delineation of War: A Comparative Enumeration of “War is Kind” and “Dulce et Decorum Est”

Abstract

This study aims to comparatively examine Stephen Crane’s “War Is Kind” and Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” in order to challenge the idealized perception of war as noble and heroic. War literature, despite emerging from different historical moments, consistently redirects attention from political or nationalistic narratives to the lived realities of suffering, loss, and psychological trauma. Situating the poems within this broader literary tradition, the study adopts a qualitative close textual analysis, focusing on imagery, tone, irony, diction, structure, and thematic development to uncover how both poets expose war’s concealed violence. The findings reveal that Crane and Owen, though writing from distinct contexts, converge in their rejection of martial glory, portraying war as an ethically corrosive force that destroys innocence and humanity while leaving behind grief and moral disquiet. It is recommended that future studies expand this comparative framework to include postcolonial and contemporary war poetry to further understand the enduring human consequences of organized violence.