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WILFRED
OWEN
(b. Oswestry, England, March 18th, 1893
d. Sambre-Oise Canal, France, November 4th, 1918)
What can be said of the great man? Lucky,
certainly not. Killed in the final week of the war that was to
end all wars, it has to be said that Wilfred was ahead of his
time.
In a time when little children in Liverpool
were humiliated, for showing fear during German bombing raids, by
teachers presenting them with white feathers, Owen, Sassoon,
Brooke, and Binyon were putting war in its proper perspective.
They saw the hell from first hand experience,
and wrote about it in a way that was not ambiguous like
Wordsworth's 'Prelude'. The war was sick, a sick waste, and they
said so.
The War Poets started the 20th Century anti-war
movement as a strong entity. We are in their debt.
Owen must have been a troubled man for a long
while. He was in no fit state to fight twice*, but felt compelled
to go back to his men, so he was in a stronger position to voice
his protest - and speak for his comrades, and also to protect
them as well as he could.
Like Brooke he never saw the war's end. Wilfred
Owen died on November 4th, 1918. He was only 25, dying at the
same age as his inspiration, Keats.
* Wilfred suffered from a nervous disorder,
after being left alongside the shattered body of a friend.
- Paul Rance.
Previously published in Peace & Freedom,
Spring, 1989.
ANTHEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH (1917)
What passing bells for those who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,-
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
DULCE ET DECORUM EST (1917)
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.
"It was not despair, or terror, it
was more terrible than terror, for it was a blindfold look, and
without expression, like a dead rabbit's. It will never be
painted, and no actor will ever seize it." An extract from a
letter by Wilfred to his mother, describing the look on the faces
of British troops in France in 1917."
DISABLED (extract)
To-night he noticed how the women's eyes
Passed from him to the strong men that were whole.
THE PARABLE OF THE OLD MAN AND THE
YOUNG
So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
And builded parapets and trenches there,
And stretched forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold!
A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.
But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.
WILFRED
OWEN RELATED BOOKS AVAILABLE FROM AMAZON
Amazon.com
links are in blue, Amazon.co.uk links are in red. Image links
lead to Amazon.com
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Collected
Poems of Wilfred Owen
Wilfred
Owen; Paperback; Buy New: $9.56
Collected
Poems of Wilfred Owen
£7.05The
Bleak Genius of Wilfred Owen - Review by Paul
Rance for Amazon
This is a wonderful book, and one of the most
powerful collections of anti-war poems ever put
together. Wilfred Owen was not a man who was
describing war from the safety of his own home.
He was in the thick of it, and he paid the
ultimate price.
'Anthem for Doomed Youth' may just be the most
powerful of all anti-war poems, and it was voted
8th in a list of Britain's favourite poems in a
BBC poll. This poem like Owen's work generally is
written in an unpretentious style. His poetry is
very moving, but without being sentimental. He's
painting pictures with words, and the pictures
aren't pretty.
All his renowned work is here, including
'Dulce et Decorum est', 'Disabled', and 'Mental
Cases'. The notes are very interesting, as you'd
expect from a literary heavyweight like C. Day
Lewis, and there's also some of Owen's non war
poetry, but that's still bleak!
If you want to buy any book of Owen's work,
I'd recommend this one for starters.
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Six
Poets of the Great War : Wilfred Owen, Siegfried
Sassoon, Isaac Rosenberg, Richard Aldington,
Edmund Blunden, Edward Thomas, Rupert Brooke and
Many Others
Adrian
Barlow; Paperback; Buy New: $10.00
Six
Poets of the Great War : Wilfred Owen, Siegfried
Sassoon, Isaac Rosenberg, Richard Aldington,
Edmund Blunden, Edward Thomas, Rupert Brooke and
Many Others
£4.95 |
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Wilfred
Owen (Border Lines (Bridgend, Wales).)
Merryn
Williams; Paperback; Buy New: $14.95
Wilfred
Owen (Border Lines (Bridgend, Wales).)
£9.45 |
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