Mental Cases commentary by Rhea

Wilfred Owen composed the poem ‘Mental Cases’ in 1918 at the Craig Lockhart hospital where he had been admitted after being diagnosed with shellshock. This powerful poem with vivid imagery describes the horrors of war. By describing the physical damage of war, he highlights its mental impact it has on the soldiers. Owen’s aim is to shock the readers by illustrating the ghastly physical symptoms of mental agony.

                        The tone throughout the poem is really forbidding and hostile. The mood is tense and depressing as the reality of war is brought to light. Owen uses a variety of literary devices including alliterations, metaphors, similes, personifications, imagery, onomatopoeia, anaphoras and sibilance. There is no particular rhyme scheme used in this poem, perhaps to show torment the distortion that it is accompanied by. All the breaks, enjambments, and semicolons too serve the same purpose. They create jerking effects and prevent a smooth continuity in the poem. The caesuras break the pace and make the reader pause and actually reflect on his questions and statements, allowing him to gain a sense of the fear, confusion and anguish of being at war. There are a few incomplete sentences too such as “but who these hellish?”, which create a feeling of something being wrong or missing, just like the madness of war.

            The first stanza includes several rhetorical questions, an interrogatory tone,  which show the reader Owen’s state of being in shellshock- disturbed, lost and confused. “Who are these? Why sit they here in twilight? Wherefore rock they, purgatorial shadows.” This interrogation seems rather vague since it does not address a specific person, nor does it mention whom it is asking about. He refers to them as “they”, in third person, which suggests otherness. He doesn’t refer to them as “people”, making it appear as though they are some unfamiliar creatures, but simply writes of their body parts. The word “twilight” triggers a sense of being in an in between stage. Just like twilight is in the midst of day and night, these (people) who he speaks of have paused in the phase between life and death, neither dead, nor alive. Purgatory is a place or state of suffering inhabited by the souls of sinners who are expiating their sins before going to heaven[1]. Using this biblical allusion, Owen carries on the idea of being in a middle stage. As it serves as imagery of suffering and relentlessly waiting to go to hell, the reader wonders what sins “they” are being punished for. Thus, by using physical examples, such as purgatory and twilight, he shows the mental torment of existing in a phase between life and death.

            The poet uses a lot of graphic description to shed light on the physical impact of war, while he continues to question. “Drooping tongues from jaws that slob their relish, Baring teeth that leer like skulls' teeth wicked?” This is very repulsive visual animalistic imagery. It is dehumanizing and strips “them” bear of all virtues or even simple human qualities. Owen is attempting to startle us, and shatter any positive that that may exist regarding war. By comparing “their” teeth to those of an “wicked” skull, he implies their sins- however, he still does not mention what they are. “Stroke on stroke of pain, - but what slow panic,” is sibilance. Owen creates the repletion of an “s” sound that is jarring to the reader, which makes him pause and reflect on the occurrings of war. “Slow panic” is an oxymoron. Although panic is a sudden uncontrollable anxiety and reminds one of a hasty situation, the poet characterizes the panic caused by war to be slow. Perhaps this is because it is a prolonged panic that is retained by “them” even after they leave war. It emphasizes the slow suffering of “these”. “Gouged these chasms round their fretted sockets?” A chasm refers to a deep fissure in the earth. It is used as a hyperbole to describe their emptiness. Their sockets, bereft of eyeballs hinder them from viewing their surrounding events and show the emptiness in their faces. “Misery swelters” throughout every part of the body including “their hair” and “hands’ palms”, a personification which reveals how inescapable this suffering was. “Surely we have perished/ Sleeping, and walk hell; but who these hellish?” This is the first time the poet uses the word “we” and not “they”, he is starting to be implicate with them, and say that he too is involved in this struggle. The word “perished” appears as though the people died wile sleeping and at the moment walking through hell- but this deception is destroyed when the reader realizes that even in their sleep, they cannot escape to hell, being compelled to exist. The striking imagery revolts the reader, enabling him to relate to the soldiers’ mental state.

            The following stanza seems to be the answers of the questions Owen poses in the first stanza. “- These are men whose minds the Dead have ravished.” He finally states who “they” are by describing them as men whose minds have been forcefully snatched by “the Dead”. This term has been capitalized to illustrate a personification- since the Dead is what actually caused the degradation of these men’s minds. Their minds have been gorged down by watching the tortures of war and death. The words  “men”, “minds”, memory”, “murders” “multitudinous murders” present in the first three lines of this stanza serve as an alliteration. It has the ability of instantly catch the reader’s attention as it emits the humming of the men in agony. The repetition of the word “murder” is an anaphora, which stresses on the magnitude of the crime that has been committed. “Wading sloughs of flesh these helpless wander,/Treading blood from lungs that had loved laughter.” Owen reiterates the impotency of the soldiers to be freed from their situation. He condemns the war scene to such an extent that he doesn’t even refer to the soldiers as people, but mere masses of flesh wandering about. He even makes a comparison of their previous way of living to their present ones to show the dehumanizing nature of war. The alliteration of the letter “L” produces a more happy and light sound, juxtaposed to the other alliterations in the poem. While their lungs were formerly used for laughter, they now “tread blood” or choke because of the intoxicating gases released from the war ammunition. Even the slightest image of joy in this poem has been completely wrecked. “Batter of guns” and “shatter of guns” are onomatopoeias that serve as an internal rhyme. It adds a certain flow to the poem that is deliberately lacking throughout due to the irregular pattern of the rhyme scheme. It is ironic that these pounding sounds are used as smoothly flowing in the sentence. Perhaps, it is because these sounds are familiar to him and no longer bother him as much as the silence. Again, the poet refers to the soldiers as “flying muscles”, a body part, instead of people. “Carnage”, or slaughter and “squander”, misuse/waste, are emotive words emotive words that show us the horrors of war. “Rucked too thick for these men's extrication,” suggests that this issue is so deep that the soldiers can’t be relieved from this constraint or difficulty. Their mental and physical anguish will continue to prevail because the situation is so severe, that it has now become inevitable.

