Wilfred Owen poems Flashcards
Blunden (1920) - Views on Owen
“Owen was one of the few spokesmen of the ordinary fighting man”
Shaheen (2010) - View of W.O’s poetry
“ His poetry can be interpreted at many levels and multiple meanings … it is more than mere
condemnation of war.”
Burton (1972) - Religion & War
“Owen uses the Bible to exalt the suffering of the soldiers .. he also uses the Bible to satirically shock his readers into seeing the hypocrisy of their endorsement of the war.”
Macintyre (2018) - Horrors of War, Use of Medium
“Owen and his poetry reflected the poignancy and pointlessness of the carnage.”
Ngide (2016) - Poet’s views, Horrors of War
“The maimed soldier in the poem ‘Disabled’ is an emblematic figure, a monument to Owen’s hatred of war. Owen impresses upon the reader the soldier’s isolation, desolation and loneliness.”
Ngide (2016) - Poetry & Society
“Owen’s descriptions of war experiences are so profound that they discourage any possibility of war, thus leaving the human race with one option namely, negotiation and peaceful resolution of conflicts …”
Islam (1999)- Theme of Religion & War
“Churches and statues of saints lost their potency amidst the incomprehensible atrocities of war.”
Islam (1999)- Theme of Man vs Nature
“Owen is convinced that war is a violation of Nature in its fury, carnage, and disruption of the innate cycle of life and death. Thus, when fighting breaks out, Nature also reflects the turmoil.”
Islam (1999) - Theme of Doomed Youth 1
“Owen, a young soldier himself, was very aware of the naïveté evinced by many of the soldiers who enlisted.”
Islam (1999) - Theme of Doomed Youth
“Owen captures this tragedy of war - the march of old men sending young men off to kill and die”
Kendall (2007)- View of W.O
“Psychologically, he aimed to forget the painful memories on which the poems themselves revolve”
Gokmen (2011) - Owen’s views on arm chair poets
“pro-war poets who presented the war as righteous and patriotic”
Like poet Robert Graves who called on Owen to write optimistically
Historian A.J.P Taylor (1963) - The first world war
“All imagined that it would be an affair of great marches and great battles, quickly decided”
Murry (1977) - Emotion as a source of inspiration
“The source of all enduring poetry lies in as intense and overwhelming emotion”
Newbolt (1924)- Less enthusiastic
“I don’t think these shell-shocked war poems will move our grandchildren greatly”
