Disabled- Wilfred Owen

• Context:

  - Wilfred Owen was a former WW1 soldier

  - He experienced the horrors of war

  - He died just before armistice day

  - He was sent to hospital from shell shock (PTSD)

  - He met the poet Sigue Fried Susoon, and he encouraged Owen to write poems about his experiences

  - Anti-propaganda, critisises the government

  - Critical and cynical of the war

  - His poem reveals the lies of the government
• Points:

  - Wilfred Owen writes about the loss of youth and innocence brought upon soldiers

  - Criticises the carelessness and irresponsibility of the government

  - Implies how soldiers are treated with pity rather than honour

  - Explores how soldiers were treated as weak, shameful, less than whole

  - Structure: Uses time shifts, present day and back to post war
• "Through the park voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn, voices of play and pleasures after day, till gathering sleep had mothered then from him"


  - Mourning for his youth

  - Depressed, emotionally cold and weak

  - Lives in the shadows of happiness

  - Joyful sounds make him feel his own loss of youth and innocence

  - Almost jealous of the boys

  - They have something he wants, which is happiness and joy

  - Sleep is the only thing that gives him comfort

  - "Mothered" implies warmth and care

  - Almost living a half life
• "When glow lamps budded in the in the light blue trees, and girls danced lovelier as the air grew dim - in the old times, before he threw away his knees"


  - Contrast to his life now, light and dark, time shift

  - Reflecting on his youth, nostalgia, longing to be young and whole

  - "Threw away" implies a careless action, irresponsibility
• "All of them touch him like some queer disease"

  - Poem deals with how traumatised soldiers were when treated

  - People now see him as repulsive

  - Feels regret, injured were seen as "unmanly"

  - Links to feelings of shame and inability to cope with change, not just others, but himself as well

  - Time shifts back to present day
• "It was after football, when he'd drunk a peg, he thought he'd better join. — He wonders why. Someone said he'd look a god in kilts"


  - Wasn't thinking straight, a consequence of his careless actions, blames himself

  - Craves triumph and pride, longs to be seen as heroic, still does

  - "A god in kilts" religious reference, implies pride and honour, fighting for god

  - Also, kilt were only worn as celebratory clothing, conveys that he only though of the glories of war
• "Smiling they wrote his lie: aged nineteen years"


  - Shows the irresponsibility of the government

  - "Lie" shows how far they were willing to go to recruit

  - Propaganda

  - Trying to trap children into the war, government did not care about consequences and deaths this would lead to

  - "Smiling" slightly evil and wrong, careless
• "He thought of jewelled hilts for daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes; and care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears; esprit de corps; and hints for young recruits"


  - Only thought about the glories of war

  - "Daggers in plaid socks" rarely used, shows how different the reality was to his perceptions

  - He was overcome by the propaganda, exactly what the government wanted

  - "esprit de corps" feeling pride and joy, no real fear yet
• "Only a solemn man who brought him fruits thanked him; and then inquired about his soul"


  - Acts as if it was comfort, dark humour, not comforting at all

  - Religious cold comfort

  - He is being pitied by a priest, show the attitude to surviving soldiers, frowned upon, as if inhuman
• "And take whatever pity they may dole"

  - He is regarded as less than whole, pitiful

  - Does not receive gratitude nor honour from the war, only pity and sorrow

  - Treated as if weak, criticises the government

  - He will die young and alone
• "Why don't they come and put him to bed? Why don't they come?"

  - Implies that all hope is lost

  - He does not want to experience pain anymore

  - Ends on a rhetorical question, slightly unfinished

  - Unresolved ending, unclear what happens next but we can infer that it is not good