            The last stanza acts as the effects of the answers Owen provided us with in the previous stanza, thus he begins it with the word “therefore”. “Their eyeballs shrink tormented/ Back into their brains, because on their sense/ Sunlight seems a blood-smear; night comes blood-black;/ Dawn breaks open like a wound that bleeds afresh.” They’re eyeballs have been blurred from reality, by shrinking into their brains. All they can see is the agony and torture within themselves, in their minds. He uses the most gory imagery in this line which is accentuated with the “b” sound of the alliteration. The sound created is almost like blood sputtering in their heads. They can’t erase the sound of people coughing and regurgitating blood from their heads. This is quite morbid and disturbing for the reader, causing them to cringe with fear. The death image of “blood-black” created is a metaphor for dawn, sunlight and night. Just like the cycle of the day continuously repeats, so does this memory incessantly repeat in their minds. “Hilarious, hideous,/ Awful falseness of set-smiling corpses.” This oxymoron generates a very frightening image, that of a mad smile across their faces. Watching carcasses smiling is rather eerie, especially after dying from war, a place of complete torture. “- Thus their hands are plucking at each other;/ Picking at the rope-knouts of their scourging;/ Snatching after us who smote them, brother,/ Pawing us who dealt them war and madness.” These words are very harsh and associate with battle, fighting and bloodshed. It’s almost like it is a personification because the hands are doing everything and not the people. He now introduces the word “us” which is a universal term in which he addresses all, involving the reader. He induces his emotion within us by addressing us with camaraderie so that we too feel the remorse since eventually, we are all guilty, we all promoted this. He too takes responsibility for the war and madness. Thus, the poet uses a variety of literary devices to bring out the physical as well as mental impacts of war.

            In conclusion, Wilfred Owen successfully instigates his emotions towards war within the audience. The harsh sounds produced by the alliterations, irregular sentences, and comparisons, all aid in creating the image of the war atmosphere. He describes the physical torture that the soldiers face and its mental impact it has on them. He also states that war is inevitable, but this poem does indeed, shows hope. By writing war poetry, Owen ‘s aim is to spread his emotions and prevent people from being misled into war, for it is not what one expects. Thus, by highlighting the negative impacts of war, the poet enables readers to paint the real i

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[1] Oxford Dictionary

Strange Meeting commentary by Mantra

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen was born in Oswestry, Shropshire. He took to writing poetry as a teenager. From 1913 to 1915 he worked as a language tutor, and in 1915, he returned to England to enlist in the army. After some severe experiences in the army, he was diagnosed with shellshock and transferred to Craiglockhart War Hospital, near Edinburgh. During his time at the hospital, he met Siegfried Sassoon, a renowned poet. Sassoon encouraged, influenced and transformed Owen’s poetry significantly. He returned to the army in 1918 and was awarded the Military Cross for Bravery. Sadly, he died shortly after during battle.

While in hospital, Owen experienced frightful nightmares; a frequent image that tormented him was that of war as the “mouth of hell”. This concept inspired ‘Strange Meeting’, a poem that grips the reader in the themes of the futility of war and sweeping suffering. This journey into hell is evocative of ‘The Revolt of Islam’, written by Percy Shelley, which depicts a journey through a strange land. The diction chosen by the poet burns the horrific images of battle he creates into the reader’s mind; the vivid memories of war depicted in the poem stress on the gruesome and dreadful reality of war, as opposed to what the national propaganda and campaigns would represent it as: heroic and glorious.

Owen uses para-rhymes and half-rhymes to involve the reader in the notion of the poem, “It seemed that out of battle I escaped, Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped”. In this case, the words “escaped” and “scooped” have different sounding vowels but end in similar consonants. The pitch of the second word is usually lower than the first, creating a sense of dissonance and imperfection. This structure of the poem draws the reader into the resigned, hopeless tone of the poem, “And by his smile, I knew that sullen hall, By his dead smile I knew that we stood in Hell.” The reader experiences a sense of defeat with the end.

The speaker seems to be a deceased soldier, beginning his journey into hell. During his descent, he encounters another soldier who “sprang up, and stared With piteous recognition in fixed eyes,” His “strange meeting” with this soldier depicts the true terrors of war. He uses the words “dull tunnel” to refer to the poem “Rear-Guard” written by Siegfried Sassoon, which portrays a man fumbling his way through a pitch black tunnel to reach the air above, on the battlefield. He notices “there encumbered sleepers groaned, Too fast in thought or death to be bestirred.” Men who had lost their lives during war were trapped in this “mouth of hell”, contained by their emotional distress and pain, unable to rest in peace and purge themselves of all their sins. Owen describes the other soldier’s expression as a “dead smile”, an oxymoronic statement, communicating the emptiness within the soldiers.

Owen used poetic devices such as onomatopoeia to seize the reader in the tones and themes of his poems. He writes that the dead, brooding soldiers “groaned”, an onomatopoeia to depict to the reader how tired and consumed these men were. He contrasts the emptiness and quiet in the tunnel with the images and sounds of war, “Yet no blood reached there from the upper ground, And no guns thumped, or down the flues made moan.” The reader gets a taste of some of the disturbing aspects of battle which stay etched in the speaker’s mind.

The soldier, the orator in the poem, says that he went “hunting wild After the wildest beauty in the world,” which reminds the reader of Owen’s search for beauty and virtue at a younger age. He searched for beauty in “calm eyes” and “braided hair” but soon realized that it “mocks the steady running of the hour”. Owen personifies this beauty to ridicule the soldier’s ideas and notions as the world itself is dubious. The dreams of a young boy are contorted by war. He says that the older soldiers may have “laughed” at his visions, but he soon experienced the horrors of war and forgot his innocence and concepts of beauty.

