Context/Abt the Poet

• Written by Wilfred Owen in 1917
• Owen was a WW1 soldier
• Owen was injured and sent to Craiglockhart Hospital during the war. Despite being anti-war, his patriotism and support for the soldiers fighting in the trenches meant that he returned to the front line. His friend and mentor, fellow war poet Siegfried Sassoon, threatened to stab him in the leg if he returned to battle
• Owen was killed in France on November 4th 1918, a week before the end of the war
• Owen is widely thought of as one of the greatest poets of the First World War, focusing on “the pity of war” in much of his work