Disabled

• Wilfred Owen is inspired by...

  His personal experience in the war
• Purpose


  To show how those returning from the war are pitied or ignored rather than honoured for their sacrifice.
• Poem is characterised by

  The juxtaposition of past to present. Tone changing significantly as tense is changed.
• Tone


  Past tense: regretful

  
  

  Present tense: despondent, miserable, gloomy, melancholic
• First and last stanzas

  Detail the present and frame the middle section which details the past.
• Stanza 1: "He"


  Owen chooses not to name the wounded soldiers and leave them anonymous possibly to paraphrase that this soldier is just one of many.
• "Waiting for dark"


  This might be a metaphor for death. Shows he has nothing really to live for anymore.
• "Ghastly suit of grey"


  Screamed a distressing image of the man. Reflects his own despair. Resembles a ghost.
• "Shivered" (onomatopoeic/word choice)


  Creates a cold atmosphere and conveys that he is not being looked after well.
• "Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn" (simile)


  Underlines the fact that he is not much more than a boy himself yet he has had to grown up too fast and has seen the serious side of life. Regrets his decision to go to war.
• "Voices of play" (metaphor)


  Underlines the fact that he cannot play sport any more. Regrets his decision
• "Mothered them from him." (personification)


  Emphasises his isolation that no-one is caring for the disabled soldier.
• Stanza 2:

  
  

  "Old times"


  Images of happiness used by writer to contrast present day misery.
• "Threw away his knees"


  Implies that the loss of his legs were the result of carelessness. Casual tone suggests that life was needlessly disregarded during the war.
• "Now he will never feel again how slim girls waists are, or how warm their subtle hands"


  Emphasises the physical sacrifice that he has made. He no longer has arms to be able to do this. Also girls no longer see him as being attractive.
• "Touch him like some queer disease"


  The simile compares his disability to a contagious disease. Reinforces that he is no longer attractive to girls. Suggests that he is even seen as 'freakish' (queer means strange or unusual) Lack of gratitude or respect for his sacrifice.
• "An artist silly for his face"


  He was handsome
• "Younger than his youth"

  He had a 'baby face' - always looked even younger than he was. Charming quality.
• "Now he is old"


  The war has taken away this charming, youthful quality.
• "He lost his colour very far from here"


  Metaphoric language implying he lost is verve for life in France when he suffered this injury.
• Alliteration "lifetime lapsed"


  reinforces the ideas that he has wasted his life by going to war and also stresses that he almost died.
• Hot race"


  Suggests the frantic nature of war.
• "Leap of purple spurted from his thigh" - metaphor/colour imagery/assonance


  The artery in his leg has been cut - emphasises that he almost died on the battlefield, suffered horrific injuries.
• Stanza 3

  "One time he liked a blood-smear down his leg"


  This refers to before the war, when an injury represented effort, glory and honour. This contrasts with the 'leap of purple spurted..
• Reference to football


  Emphasises his loss as this is a sport that primarily relies on feet, which he no longer has.
• Caesura

  "He thought he'd better join. He wonders why."

  He regrets his decision to join up and is left constantly returning to thinking about why he did.
• "He'd look a god in kilts"

  More religious imagery. Metaphor suggests he thinks he would be extremely powerful.
• "To please his Meg"


  Colloquial language: Meg means his girlfriend.
• "To please the giddy jilts"


  A jilt is an impulsive woman. Owens belief is clear: girls love the thought of a soldier, yet become uninterested if they return with a substantial injury.
• His reasons for joining

  Were purely superficial. He had no interest in foreign affairs. Nor was he patriotic about his country.
• "Smiling they wrote his lie"


  Many men lied about their age, without questioning. Their smiling shows the contempt for the truth and that society let him down by allowing him to sign up.
• "Germans he scarcely thought of" "Austria's, did not move him"


  We wasn't involved or interested in the politics of the war.
• About


  The poem is written about a soldier who has been injured in the war and is in a lonely place in a wheelchair. He contemplates his past and lies about his age to enter the army, focusing on the wider implications of military service. The poem represents hopelessness and the horror of the uncertain future, highlighting the struggles faced by soldiers in the military.