ipl-logo

What Is Wilfred Owen's Role In World War One Poetry

1655 Words7 Pages

In the trenches of World War One poetry many great and still appreciatively read poets were produced. Their powerful poems form the memory and shape the way in which the World War One is commemorated. “Soldiers with a literary bent turned to poetry to describe their experiences, capture their sensations, express their states of mind, protest their situations and lament the loss of friends, comrades and their idealism. “ Some of the most prominent poets of not only 20th century but also English poetry in general were, among others, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. With their bitterly sceptical and antiheroic work, they caused a shift in the societies perfection of progress and pointed out the social downfall that took place during the war. …show more content…

He attended Clare College, Cambridge, where he studied history, but left after a year without a degree. Motivated by patriotism, on July 4th 1914, the day England declared war; Sassoon joined the British Army. He received a Military Cross for his bravery and nicknamed “Mad Jack”. When recovering from shoulder wound in 1917, he wrote a renowned protest about war. "I believe that the war upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation has now become a war of aggression and conquest." There, he met and befriended Wilfred Owen, on whom he had a great impact. After the deaths of his friends and the resolution of the war, he openly opposed the war. He died on 1 September 1967 at the age of …show more content…

it is about the war memorial in Brussels, which has the names 54, 889 soldiers of WWI engraved on it. He expresses his bitterness towards the war and feels the soldiers are not immortalized, the way they should have been. All these men died in vain, all they got for defending their country is their name on a stone. Sassoon questions the need for the memorial since those who would might find it consoling are all dead. Their deaths are result of poor military governing. Only purpose of the memorial is the false idea that the dead died proudly for their country and that the living will have a place to go to commemorate their

Open Document