The stranger tells the speaker that “men will be content with what we spoiled, Or, discontent, boil bloody, and be spilled.” He refers to other soldiers, who would be satisfied with the freedom they’ve fought for and the lives they’ve ruined, or instead, unsatisfied with their exploits; hungry and raging, their blood would boil, and the blood of their enemies would spill. Owen depicts them as hunters, predators through a metaphor comparing them to the tigress, “They will be swift with swiftness of the tigress”. The sibilance in this line gives the reader of the sense of the quick and merciless manner in which they kill enemies.

The soldier seems to speak in Owen’s voice as he reminisces and romanticizes about better days, “Courage was mine, I had mystery, Wisdom was mine, I had mastery”. Romanticism was a movement created in the late 18^th century and emphasized the inspiration, subjectivity and primacy of the individual. Owen himself embraced the idea of Romanticism and had “courage”, “mystery”, “wisdom” and “mastery”. The soldier personifies the world as “retreating” as it bears the loss of humanity and the damage of nature. He goes on to claim that “when much blood had clogged their chariot-wheels, I would go up and wash them from sweet wells,” saying that he would wash away the thick blood hindering the movement of the chariots of the soldiers. This is a metaphor for the purging of the soul; the soldier claims that would help in the cleansing of soldiers impeded by all the killings they’ve done and bloodshed they’ve caused. He alludes to the line in Wordsworth’s poem ‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality’: “thoughts that do often lie to deep for tears”, in the line “Even with truths that lie too deep for taint.” referring to the lies and honour attributed to war, which he had signed up for initially. He claims that “Foreheads of men have bled where no wounds were” referring to war thieving the spirits and twisting the psyches of men in battle.

In the last stanza, the poem’s tone takes a twist as the stranger declares, “I am the enemy you killed, my friend. I knew you in the dark…” the reader immediately gets a sense that on his journey towards hell, the speaker has encountered his own conscience which he had killed and forgotten when losing himself to war. His conscience says, “Let us sleep now…” referring their reunion and the bond they’ve regained. The poem recounts the experiences of the speaker as a soldier and the meeting between the both of them as he approaches what seems to be purgatory.

The poem ends in monosyllabic language and a conclusive tone. The soldier’s conscience forgives him and welcomes him to this journey. Owen communicates the profound damage and loss caused by the experience of war through the reminiscing of a deceased soldier. Although the poem ends on a more serene and definitive note, its vivid images create a sadness that lingers in the reader’s mind. Although the savagery and gruesomeness for this man is over, the scars and images will remain in his soul forever. 

Exposure commentary by Priyanka

Wilfred Owen’s “Exposure” expresses what young soldiers’ minds and bodies were ‘exposed’ to in the mindless manslaughter of trench warfare in the First World War. Owen also looks to convey the tyranny of nature to an extent where it surpasses even that of war. Imagery and anthropomorphism, therefore, play a great role in bringing nature to life. In this essay, I hope to explore the literary techniques that Owen employs to highlight themes such as bewilderment, hopelessness and man versus nature.

The first stanza establishes the setting of the poem and its general mood: a kind of stillness and numbness. This is ironic as in a battlefield for a setting the last thing the reader would expect is stillness. The very first phrase, “our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knife us” has the connotation of being an experienced army that has been subjected to so much that it is now too numb to even react. Diction such as “wearied” and “low drooping flares” adds to the effect of tiredness and stillness. Most importantly, the first stanza ends with “but nothing happens”. This makes all the actions described previously in the stanza seem senseless and almost foolish for they have no real end or result. Owen clearly presents the bewilderment and tiredness of the soldiers and the mindlessness of war.

Apart from the mood and setting, the first stanza also reveals the man versus nature theme in which lies the true meaning of the title “Exposure”. The first line describes the east winds as “merciless” and “iced” and they “knife us [them]”. There is a connotation of familiarity and thus the conclusion that the soldiers are tired and almost unreactive now that they have experienced the same thing for so long. It is ironic that the soldiers are “worried by silence” of the night because usually, a silent night is a sign of peace and quiet. This worry is expressed in the form of whispers amongst sentries which is brought to life by sibilance. Diction such as “merciless”, “iced”, “east”, “whisper”, “curious”, “nervous”, etc facilitate the success of the literary technique.

As we proceed into the next stanza, the man versus nature theme takes better form. Owen uses the combination of a rather disturbing simile and imagery to express the force of the wind the soldiers are exposed to. The “mad gusts tugging on the wire”, that is, barbed wire, is compared to the “twitching agonies of men among its brambles”. With this unsettling visual image, Owen expresses the sentiment of being trapped in this war where soldiers have no choice but to be continuously exposed to the nature’s antics. The image of the barbed wire makes the attack of nature seem more torturous and horrific. At the end of this stanza, Owen once again slips back into simply discarding all that has just happened and asking the simple question: “What are we doing here?”. The reader begins to experience the poem as a refrain where, like a chorus, Owen seems to return repeatedly to the senselessness of war.

Once more, ironically, like the night the dawn is a source of weariness for the soldiers. Anthropomorphism is used to personify Dawn as a commander of an army whose aim is to defeat the soldiers. Dawn is referred to as “massing in the east of her melancholy army” and attacking once more “in ranks on shivering ranks of gray”. Here, Owen toys with an interesting idea. By calling the opposition a “melancholy army” and also referring to them as “ranks”, he implies that the opposing army is also tired and depressed by war. Since neither side want to truly be involved in war, it is an unnecessary activity.

While the reader begins to reach some conclusions, the action of the setting is changed entirely and the man versus nature theme becomes more aggressive. As “sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence”, it begins to snow. However, the army find bullets less deadly than the snow. “The air that shudders black with snow” shows the army’s real disdain towards nature and the hyperbole of preferring bullets over snow flakes accentuates this emotion. “Pale flakes with lingering stealth” is again, an anthropomorphism that makes the snowflakes seem scheming and intentionally vicious.

