Thanks for posting that! It's been many years since I read Wilfred Owen, arguably the best of the British WWI poets.

All war poetry is timeless in my view, because the subject itself never changes--only the technology of death does. I know you have seen this, but for others who may not have, I would refer you to Alan Seeger's fabulous WWI poem, "I Have a Rendezvous With Death."

Beautifully written, this poem would've spoken volumes to every man in blue and gray who faced the elephant in 1861-65.

Alan Seeger (1888-1916) is a classic example of the "old-fashioned" ideal of Noblesse Oblige that is now extinct in about 85% of the US population (probably about 30 points higher in Europe). Seeger attended Harvard and was a classmate and friend of T.S. Eliot. When WWI started, Seeger joined the French Foreign Legion and served two years on the Western Front before being killed in the Battle of the Somme.

And finally, I am reminded of that extremely economical "executive summary" of the combat experience rendered by Audie Murphy: "War is a never-ending series of problems involving the blood and guts of men."

From the soldier's perspective, everything beyond that is simply a footnote.