‘Disabled’by Wilfred Owen

Tone:

Despondent

Nostalgic

SardonicBitter

Angry

Structure 1:

There is rhyme but it is uneven:

Dark / park; grey / day; hymn / him Trees / knees / disease; dim / slim;

There is also internal rhyme:

Play / day

Why is this important?This halting and broken rhyming scheme reflects the emotional state of the soldier who is desolate and damaged by his war experiences.

Structure 2:

The poem switches between the soldier’s present and past, mirroring his memories of happy times juxtaposed with the reality of what he has sacrificed.

The final stanza focuses on his future and ends with an exclamation that reflects his utter helplessness.

He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey,Legless, sewn short at elbow.

Soldier is never named; forgotten and overlooked; symbolises many

Stanza 1

Alliteration: emphasises dreary clothes; reflects his morbid and depressed emotion state; formal; burial attire

Sibilance: emphasises his disability and creates despondent tone

Adjectives: emphasises sadness, loneliness, isolation of soldier; strongly contrasted with warmth of 2nd stanza

Implications of waiting for death

Through the parkVoices of boys rang saddening like a hymn,Voices of play and pleasures after day,

Repetition: emphasises the contrast of his solitude with the cheerful sounds of boys playing; reminder of joy he has lost

Alliteration: reinforces sounds of joy as an antithesis to soldier state

Simile: joyous sounds transform into connotations of mournful church songs; like an appeal to God to stop boys dying in war

Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him.

Metaphor: contrasts the emotional comfort the boys will get at home with the lack of any comfort the soldier receives; reminds us that sleep is his only respite

About this time Town used to swing so gayWhen glow-lamps budded in the light-blue trees,And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim —

Alliteration: links celebratory atmosphere with flirtations; contrasts sharply with next part of stanza

Visual imagery: emphasises joy and festivity of past life

Alliteration: emphasises girls’ beauty; alluring and inviting

Stanza 2

Personification: emphasises its importance / significance in the soldier’s past life

In the old times, before he threw away his knees.

Metaphor: implies a needless sacrifice; reinforced by not being able to remember why he enlisted, hinting only at distant sense of duty and euphoria after a football match.

Now he will never feel again how slimGirls’ waists are, or how warm their subtle hands;

Physical and psychological loss: limbs and love

All of them touch him like some queer disease.

Simile: provides sharp contrast of girls’ changed attitudes; he is an abnormality in their normal lives; they don’t want to be reminded of tragedy of war

There was an artist silly for his face,For it was younger than his youth, last year.

Sibilance: stresses he was handsome and admired; picture reflected his innocence, youth and boyhood charm

Metaphor: accentuates how the man has altered and no longer feels his true age; implies his face is now withered with experience and sorrow, worn by the ravages of war

Stanza 3

Now, he is old; his back will never brace;

Alliteration / Contrast: his previous immaturity for admiration, with excessive and tragic maturity

He’s lost his colour very far from here,Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry,

Metaphor: shows he has lost his youth and vitality

Metaphor / Hyperbole: emphasises massive loss of blood / lives

Deliberate, intense understatement heightens soldiers stoic bravery; no words could describe the hell he was in; life has been leached out of him

Deliberate imprecision highlights unimportance of where the war was; therefore of general needless loss of lives in war

Emphasises the violence of battle

And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race,And leap of purple spurted from his thigh.

Metaphor / Hyperbole: emphasises waste

Strong verb creates imagery of wound

Metaphor / Assonance: stresses horror of injury

Purple denotes life and vitality

One time he liked a blood-smear down his leg,After the matches, carried shoulder-high.

Contrasts blood of wartime injury with sporting injury

Irony: this injury signals celebration, implies fiercely contested achievement, not helplessness

Ironic: also carried from battlefield when injured

Stanza 4

It was after football, when he'd drunk a peg,He thought he’d better join. — He wonders why.