The powerlessness of the soldiers against these vicious snowflakes is seen as they “cringe in holes, back on forgotten dreams”. The terms “snow-dazed” and “sun-dozed” seem to be a play on the word “bulldozed” that imply the equal deadliness of nature. As they try to save their faces from the biting cold, they are “littered in blossoms trickling where the blackbird fusses”. This is an example of contrast. Usually, the visual and auditory imagery of blossoms and blackbirds is pleasant but inserted into this context, they show exactly how disenchanted and blind soldiers are to the beauty of nature anymore.

Finally, the tragedy of the poem is made more explicit as the soldiers state, “Is it that we are dying?”. From this point, the theme of hopelessness becomes most apparent. As their “ghosts drag home”, they are aware that they must stay outside of the safety of the trench and fight both nature and the enemy. “Shutters and doors are closed: on us all the doors are closed” is extremely saddening. The reader can almost feel the desperation of the soldiers to get out of the cold and bullets and into the relative comfort of their trenches. As this fails, “ we turn back to our dying” shows a submission to circumstances and the ultimate loss of hope.

The concluding stanzas of the poem continue with the same streak of submission to a hopeless situation. Even faith in God is lost as the soldiers claim that the “love of God seems dying”. Once this truth is established, the poem then takes a casual tone towards death. “His frost will fasten on this mud and us, shriveling many hands and puckering foreheads crisp” appears, like the beginning lines of the poem, to be the words of soldiers that have rehearsed discomfort and death repeatedly.

Having skillfully explored the inhumanity of war, Owen dabbles in how emotion is slowly sucked out of even soldiers over a long period of service. As men bury other men with a “shaking grasp” and pause over “half-known faces”, “their eyes are ice”. They are slowly being rid of the ability to feel.

Emotionally, Owen’s “Exposure” travels from numbness to exhaustion to hopelessness and a pure submission to the hopelessness of circumstances. Each stage is accentuated by the Man versus Nature theme. Using powerful imagery, diction and most importantly, anthropomorphism, Owen emotionally engages the reader in the struggles of soldiers such as himself that were ‘exposed’ to the mental and physical torture of the First World War.  

Disabled Amalaya's commentary

Disabled’ by Wilfred Owen is written in the winter of 1917 during World War I. Owen wrote this poem while he was recovering from shell shock from the war in Craiglockhart Hospital. In the poem, Owen uses a number of literary devices to bring out the story of a teenage boy who walked into the war without paying attention to its cruelty, and came out of the war disabled, as the title suggests; physically and emotionally.

The poet begins by creating an atmosphere of sorrow and hopelessness by mentioning that the protagonist of the poem was sitting in a wheeled chair, ‘waiting for dark’; the first line itself shows the reader how the boy was ‘legless’, and he was waiting for the dark because he was probably conscious of his body, and wanted the blackness of the night to hide it from the world. The words ‘shivered’ and ‘ghastly’ make the diction very strong and impactful, as it adds an eerie effect to the poem, and the boy’s state. The phrase ‘voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn’ is auditory imagery, and it reminds the reader of a faint, distant, sorrowful sound; Owen is trying to show the reader how the voices of the boys at war were still echoing in the boy’s head, like a saddening ‘hymn’. This emphasizes on the sorrowful mood of the stanza. The phrase ‘voices of play’ is also auditory imagery, and hints towards the boy hearing other, happy boys playing with ‘pleasure’ down stairs, unlike him, who was miserable. In the last line of this stanza, sleep is compared to a mother, who would take away, or ‘gather’ the happy voices of the boys downstairs from him; through this, Owen shows how sleep is an escape from his misery for the boy.

The mood then shifts from a sorrowful, hopeless one to a bright, happy mood in the beginning of stanza two; Owen begins to describe how the town generally looks at the time, and uses the word ‘gay’ to describe it. The use of diction here suggests how the town was happy, and bright at the time. The sibilance of the letter ‘s’ in the phrase ‘swing so gay’ adds a very smooth effect to the sentence, showing how unlike the boy, the time of the town was moving smoothly and happily. The alliteration of the letter ‘l’ in the phrases ‘glow-lamps budded in the light blue trees’ and ‘girls glanced lovelier’ adds a tinkling effect to the stanza, showing how everything in the town was sparkling and glittering.  However, the mood changes back to one of sorrow and sadness in the forth line; Owen marks the change by the phrase ‘in the old times, before he threw away his knees.’ This shows how the boy was nostalgic, and missing the way the town was before he lost his knees. The diction here is very strong; the words ‘threw away’ are extremely harsh, and show the reader how the boy was in fact, blaming himself for the loss of his knees since he ‘threw them’ away. Owen continues this mood of regret and guilt with the use of tactile imagery; he mentions that the boy would never be able to feel ‘slim girls’ waists’, or their ‘warm subtle hands.’ The words ‘slim’ and ‘subtle’ are extremely delicate, making the reader realize how much the boy was going to miss out on. He then uses disturbing visual tactile imagery by saying that the girls would ‘touch him like a queer disease’; this makes the reader empathize with the boy. This is also ironic, since sleep, which is a non-living thing was comforting to him like a ‘mother’, whereas girls, which are human beings and should actually be the comfort would see him like a ‘disease’; this shows how he was completely isolated from human beings, depending on sleep to nurture him.

Owen then makes a time shift in the poem, by referring to a year ago; he speaks about an artist who was ‘silly for his face’ the last year, when he was ‘younger than his youth’; the phrase ‘younger than his youth’ brings out his age; he was just a teenage boy when he joint the war. When he comes back to current time, he uses the phrase ‘now he is old’ to describe how he was. The fact that Owen called him ‘young’ a year ago, and ‘old’ now shows how he was marking the boy’s youth by just the war; the war had had such a large impact on him that he had lost his entire youth. Owen then uses strong, disturbing visual imagery; he mentions that the boy had ‘lost his color’ and ‘poured it down shell-holes’. The phrase ‘lost his color’ is very strong diction, and gives the reader the idea of the boy literally draining out all the color there was in him. Over here, color is symbolic of his youth and his happiness, and the ‘shell-holes’ hint towards the trenches, where he lost his knees. ‘Veins ran dry’ is further visual imagery, making the mood of the stanza extremely disturbing and full of horror. The phrase ‘leap of purple spurted’ from his thigh is strong diction, and makes the reader picture the terrifying image of blood gushing out of the boy’s thigh.

