The nineteenth century was irrevocably swept away in a tide of mud and blood with the coming of World War I. “The Great War” lasted from 1914 through 1918. More than eight million soldiers lost their lives in the struggle between the Central Powers and the Allies. The old ideals of warfare fought by aristocrats and gentlemen vanished beneath gas attacks, trench warfare, and heavy artillery bombardments. Enlisted men would spend weeks in the most unbearable trenches …showed first 75 words of 1621 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1621 total…Company, 1995. 260-270. Murray, John Middleton. “Mr. Sassoon’s War Verses.” The Evolution on an Intellectual. 1927: 75-84 rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed Daniel G. Marowski. Vol 36. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1986. 386-387. Owen, Wilfred. “Dulce et Decorum Est.” Elements of Literature: Literature of Britian With World Classics. Ed. Richard Sime. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winstaon, 2000. 929. Sassoon, Siegfried. “The Rear-Guard.” Elements of Literature: Literature of Britain with World Classics. Ed. Richard Sime. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2000. 926.