Strange Meeting
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Strange Meeting By Wilfred Owen B.A Part III Nabiul Islam R M College, Saharsa Department of English About the Poet: Wilfred Edward Salter Owen, (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was heavily influenced by his 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 were published posthumously – are "Dulce et Decorum est", "Insensibility", "Anthem for Doomed Youth", "Futility", "Spring Offensive" and "Strange Meeting". Introduction: Wilfred Owen does not have a particularly large body of verse, but many of his poems are considered among the best war poetry ever written in the English language. He is often compared to Keats and Shelley, and was influenced by Tennyson and Byron. He began writing at a young age, showing interest in conventional subjects, but demonstrating a keen sense for sound and rhythm. In 1915 Owen enlisted in the British Army Reserves during WWI. His own experiences would largely influence and inform his verse. He wrote of endless marches, the terror of the howling shells, the mire of the trenches, and the surprise attacks of poison gas. His constant letters to his mother detailed the horrors that he witnessed, but his poetry captures the spirit of the war in its irrationality and brutality. Most of his greatest work was written during the summer of 1917 when he was admitting at Hospital. In the last few years of the war Owen was exposed to the work of his fellow war poets as well as the great poems of Yeats and Houseman. The poems from his fertile period include, notably, "Anthem for Doomed Youth", "Dulce et Decorum est", "Strange Meeting", "Disabled", and "Futility". The poems' major themes include the surreal, irrational nature of war; the respect and love for fellow soldiers; the poet's role in writing about atrocities; the problematic relationship between church and state; the repression of emotion vs. being alive to the carnage and the confusion of battles and death; and the immorality of the war. Owen rarely wrote specifically about his own experiences, preferring to impart a more universal message. Owen was particularly talented at using structure, meter, and rhyme to evoke a mood or an atmosphere. Killed in battle, most of Owen's poems were not published in his lifetime. Sassoon brought out an edition of Owen's work in 1920, two years after the poet's death. Strange Meeting BY WILFRED OWEN It seemed that out of battle I escaped Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped Through granites which titanic wars had groined. Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned, Too fast in thought or death to be bestirred. Then, as I probed them, one sprang up, and stared With piteous recognition in fixed eyes, Lifting distressful hands, as if to bless. And by his smile, I knew that sullen hall,— By his dead smile I knew we stood in Hell. With a thousand fears that vision's face was grained; Yet no blood reached there from the upper ground, And no guns thumped, or down the flues made moan. ―Strange friend,‖ I said, ―here is no cause to mourn.‖ ―None,‖ said that other, ―save the undone years, The hopelessness. Whatever hope is yours, Was my life also; I went hunting wild After the wildest beauty in the world, Which lies not calm in eyes, or braided hair, But mocks the steady running of the hour, And if it grieves, grieves richlier than here. For by my glee might many men have laughed, And of my weeping something had been left, Which must die now. I mean the truth untold, The pity of war, the pity war distilled. Now men will go content with what we spoiled. Or, discontent, boil bloody, and be spilled. They will be swift with swiftness of the tigress. None will break ranks, though nations trek from progress. Courage was mine, and I had mystery; Wisdom was mine, and I had mastery: To miss the march of this retreating world Into vain citadels that are not walled. Then, when much blood had clogged their chariot-wheels, I would go up and wash them from sweet wells, Even with truths that lie too deep for taint. I would have poured my spirit without stint But not through wounds; not on the cess of war. Foreheads of men have bled where no wounds were. ―I am the enemy you killed, my friend. I knew you in this dark: for so you frowned Yesterday through me as you jabbed and killed. I parried; but my hands were loath and cold. Let us sleep now. Poems Character List: Speaker in "Strange Meeting" The speaker, a soldier, finds himself in hell during battle. There he meets another soldier who he learns is an enemy combatant that he killed. This soldier is also likely his doppelganger or another version of himself. Dead soldier in "Strange Meeting" A German soldier killed by the speaker and now residing in hell. He encourages the soldier to come sleep with him. Speaker in "Apologia pro poemate meo" The speaker makes the case that there is poetry and beauty in the soldiers and battlefield scenes he witnesses, and considers traditional poetry ineffective in dealing with the reality of war. Speaker in "Futility" This soldier wonders why the warm sun will not revive his dead comrade, and tries to reconcile Nature's life-giving force with the brutality of war and the multitude of dead young men. Boy in "Arms and the Boy" The boy, not yet a soldier, is being instructed by someone older and more experienced to touch and marvel at the weapons of war. He is naive and does not belong in the war. Woman in "The Kind Ghosts" This woman represents all women on the home front who do not want to be disturbed with the ghosts of the soldiers dying on the battlefield in order to sustain their peaceful ignorance. Abram in "Parable of the Old Man and the Young" Abram is the Old Testament figure who prepares to sacrifice his son Isaac to God. In this poem he still slays his son even when the angel appears and tells him he does not have to. Standing in as a symbol for the prideful rulers of Europe, Abram continues with slaying all of Europe's young men. Isaac in "Parable of the Old Man and the Young" Abram's son in Genesis, Isaac represents the young men of Europe sent off to die on the battlefield. Soldier in "Disabled" This soldier has lost his legs while fighting in the war and now sits, brooding on his condition. He knows he will never attract a woman and will have to be taken care of for the rest of his life. He feels old and useless, and remembers his glorious days when he played football and felt like he was on top of the world. He stands for all naive young men who think war will be simple and heroic, and they will come out unscathed. Soldiers in "Insensibility" These soldiers have dulled their senses, repressed all emotion, and desensitized themselves to the horrors of war in order to stay sane. Soldier in "Dulce et decorum est" This young soldier does not get his gas mask on in time and "drowns" in poison gas. Thrown on the back of a wagon, he coughs and gurgles as his fellow soldiers trudge next to him. Summary: The speaker escapes from battle and proceeds down a long tunnel through ancient granite formations. Along his way he hears the groan of sleepers, either dead or too full of thoughts to get up. As he looks at them one leap up; the soldier has recognized him and moves his hands as if to bless him. Because of the soldier's "dead smile" the speaker knows that he is in Hell. On the face of the "vision" the speaker sees a thousand fears, but the blood, guns, or moans of above did not reach into their subterranean retreat. The speaker tells the soldier that there is no reason to mourn, and he replies that there is – it is the "undone years" and "hopelessness". The soldier says his hope is the same as the speaker's; he also tells him he once went hunting for beauty in the world, but that beauty made a mockery of time. He knows the truth of what he did, which is "the pity of war, the pity war distilled", but now he can never share it. The soldier/vision continues, saying men will go on with what is left to them, or they will die as well. They will not break their ranks even though "nations trek from progress". He used to have courage and wisdom. He would wash the blood from the wheels of chariots. He wanted to pour his spirit out, but not in war. Finally, he says to the speaker that "I am the enemy you killed, my friend," and that he knew him in the dark. It was yesterday that the speaker "jabbed and killed" him, and now it is time to sleep. Analysis: "Strange Meeting" is one of Wilfred Owen's most famous, and most enigmatic, poems. It was published posthumously in 1919 in Edith Sitwell's anthology Wheels: an Anthology of Verse and a year later in Siegfried Sassoon's 1920 collection of Owen's poems.