Owen once again makes a time shift in the next stanza; by taking the reader to one of his football matches during his youth, before he joint the war. The idea of blood is carried on to this stanza, but in a far less gruesome manner. Owen mentions that he in fact ‘liked a blood smear’ down his leg during his football matches, since it was not a big deal. The entire mood in this stanza is innocence and jovialness, since it describes his reasons for joining the army. It is revealed that the boy only joint the army because of trivial, immature reasons such as looking like a ‘god in kilts’, which was the uniform, or to ‘please his Meg’, his girlfriend, since joining the army represented your manhood and your bravery. The diction in this stanza shows how at the time, the army didn’t care if you were under age; they were talking anybody and everybody as they were in desperate need of men. This phrase ‘smiling they wrote his lie’ shows how the knee he was underage but he didn’t have to ‘beg’ because they didn’t care. Through this example, Owen reveals how the army was at the time, and how not just the boy mentioned in the boy, but a huge number of teenage, immature boys probably lost their youth in the war simply because they joint the army for trivial reasons.

Stanza 5 is a continuation of stanza four, speaking about when the boy joint the army; Owen mentions that he wasn’t even thinking about Germany, and Austria ‘did not move him’, furthering on the idea of how he only joint the army for petty reasons. This stanza is full of positive visual imagery, as it describes the things the boy did think of while joining the army; it is mentioned that he thought of ‘jeweled hills’, ‘smart salutes’ and pay arrears’. The use of diction in the phrase ‘no fears Of Fear came yet’ is very significant, as well as ironic, since the boy was not even scared of anything when he joint the army. The mention of ‘drums and cheers’ is happy auditory imagery and brings out irony again, since leaving for war here is portrayed as exciting, and something to cheer for, when it eventually took away his youth from him.

This auditory imagery of cheers is carried on to the next stanza, which then shifts time to when he returned back from the army; the fact that although he did get cheers, it wasn’t like how ‘crowds cheer Goal’ shows how he wasn’t even satisfied with his service at the army, since he wasn’t respected, or cheered for like he would be when he scored a goal in a football match, taking the reader back to stanza 3. The use of the word ‘Goal’ shows how he was aiming for something, and didn’t even achieve what he was aiming for. This creates a mood of regret and guilt.

This mood is carried on to the last stanza, where Owen brings the reader back to present time; he mentions that he will spend ‘a few sick years in institutes’, bringing out how helpless he was. This helplessness becomes the theme of the last stanza, as Owen speaks about how he was at mercy of the people in charge of the institute, as he would do whatever they considered ‘wise.’ He then brings out sorrow through visual imagery, by speaking about how a woman just looked away from him, and set her eye upon ‘strong men.’ The use of diction here is very significant, because the word ‘strong’ brings out how he didn’t consider himself strong anymore, which is ironic, since he left for the war in the hope of gaining manhood and attaining the title of having strength and bravery. The poem ends in isolation and ‘coldness’, where Owen asks the question, ‘Why don’t they come and put him to bed?’ Sleep is brought back in this stanza, and is once again shown as the comfort he was using to escape the world. Sleep here, or going ‘to bed’ could also be symbolic of death. The question ‘Why don’t they come?’ shows how he was completely dependent on the people if the institute and so there was a possibility that he wanted to give his life up, and go ‘to bed’ permanently. The poem ends with this sad, sorrowful mood.

In conclusion, Owen has used literary devices such as time shifts, symbolism, comparisons and imagery in extremely significant ways, in order to bring out a boy’s innocent and jovialness while making the decision to go to war, and to show how the war had the ability to completely scar someone and snatch their youth away from them, exactly like the boy in the poem. 

Insensibility commentary by Paridhi

Insensibility

 By Wilfred Owen

Insensibility by Wilfred Owen is a caustic comment on the futility of war and its role in turning soldiers into robots. What is interesting is the way in which the poet compares the mindless soldiers to ‘happy men’. Hence, Owen effectively explores the paradoxical nature of this concept through the extensive use of irony; half- rhymes, changing narratives and figurative language.

Firstly, the reader is introduced to the poet’s satire through the title and the structure of the poem itself. The simplicity of the title ‘Insensibility’ is reflective of ambiguity and a dual perspective. On the first look, the reader ponders whether the title refers to the soldier’s forced insensibility in war or to the insensitivity of people who have never been confronted with the idea of war. The juxtaposition of the two ideas is further highlighted through the structure of the poem. The poem is often seen as Owen’s response to the question “Who is the happy warrior/ Who is he/ That every man in arms should wish to be?”[1] asked by William Wordsworth in his poem ‘The Character of a Happy Warrior’. Whereas Wordsworth’s poem is a glorification of the war, Owen’s response is bitter and cynical. This is further accentuated as the poem is written in the form of an ode, divided in to six different parts. Therefore, through the incongruous use of romanticism, Owen effectively expresses his ill feeling towards war.

In the first stanza of the poem, Owen presents his first ideal happy soldier. The irony in the poet’s attitude is highlighted as he describes happy men as those whose “veins run cold” and “whom no compassion fleers”. The paradox in this statement is reflective of the soldier’s belief that the only way to survive the war is by destroying all human emotion. Owen’s lament and bitterness in this belief is cleverly highlighted in the stanza through abrupt change in perspectives. This is indicated as the “alley cobbled with their brothers” left “gaps for filling”. The juxtaposition of “brothers” with “gaps for filling” is reflective of the two contrasting outlooks of the soldiers and the generals in London respectively, towards their fellow men. The juxtaposition further puts emphasis on the dehumanizing effect of war on soldiers, whose worth is measured in numbers rather than emotions. In addition, the use of cacophonic diction such as “cobbled” allows the readers to sympathise with the soldiers’ hostility. Hence, through the use of paradox, Owen effectively highlights the desensitizing effect of war on not only the soldiers but also on the general public.