Punctuation: short phrases to demonstrate his thought process (caesura) and actions before he enlisted; trying to make sense of his choices

Signed up because he was drunk on alcohol, pride and success of football match

Someone had said he’d look a god in kilts,That’s why; and maybe, too, to please his Meg;Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jilts

Indicates he was a member of a Scottish regiment; implies that he joined up for reasons of vanity

Giggly, young girls

Reinforces immaturity and trivial reasons for enlisting – to impress a girl; thought he’d looked mature / manly

Emphasises his bitterness towards women who now ignore him

Society admired the bravery of soldiers but without understanding the realities

He asked to join. He didn't have to beg;

Short sentence reminds himself that no-one forced him to enlist; he sought glory and recognition

Poet reminds us that no one try to dissuade him either

Smiling they wrote his lie; aged nineteen years.

Verb suggests merciless enlisting of young men; his youth was obvious; immoral tactics used by army recruiters

Stanza 5

Germans he scarcely thought of; all their guilt,And Austria’s, did not move him. And no fearsOf Fear came yet.

Personification: emphasises how intense his terror would become; too naïve to be afraid

He knew nothing of the war, the reasons for war or the enemy; reinforces his immaturity / naivety / innocence; only thought of honour and glory

He thought of jewelled hiltsFor daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes;And care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears;Esprit de corps; and hints for young recruits.

He joined for frivolous reasons; further hints he joined a Scottish regiment Alliteration: emphasises a

positive aspects of army life

Punctuation: stresses the reasons to enlist; echoing the propaganda of the recruiters / army

Ornamental daggers

Literally: Spirit of body; Refers to pride, devotion and honour of the army

And soon he was drafted out with drums and cheers.

Rhyme: ‘arrears’ and ‘cheers’ further emphasises positive aspects of army life

Alliteration: heightens sense of ceremonial departure; noisy, joyous parade

Reminiscent of the football matches he won

Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal.

Irony: for doing more than scoring a goal, he is greeted home with much less celebration; sense that the public has betrayed the men who fought for them

Referring back to football imagery – soldier wistful for life before enlisting

People pitied him; returned destroyed, no longer attractive / admired in the same way; no-one wanted to see the negative side to war

Poet’s comment on how society treats war heroes; reprimanding

Stanza 6

Only a solemn man who brought him fruitsThanked him; and then inquired about his soul.

Probably a religious man

Duty visit, impersonal; token appreciation and then another ‘sales pitch’

Now, he will spend a few sick years in Institutes,And do what things the rules consider wise,And take whatever pity they may dole.

The once fine young athlete has been reduced to a state of dependency and helplessness; he is completely reliant on the mercy of others

Bleak future ahead

Personification: emphasising he will have to obey rules for the rest of his life; mirroring army life

Stanza 7

Tonight he noticed how the women’s eyesPassed from him to the strong men that were whole.

Reminds reader of how important the loss of his attractiveness to the women is to him; reinforces the notion that he will remain alone and isolated

He is incomplete, less than a man – physically and mentally

Was active now he is passive, passed over by the women; he thinks they are horrified or embarrassed by his injuries

How cold and late it is! Why don't they comeAnd put him into bed? Why don't they come?

Exclamation: emphasises strong feeling of discomfort and frustration

Repetition: stresses his helplessness and frustration by re-establishing how dependent; he must wait for the orderlies or nurses; cyclical ending – waiting: or poet warning other / calling for end of war / reinforcements?

Rhetorical Questions: demonstrate helplessness and loneliness; emphasises how much he wishes to get away for park and memories

Essay is due by email on 22 August – coylef@thebsbh.com; milness@thebsbh.com; gauntletr@thebsbh.com; wharriem@thebsbh.com

Word Limit: between 800 and 1000 words

Format: A4; TNR14; Margins: 3 cm; Line Spacing: 1.5

Header (top left): Surname, Name; British School of Bahrain; Centre No: 90306, Candidate No:

Bloggs, JoeBritish School of BahrainCentre No: 90306Candidate No: 5555