The poem "Smile, Smile, Smile," by Wilfred Owen is a famous war poem written in 1917 in response to the absurdity of glorifying war propaganda. Owen wrote the poem in reaction to war propaganda in the newspaper. Mainly to a picture in a contemporary British Newspaper depicting three injured yet smiling soldiers. Through the use of contrast, irony, and diction, Owen successfully shatters the facade of the glorified notion of war and exposes the conflict between expectation and reality. The line, "Head to limp head, the sunk-eyed wounded scanned/Yesterday's Mail; the casualities (typed small)/And (large) Vast Booty from our Latest Haul" (1-3), emphasizes the hopelessness of the wounded soldiers. This is ironic because young soldiers were depicted as dignified and happy fighters. The deceitful propaganda and its contrast against reality shown in "Smile, Smile, Smile," enables readers to understand how Owen's criticism of the war was partly derived from the government's shielding of the truth, and also demonstrates the resulting lack of unity.