As the poem progresses, the portrayal of soldiers as mechanical beings becomes increasingly prominent. This is reflected in the second stanza as Owen highlights that “dullness best solves” the effects of war. This idea is again repeated as the poet describes that the soldiers “who lose imagination” are also happy, as they have “enough to carry”. Owen’s portrayal of ‘imagination’ as a physical burden emphasises the need to be insensible in the war. However, the poet’s casualness often comes across as shocking to the readers. This misplaced sense of casualness is highlighted through the use of para-ryhmes such as “shelling’ and “shilling” or “red” and rid”. The random use of half rhymes, which otherwise add to the action and pace of Owen’s poems, however bring forth a sense of disturbance and hostility to the mood of this poem. This hostile atmosphere is accentuated through the last line of the third stanza: “can laugh among the dying, unconcerned”. However, despite the cruelty of the statement, the hostile tone creates lament in the readers towards the soldiers and helps them to realise the true horrors of the war.

Despite the mechanical breakdown of different scenarios, Owen’s multiple use of perspectives in each stanza aids in forming a connection between the scenarios. For example in the fourth stanza, the focus shifts from war to the use of propaganda at the homeland. This is particularly reflected as the poet laments how  “he (the happy lad) sings along the march/ Which we march taciturn”. Firstly, it is interesting to notice how the poet’s use of personal pronouns “he” and “we” provides the reader with the double meaning to the word ‘march’. Whereas, the first use of march, represents the glory and pride of war that the naïve soldier associates with; in the second ‘march’, Owen involves himself in the poem, hence indicating towards a more harsher but a less unbiased view of war. The harsh reality of war is further accentuated as Owen comments how this march leads them “larger days to huger night”. The particular use of quantitative diction provides the reader with a sense of infinity, which is further accentuated by the symbolism of “huger night” as the soldier’s death. Owen’s changing perspectives parallels with the change in Owen’s tone being hopeful to hopeless and hence, helps in juxtaposing the insensitivity of the soldiers with the insensitivity of the homeland.

Up until this point, the poet presents the scenario of the war from an omniscient perspective. However, as the reader is introduced to the fifth stanza, the tone of the poem becomes more personal and pitiful rather than being distant. The reader is made ware of Owen’s internal conflict as he question how can he be “wise” (hence, being a poet?) and an insensible soldier? The reader is able to appreciate Owen’s dilemma as in the first stanza he states that soldiers are “not flowers for Poet’s tearful fooling”. The magnitude of his emotional conflict is reflected as he juxtaposes his “soul” with the “blunt and lashless eyes” of the dead soldier. The use of death and gruesome imagery reiterates the dehumanization of soldiers, allowing the readers to sympathise with Owen.

In addition, this mechanization also acts as a catalyst in understanding the abrupt change in perspective. This is evident as through the immediate lines “Alive, he is not vital overmuch. Dying, not mortal overmuch”. The impact of the line is cleverly bought out through Owen’s ability to bring forth a clear disparity in the perspectives of the fellow soldiers and the insensitive public despite the subtle change. It becomes clear to reader that Owen is quoting the generals or the public who are back in London. Furthermore, the use of anaphora enforces their view of soldier as quantities that are weighed in terms of gains and losses. Hence, the poet’s effectiveness in portraying a platitude of moods through varying tone and perspectives helps the readers to understand the two contrasting aspects highlighted in the title.

As Owen presents his last reflection of insensible beings, the reader realises that the sixth stanza acts as a climax to Owen’s final outburst at the ignorant and cruel authorities that are present in London. Unlike the tone of the previous stanzas, which reflect a certain bitterness and pity, Owen’s tone in the following paragraph is almost angry. This is evident through his description of the authorities as “wretched” and “dullards” who are “as stone”. Through the acerbic diction and metaphor such as “stone”, the poet represents these authorities as cold and oblivious personalities. The disparity between the two categories of insensibility: one of the soldiers and that of the authorities is further made clear as Owen states, “by choice they made themselves immune”. The use of word “choice” clarifies that the soldiers were forced to be immune in order to survive war. However, the ending lines of the poem “whatever shares the eternal reprocity of tears” confronts the readers to decide who the “whatever” is referring to: the poet, the authorities, or the family, who mourns the dead soldiers.

In conclusion, the above examples effectively highlight the different facets of insensibility presented by Owen through the use of paradox and irony. However, the true impact of the poem lies in its ambiguous and enigmatic nature. Throughout, the poem Owen never directly exposes the two types of insensible people. Rather Owen’s aptitude in allowing the reader understand and decide this disparity through the course of poem is what makes it so powerful and effective.

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[1] http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/english-association/schools/teaching-poetry/close-reading/owen

Spring Offensive Commentary by Samridh

Through his last poem spring offensive, Wilfred Owen relates the story of the battle between Germany and the allies during World War II. This particular poem is complex and riveting as he uses each stanza along with an irregular rhyme scheme to represent a different part of the battle. Moreover, the use of nature helps justify the setting of the poem and conveys the intended message to the reader and the varying figures of speech used make the poem all the more interesting.

