Transitions of Wilfred Owen's Work

1865 Words4 Pages

Choose a period of transitions of Owens work and analyse.

Wilfred Owen was born in 1893 Oswestry, Shropshire. He was educated at

Birkenhead Institute and Shrewsbury Technical College.

He was deeply attached to his mother (Susan Shaw) and she was probably

the most important person in his short life. She was the one who

introduced him to the arts as she herself was also educated in music

and painting .A great deal of his letters were addressed to her, and

the reverence to the love he felt for her is evident.

In 1911 he became lay assistant to the vicar of Dunsden near Reading

in order to establish whether he had a vocation for the Anglican

priesthood. However this left him disillusioned with both the clerical

life and evangelised type of Christianity. He was to leave here in

1913.

From the age of nineteen Owen wanted to be a poet and engrossed

himself in poetry, being especially impressed by Keats and Shelley. At

first he wrote poems in the romantic tradition but this style of

writing was evolving to a more factual method. It wasn’t until after

he experienced warfare, did he change his views about the nature of

literary art, and his new poems consisted mainly of war poems.

Owen felt pressured by the propaganda to become a soldier and

volunteered on 21st October 1915.

On a personal level this war was to have an effect upon Owen, unlike

many previous wars the British had fought (eg the Boar war several

years before). The romantic notions of honour and chivalry attached to

war were quickly dispelled. However, in 1915 Owen’s work displayed a

distinct style, but also the love and frivolity of youth.

“From my diary, July 1914”, one of Owens earlier poems shows an

example of the romantic style of writing he produced before seeing the

bloody effects of war. This poem can be seen as very cleverly written.

Owen carries throughout alliteration both vertically and horizontally.

It is obvious in this poem that Owen has not yet experienced war, his

writing is cheerful with hope and expectations, it is chirpy and this

mood is carried throughout the poem. “Lives Wakening with wonder...”

Perhaps he is writing about his own knowledge as he is a teenager and

at an experimental age. Another quote that can have the same type of

meaning is, “Boys Bursting the surface of the ebony pond” is this a

way of explaining the break through from boy to man.

We can also feel a sense of love in his tone as he speaks of

“...Laughing the love laugh with me” a feeling of joy and also

Open Document