Wilfred+Owen

He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark, And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey, Legless, sewn short at elbow. Through the park Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn, Voices of play and pleasure after day, Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him. About this time Town used to swing so gay When glow-lamps budded in the light blue trees, And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim, - In the old times, before he threw away his knees. Now he will never feel again how slim Girls' waists are, or how warm their subtle hands; All of them touch him like some queer disease. There was an artist silly for his face, For it was younger than his youth, last year. Now, he is old; his back will never brace; <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">He's lost his colour very far from here, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">And leap of purple spurted from his thigh. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">One time he liked a blood-smear down his leg, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">After the matches, carried shoulder-high. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">It was after football, when he'd drunk a peg, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">He thought he'd better join. - He wonders why. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">Someone had said he'd look a god in kilts, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">That's why; and may be, too, to please his Meg; <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jilts <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">He asked to join. He didn't have to beg; <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">Smiling they wrote his lie; aged nineteen years. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">Germans he scarcely thought of; all their guilt, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">And Austria's, did not move him. And no fears <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">Of Fear came yet. He thought of jewelled hilts <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">For daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes; <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">And care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears; <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">Esprit de corps; and hints for young recruits. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">And soon, he was drafted out with drums and cheers. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; text-indent: 3pt;">Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; text-indent: 3pt;">Only a solemn man who brought him fruits <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; text-indent: 3pt;">Thanked him; and then inquired about his soul. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">Now, he will spend a few sick years in institutes, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">And do what things the rules consider wise, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">And take whatever pity they may dole. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">To-night he noticed how the women's eyes <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">Passed from him to the strong men that were whole. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">How cold and late it is! Why don't they come <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">And put him into bed? Why don't they come?
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Garamond','serif';">Disabled (1917) **

**Dulce et Decorum Est (1917)** <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">And towards our distant rest began to trudge. <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind. <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling, <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime. . . <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">If in some smothering dreams you too could pace <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">Behind the wagon that we flung him in, <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud12 <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">My friend, you would not tell with such high zest <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">To children ardent for some desperate glory, <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 72pt;">Pro patria mori. *


 * ‘Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori’ – it is sweet and right to die for your country.

**<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif';">Anthem for Doomed Youth (1917) **

<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Only the monstrous anger of the guns. <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Can patter out their hasty orisons. <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">No mockeries for them; no prayers nor bells, <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, -- <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">What candles may be held to speed them all? <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall; <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Anthem for Doomed Youth - Literary Features

**<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif';">The Send-Off (1918) **

<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Down the close, darkening lanes they sang their way <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">To the siding-shed, <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">And lined the train with faces grimly gay.

<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Their breasts were stuck all white with wreath and spray <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">As men's are, dead.

<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Dull porters watched them, and a casual tramp <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Stood staring hard, <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Sorry to miss them from the upland camp. <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Then, unmoved, signals nodded, and a lamp <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Winked to the guard.

<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">So secretly, like wrongs hushed-up, they went. <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">They were not ours: <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">We never heard to which front these were sent.

<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Nor there if they yet mock what women meant <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Who gave them flowers.

<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Shall they return to beatings of great bells <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">In wild trainloads? <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">A few, a few, too few for drums and yells, <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">May creep back, silent, to still village wells <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Up half-known roads.

**<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif';">Futility **

<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Move him into the sun -- <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Gently its touch awoke him once, <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">At home, whispering of fields unsown. <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Always it woke him, even in France, <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Until this morning and this snow. <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">If anything might rouse him now <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">The kind old sun will know.

<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Think how it wakes the seeds -- <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Woke, once, the clays of a cold star. <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Are limbs so dear-achieved, are sides <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Full-nerved, -- still warm, -- too hard to stir? <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">Was it for this the clay grew tall? <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">-- O what made fatuous sunbeams toil <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;">To break earth's sleep at all?