Theme Of Disabled By Wilfred Owen

In ‘Disabled’, Wilfred Owen a war veteran tells the story of a young soldier who returns from war and realizes how dissimilar his old life is to his new one where he is disabled both mentally and physically despite the fact that his mind may seem unaffected by past traumas the reader will begin to understand the subtle hurts that have slowly damaged him. In contrast, the story of ‘Out, out-‘ is of a boy completing his everyday chores, sawing wood, in the backdrop of the Vermont mountains. He accidentally cuts his hand off and he succumbs to death despite a doctor’s aid.

Wilfred Owen uses language and poetic devices to evoke sympathy for the soldier in the poem by using in-depth descriptions. An example of this is in the first stanza where the soldier in the poem ‘shivered in his ghastly suit of grey’. The ‘g’ sound in the words ‘ghastly’ and ‘grey’ emphasises the horror of ‘ghastly’ combined with the dreariness of ‘grey’, which are now the two main features of his life. The word ‘ghastly’ shows something that is strange and unnatural. The adjective ‘grey’, which has connotations of bleakness, portrays an image of darkness and monotony. Furthermore, the verb ‘shivered’ shows that he is vulnerable and exposed. In the phrase, ‘Legless, sewn short at elbow’, the sibilance at the end of ‘Legless’, and in ‘sewn short’ tell us that the short-syllable words are ruthlessly to the point, so it emphasises the fact that the soldier has no arms and legs because of his wounds.

The poem “Disabled” by Wilfred Owen is about a young soldier who has lost his legs during the First World War. Owen wrote the poem whilst he was being treated for shell shock at the Craiglockhart War Hospital. It is very likely that he would have seen lots of soldiers pass through his ward with severe injuries such as missing limbs.

The theme of loss is portrayed similarly in the two poems ‘Disabled’ and ‘Out, out-’. Both of these poems are about the protagonist dealing with physical loss as they both experience an accident. Both Wilfred Owen and Robert Frost manage to mesmerize their audience’s attention, and also sympathize for the protagonists’ misfortune. They do this by the use of many literary techniques which are obvious at times, but some are very subtle, such as similes, metaphors, personification, and contrasts.

Wilfred Owen’s poetry is shaped by an intense focus on extraordinary human experiences. In at least 2 poems set for study, explore Owen’s portrayal of suffering and pity.

“He was drafted in drums and cheers...some cheered him home, but not as the crowd cheers goals. Only a solemn mad thanked him” Owen shows the irony of the poem by showcases the perspectives of the people. Owen compares the casting of war to a football game. Usually when going off to war or starting a game the soldier is drafted out in cheers by thousands of people and you would expect the same level of cheers to return to or finish with. However in this case only one person thanked him for the hard work which he produced at war. The quote then showcases the irony of the poem. The readers then begin to realize how insensitive people are to completion of war. The insensitivity of people then causes the readers to feel enormous pity and compassion towards the subject on showing bestowed respect and honour towards

Wilfred Owen can be considered as one of the finest war poets of all times. His war poems, a collection of works composed between January 1917, when he was first sent to the Western Front, and November 1918, when he was killed in action, use a variety of poetic techniques to allow the reader to empathise with his world, situation, emotions and thoughts. The sonnet form, para-rhymes, ironic titles, voice, and various imagery used by Owen grasp the prominent central idea of the complete futility of war as well as explore underlying themes such as the massive waste of young lives, the horrors of war, the hopelessness of war and the loss of religion. These can be seen in the three poems, ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ and

Wilfred Owen’s poetry effectively conveys his perspectives on human conflict through his experiences during The Great War. Poems such as ‘Futility’ and ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ portray these perceptions through the use of poetic techniques, emphasising such conflicts involving himself, other people and nature. These themes are examined in extreme detail, attempting to shape meaning in relation to Owen’s first-hand encounters whilst fighting on the battlefield.

Owen successfully evokes the ideas of truth in the poem “Dulce et Decorum est” the line “You would not believe with such high zest, to children ardent for some desperate glory, the old lie” through the use of metaphors and personification Owen demonstrates that the reality of the individual’s experience in war meant that they ended up challenging their sense of duty, their blind patriotism and understood that the true meaning of war is futile. The unimaginable suffering they lived through further highlights this reality. Also in the poem “Anthem for doomed youth” Owen explores the truth of war in the quote “Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.” Owen uses the technique of symbolism to link the glimmers of goodbyes to a funeral. Many soldiers did not receive proper funeral rights and were just buried in mass graves. Owen also shows the truth of war through the mortality of war in his oxymoronic approach of the colossal loss of life. Essentially Owen explores the truth of war through the themes of psychological scars and the horrors of

Owen intends to shock us by presenting the reality he is feeling, this is why I had chosen this to be one of my poems Owen usesgraphic descriptions, speaking in a very direct and straightforward way, using words that convey ugliness and also shows the reality of war which clearly changes our thoughts of war in the end.

Owen, in his war poetry reveals the awful reality of war and its effect on the young men involved. Given that these men are suffering in treacherous conditions, Owen expresses empathy towards the wretched soldiers who are fighting in a battle which they have little hope of surviving. Owen discloses his sympathy towards these young men by revealing the harsh conditions they live in and exposing their suffering both physical and mental. He exposes the reality of the war in an attempt to reveal the lives shattered to the unknowing public who do not know the true war conditions.

Unlike the character in “The Soldier” having a huge amount of patriotic and bravery during World War I. Wilfred Owen, on the other hand is dealing with no sleep, blood, and seeing his soldier’s death right in front of him. “In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, he plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning” (lines 15-16). Wilfred is scared for his life he’s dealing with post traumatic stress disorder seeing one of his soldiers choking from their own body fluids from the mustard gas dropping all around them. In this poem Wilfred Owen is not only fighting for his country, but more for his life.

Poems using strong poetic technique and devices are able to create a wide range of emotions from the readers. Wilfred Owen’s poetry effectively uses these poetic techniques and devices to not only create unsettling images about war but to provide his opinion about war itself with the use of themes within his poem. The use of these themes explored Owen’s ideas on the futility of war and can be seen in the poems: Anthem for Doomed Youth, Futility and The Next War. The poems provide unsettling images and belief of war through the treatment of death, barbaric nature of war and the futility of war.

In both poems Owen shows us the physical effect of war, Wilfred starts the poems showcasing unendurable stress the men were going through. Appalling pictures are created and expressed through similes and metaphors. Owen’s lexical choices link to the semantic field of the archaic which conveys the atavistic effects of war. The men are compared to old beggars, hags, the once young men have been deprived of their youth and turned into old women, the loss of masculinity express the how exhausting and ruthless war was. The men were barely awake from lack of sleep, they “marched in sleep” their once smart uniforms resembling “sacks”. He also expresses how

Throughout Wilfred Owen’s collection of poems, he unmasks the harsh tragedy of war through the events he experienced. His poems indulge and grasp readers to feel the pain of his words and develop some idea on the tragedy during the war. Tragedy was a common feature during the war, as innocent boys and men had their lives taken away from them in a gunshot. The sad truth of the war that most of the people who experienced and lived during the tragic time, still bare the horrifying images that still live with them now. Owen’s poems give the reader insight to this pain, and help unmask the tragedy of war.