At the beginning, Owen conveys the sense of the setting through the use of nature. Everything seems to be calm in the first paragraph and the repetition of ease in ‘were at ease’ and ‘lying easily’ shows how relaxed the soldiers were. However the ‘stark, blank sky’ indicates that this was just the calm before the storm and there was a war to come. This introduces the juxtaposition between peace and war as well. The first stanza ends with ‘end of the world’ which provides an unsettling image, however the ‘summer oozed into their veins’ immediately in the next stanza brings back the reassurances of peace and calm. Owen uses this juxtaposition to portray the uncertainties of war. With the ‘long grass swirled’ and the simile used for the summer, nature itself seems to be on the side of the soldiers. The setting gives the feeling that nothing could go wrong and a war seemed hardly imminent. Once again, however with ‘fearfully flashed the sky’s mysterious glass’ Owen seems to be foreshadowing the war and that something will go wrong as nature begins to show unsettling signs. The first two stanzas thus provide a calm and collected feel, assuring the reader that nothing can go wrong when suddenly a small hint of a future war is dropped, which is used to make the poem all the more interesting.

Once again, with the next paragraph the ‘warm field’ and ‘buttercups’ show that it is spring time, and nature is thriving. New life is coming to form with the ‘little brambles.’ This brings out the irony of the title of the poem ‘spring offensive’ as spring time is a time of rebirth and new life, whereas the war was soon about to take away lives. A sense of tension is then built up with the ‘sorrowing hands’ which ‘breathe like trees unstirred.’ This is the tension which eats at the mind of every soldier before they know they will be going to war. Suddenly things begin to change in their minds and they become tense in order to prepare for war. This sudden change is reflected in the smooth transition between the next paragraph. The previous ‘May breeze’ has changed into a ‘cold gust’ which is unsettling to the soul. A repetition of ‘No’ shows the negative connotations of what was to come as well. This serves a dual purpose however as at the same time the swiftness of the German attack is portrayed as they made no noise and were like silent assassins. One second all seemed to be well, nature was serene and the soldiers were rested. The next second enemy soldiers were creeping up the hill in a swift movement, ready to attack. The sibilance used in ‘The sun, like a friend with whom their love is done’ also shows how nature has switched sides and from being calm has now gone against the soldiers once the attack begins. However it is attacking with greater force than when it was helping the soldiers, showing the formidability of the German attack. The fact that this passage contains of one extremely long sentence also shows how swift the war was and that suddenly there was a swift and complete change in the surroundings.  

The transition from peace has now shifted to full fledged war in the next stanza. The pathetic fallacy of ‘the whole sky burned’ shows how blood was in the air. Additionally, the alliteration in ‘herb and heather’ suggests that the soldiers tore down everything in their path that stood between them and their enemy. The ‘soft sudden cups Opened in thousands for their blood’ signifies the incoming of death and casualties. Soldiers were being hurt with bullets and blood was in the air. Once again two long sentences are used in this stanza which show the continuity and swiftness of the war. Here, there is also a change in the tone and diction to a gorier one. The repetition of ‘and’ is used to show the different effects of the war on nature and the soldiers in one continuous fashion. Moreover, the change of the ‘green slopes’ which later ‘chasmed and steepened sheer to infinite space’ makes the ground seem to open up and consume the lives of many and take them into the void. The serene nature is converted to portray what hell would look like through the ‘hot blast’ and ‘fury of hell’s upsurge.’ As hundreds fell to their death the setting seemed to be like in hell.

However religion comes in here at this point in the poem as ‘Some say God caught them even before they fell’ shows that superstition dictated that these soldiers were doing a good deed by sacrificing their lives to end the war. This could be questioned to be just a sham, or for the people justifying their violent actions of going to war. The last stanza continues this chain of thought as it questions the actions of the people. The contradiction in ‘superhuman inhumanities’ shows the controversy around the topic and the argument whether the soldiers were doing good or bad deeds. This is further justified with the ‘long-famous glories’ juxtaposed with ‘immemorial shames.’ The two contradictory natures of the actions of war give an unsettling feeling towards the end of the poem as the result can be looked at as both heroic and a dastardly act. However what is not questioned is that by the end of this offensive the war had ended and peace was once more prevalent. The last line leaves the readers with the question ‘why speak they not of comrades that went under?’ which highlights the survivors guilt.

Throughout the poem Wilfred Owen uses nature to describe what was happening in the war and develop the setting of the poem. There is a transition from peace to war and back to unsettled peace again. The poem however questions the humanities of a war and committing such horrific acts through the numerous questions and juxtapositions through the end which also get the reader thinking about the horrors of war, the devils game. 

Spring Offensive read by Kenneth Branagh

The Sentry by Urmi

The Sentry

Owen wrote “The Sentry” as a letter to his mother in 1917 when he was receiving hospital treatment after being injured during war. A sentry is a soldier stationed to keep guard or to control access to a place. In this poem Owen shows the life of a Sentry and shows the reader the terrible conditions the soldiers have to go through during war. It is his memory of a particularly horrifying incident in which a sentry was blinded because of the enemy bomb. He uses various poetic devices and figurative language to bring about the main theme of death and the horrid conditions that the soldiers had to go through.

Owen uses a lot of devices to show the reader a clear picture of the war. Just looking at the uneven structure and irregular rhyme scheme of the poem one can make out Owens state of mind. The war had impacted him to a great extent. In the first stanza of the poem, Owen gives vivid descriptions of the circumstances that the soldiers go through almost every day by using words like “slush waist-high”, “waterfalls of slime”, “choked”. He also uses a lot of auditory imagery in the form of onomatopoeia and a lot of smells such as “murk of air”, “stank”, “sour”, “whizz-bangs”

 to involve the reader completely in the poem. Through all these poetic devices Owen gets the reader involved in the poem with all their senses and this gives the reader a chance to feel what the sentry is going through. The use of “waterfalls of slime” is ironic because a waterfall is a symbol of purity and slime is dirt. So it is a paradox and creates a disgusting image. The poem is told in first person narrative, which helps to involve the reader and give a realistic and first hand account of the war. The mood of the first stanza is rather negative and is also a fore-shadow about what is going to happen later in the story and it has a very dull tone. Through these literary devices Owen also tells a sad and almost unbelievable story about a sentry who gets blinded in the war.

