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| 11/4/1918 |
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Wilfred Owen, War Poetry
On this day in 1918 Wilfred Owen was killed in action in France. Though he could have stayed in England and out of danger following a convalescent leave for shell shock, Owen chose to return to the front and to his comrades: "I came out in order to help these boys-directly by leading them as well as an officer can; indirectly, by watching their sufferings that I may speak of them as well as a pleader can. I have done the first." |
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Virtual Seminars for Teaching Literature
Find a virtual seminar on the poetry of World War I. Considers Owen's poems in their historical context and in relation to works by Siegfried Sassoon, Rupert Brooke and others. It also features selected poems, letters, an analysis of "Disabled," short biography, a chronology of events in the author's life, and suggestions for other readings.
"The First World War provides one of the seminal moments of the twentieth-century in which literate soldiers, plunged into inhuman conditions, reacted to their surroundings in poems reflecting Wordsworth's 'spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings'." |  | W. B. Yeats on Owen
A page tells the story of Yeats' decision not to include Owen's poetry in The Oxford Book of Modern Verse.
"If the matter ended here, we could regard Yeats's Olympian editorial decision as a matter of literary taste and high standards. He was not content, however, to dismiss these silenced voices -- especially Owen's -- without another twist of his critic's knife, pissing, as it were, on the poet's grave. 'My anthology continues to sell,' Yeats says, '& the critics get more & more angry. When I excluded Wilfred Owen, whom I consider unworthy of the poets' corner of a country newspaper, I did not know I was excluding a revered sandwich-board Man of the revolution & that some body has put his worst & most famous poem in a glass-case in the British Museum-- however if I had known it I would have excluded him just the same. He is all blood, dirt & sucked sugar stick (look at the selection in Faber's Anthology-- he calls poets 'bards,' a girl a 'maid,' & talks about 'Titanic wars'). There is every excuse for him but none for those who like him....'" | | War Poems & Manuscripts of Wilfred Owen
An Oxford University website offers nearly 60 poems including:
"1914"
"Anthem for Doomed Youth"
"Apologia Pro Poemate Meo"
"Arms and the Boy"
"Dulce et Decorum est"
"Elegy in April and September"
"Insensibility"
"Soldier's Dream"
"Strange Meeting"
"The Next War" | | Wilfred Owen 80 Years On
In a review in the World Socialist Web Site, Harvey Thompson explores the poet's life and enduring legacy.
"Wilfred Owen was a remarkable young man. When he died he was just 25 years old, but his poetry has proved enduring and influential and is among the best known in the English language. He left behind a unique testament to the horrific impact of the First World War on an entire generation of young soldiers. ... There was no glory in war for Owen. A strong bleak vision permeates his work. 'Futility' is typical of this. In poems such as 'Mental Cases,' 'Conscious' and 'Disabled' Owen focuses on the human consequences of the war, including serious disfigurement and madness." | | Wilfred Owen Association
Find a timeline of events in the author's life, a virtual tour and maps which provide commentary on the poet's life, and analysis and commentary of poems including "Anthem," "Dulce," "Hospital Barge," "Apologia," "Strange Meeting," and many other works. | |
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The TinL masthead features photography by
Natasha D'Schommer
, and the book art featured is by Jim Rosenau.
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