Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MCwas an English poet and soldier, one of the leading poets of the First World War. His shocking, realistic war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was heavily influenced by his friend and mentor Siegfried Sassoon, and stood in stark contrast both to the public perception of war at the time and to the confidently patriotic verse written by earlier war poets such as Rupert Brooke. Among his best-known works – most of which...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth18 March 1893
war pity subjects
My subject is war, and the pity of war.
war this-generation generations
I am not concerned with Poetry. My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity. Yet these elegies are to this generation in no sense conciliatory. They may be to the next. All a poet can do today is warn. That is why the true Poets must be truthful.
morning stars moving
Futility Move him into the sun - Gently its touch awoke him once, At home, whispering of fields unsown. Always it woke him, even in France, Until this morning and this snow. If anything might rouse him now The kind old sun will know. Think how it wakes the seeds, - Woke, once, the clays of a cold star. Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides, Full-nerved -still warm -too hard to stir? Was it for this the clay grew tall? -O what made fatuous sunbeams toil To break earth's sleep at all?
lying dark men
As bronze may be much beautified by lying in the dark damp soil, so men who fade in dust of warfare fade fairer, and sorrow blooms their soul.
numbers people old-people
Numbers of the old people cannot read. Those who can seldom do
philosophy law analysis
I find purer philosophy in a Poem than in a Conclusion of Geometry, a chemical analysis, or a physical law
boys firsts poet
I was a boy when I first realized that the fullest life liveable was a Poet's
war news slaughter
The war effects me less than it ought. I can do no service to anybody by agitating for news or making dole over the slaughter
views lists impossible
When I begin to eliminate from the list all those professions which are impossible from a financial point of view and then those which I feel disinclined to-it leaves nothing
home force never-fear
Never fear: Thank Home, and Poetry, and the Force behind both.
reading thinking satisfaction
I am only conscious of any satisfaction in Scientific Reading or thinking when it rounds off into a poetical generality and vagueness.
war flying enthusiasm
Flying is the only active profession I would ever continue with enthusiasm after the War.
bullied outraged
Be bullied, be outraged, by killed, but do not kill.
becoming theological distasteful
All theological lore is becoming distasteful to me.