In the second stanza, Owen continues the story of The Sentry. In this stanza the devices and his style is very similar to another of his poems “Dulce et decorum est”. In this stanza, Owen also shows chaos and disturbance in the sentry’s mind. He uses a lot of death imagery such as “buffeted eyes”, “bulged like squids”, “sploshing in the flood” and “deluging muck”. There was so much chaos that Owen did not even realize whether the sentry was actually dead after the “whizz-bangs” or not. Owen also brings in the element of time in this poem by the use of commas and dashes, which shows the reader the intensity of the situation. The use of dialogues in the middle of the stanzas is also extremely interesting because it breaks the monotony of the poem but also adds to the picture of war that Owen is painting in the reader’s mind. The use of the word “floundering” and “somewhere” shows that the soldiers have no direction and are just wandering. Owen’s personification of “shrieking air” shows that even nature was sympathizing with the situations that the soldiers had to tackle. In this stanza, Owen brings about a lot of emotions empathizing with the sentry and the other soldiers, which really stands out in this poem, like all of his other poems.

In the third and final stanza of this poem, Owen concludes the story of the sentry. He also uses gruesome death images such as “bled”, “spewed” and “broken teeth”. He also wants to tell the readers that the conditions were so bad that they would “drown themselves for good” i.e. suicide. Even the use of the words “half listening” Owen emphasizes that everybody was so busy during the war that no one cared if anyone was injured of even perhaps dead. The had become heartless. The last line of the poem “ ‘I see your lights’! – but ours had long gone out” immediately catches the reader’s attention because it is so strongly conveying exactly what Owen wants to convey and that is death. In this case lights may be used as a metaphorical representation to represent life. So when he says “but ours had long gone out” shows that so many people had given their lives during the war.

In conclusion, through this poem, various literary devices and incidents, Owen very successfully conveys the message of the amount of destruction and death during the First World War. It also shows personal loss of so many people. Owen was deeply impacted by war when he wrote this poem in the span of six months and his deep emotions and strong feelings can be clearly seen in this poem.

Futility by KG

Futility

"Futility" was one of many war poems written by Wilfred Owen, a British Army officer during the First World War. Owen was killed on 4 November 1918, one week before the end of the war; he was still in his twenties. The poem explores the meaning of existence, the pointlessness of war and the inevitability of death. The person is facing an existential crisis. He questions the point of being born and life as whole if you’re going to die anyway. Owen uses a lot of literary techniques such as half rhymes, oxymoron, irony, onomatopoeia etc.

The structure of the poem is of a sonnet however it does not follow the structure of a sonnet. The poem has two stanzas and fourteen lines all together. The poet follows a structure of half rhythm scheme and this is visible in the words like “sun, unsown, once, France, star, stir” to create a sense of despair and frustration. For example, after 'sun', we expect words that would rhyme with sun. Instead, the poet follows it up with ‘unsown’, which does not rhyme correctly. It only has a half-rhyme, thus creating a feeling of frustration and sadness. Owen uses the structure of his poem to describe the immediate event on the battlefield and the results or the after effects of war, usually on the battle field. In this case, the poet's first stanza describes the experience of finding one of soldiers frozen to death in the morning, and the second stanza describes his anger, so the poem has a different tone in each stanza.

In the first stanza the tone of the poem is softer as the poet uses different words to bring out the tender sound of the stanza using words such as “move” and “whisper”. The tone enhances the mood of the stanza as it describes the persona’s thoughts after he finds his fellow soldier dead in the cold weather. Owen also uses assonance of the sound ‘o’ “home, unsown, woke, snow” these words create a long soft sound which brings out the persona’s feeling towards his experience. The poet then moves on to the second stanza where the persona’s tone changes from soft to a harsh tone. He uses words like “think” to start of the stanza. The word “think” changes the tone immediately as it is an imperative, it tells the reader what to do in a demanding manner. The first stanza also starts off with an imperative “move”, however it is more of a gentle tone of plea than a command. Owen also uses alliteration of the ‘c’ sound in the second to emphasis on the harshness of the cold weather and the, which automatically changes the atmosphere of the poem from soft, which is the first stanza, to harshness in the second stanza.

In ‘Exposure’ another poem written by Owen, we learn how nature is the soldiers’ enemy, but in this poem nature is seen as the healing power, they somehow rely on its care to save them in cases of death and the harsh weather. He uses the ‘sun’ to portray this as he says in the first line of the first stanza “move him into the sun” when a person is injured, the first place you take them to is a place where they can get help. In this poem the place of help was the sun. The persona looked at the sun as God, because the poet also writes about “the kind old sun will know” this line meaning that the sun was all knowing like God who knows everything. However in the second stanza, the poet contradicts this when he dismisses the idea of God and how he is all knowing, as he calls him silly in the second last line of the second stanza when the persona says “O what made fatuous sunbeams toil”. The word what in the line “O what made…” is a pun as it depends on which part of the line you stress more. Whichever way the reader reads it, it still questions God and his actions because it may mean, what made God create people and let them die again? Or what made God? So the double meaning in the word what also brings out the frustration of the persona and anger towards God.

In the first stanza we learn that there is a contrast between the words “sun” and “snow”, because the sun in the text symbolises warmth and life, whereas the snow symbolises the cold and death so the contrast in the two shows the desperation of the persona to bring back his fellow soldier. The persona then gets angry and starts questioning God’s actions as to his creations to be specific, “was it for this the clay grew tall?” meaning did God create man so that they could go to war and die?

Owen uses a lot of punctuation to create a slow pace in the poem so that it brings out the depressed and sad tone of the poem. He uses caesuras to create pauses in the middle of the sentence as though the persona is taking a moment to gather his thoughts and be able to express in the most effective way possible. The commas create a free flowing effect of the poem, this being that the reader is able to interpret the fact that the persona is sharing his thoughts and emotions.