Wilfred Owen, First World War Poet Options

[Guest_Jox_*]

Hi,

Ever since studying Wilfred Owen as a student, I have been astounded by his war poetry. Owen wrote in the style of Keats early in life. However, World War One changed him into the towering poet we know of today. In many people's opinion (mine included) Wilfred Owen is the greatest war poet in the English language. Ironically, he was killed within a week of the end of the War.

For those interested in a somewhat less potted biography than the one below - and for some comments on Owen's poems and his development of the poetic style of half-rhyme, there is an excellent article by Harvey Thompson, located on the World Socialist Web Site. Article on Wilfred Owen and his poetry

Potted Biography...

1893 18th March - Wilfred Owen was born in Oswestry, Shropshire.
1915 October - Joined the British Army
1917 January - Arrived in France. Owen took charge of a company. He took half of his platoon and occupied a former German bunker in No Man's Land and posted a sentry who is blinded. (See The Sentry).
1917 May - Evacuated because of shell shock.
1917 June - Hospital, Hampshire. Thence Craiglockhart War Hospital, Edinburgh. where he met both Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves.
1917 October - Wrote Anthem for Doomed Youth and Dulce et Decorum Est.
1918 June - Owen re-joined the Army
1918 August - Returned to France.
1918 October - Part of the attack at Joncourt. Owen was recommended for the Military Cross (MC).
1918 4th November - Wilfred Owen was Killed in action on the banks of the Sambre-Oise canal. Seven days later the war ended.

We start with Owen's most direct poem which, for me, is the biggest anti-war message one can have...

Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!-An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

(end)

N.B. "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" roughly translates as "It is a good and honourable thing to die for one's country" (A motto from Latin).

Gas attacks were a feature of WW1. They produced horrible effects - they attacked all moist areas, including lungs with chemical burns and produced the drowning effect referred to above. Both the British and Germans used them. Today many countries, including Germany, Britain and the USA have renounced such weapons.