Topic Summaries

• Poet: Wilfred Owen (1893–1918)
• Year: 1920
• Form: Hexameter with slant rhymes
• Key techniques: Imagery, personification, repetition

About the poet

Wilfred Owen was one of the most influential war poets of the 20th century, known for his raw and evocative portrayal of the World War I battlefields. He developed an early love for poetry, drawing particular inspiration from John Keats and Romanticism, but his experiences as a soldier drastically changed his perspective, leading him to reject the idealistic portrayal of war in favour of stark realism. Owen enlisted as a soldier in 1915 and was later diagnosed with shell shock, which led to his hospitalisation at Craiglockhart War Hospital. There, he met Siegfried Sassoon, a fellow soldier and poet, who greatly influenced his work. Arguably his most famous poem, ‘Dulce et Decorum Est,’ explicitly critiques the notion of it being ‘sweet and fitting’ to die for one’s country.

Historical context

Wilfred Owen was a British soldier in WWI who was killed at aged 25 in 1918 a week before the war ended.His war poetry was published posthumously in 1920 and captured the gruesome realities of trench warfare as well as the psychologically devastating effects of the war on soldiers while critiquing the glorification of war.

Literary context

Owen’s poetry was influenced by classic Romantic poets like William Wordsworth and John Keats. He is considered one of the foremost War Poets of WWI alongside his friend and mentor Siegried Sassoon.

Key ideas

• Futility of war
• Psychological experience of soldiers
• Innocent victims of war
• Nature and the environment
• Exploitation of the powerless