Strange Meeting, by Wilfred Owen

934 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How does Wilfred Owen’s poetry invite us into a different world and broaden our perspective on war

The description of war has been given the imagery of hell. The poem “Strange Meeting” by Wilfred Owen was written during the time of war. Wilfred Owen was a British poet that wrote and based his writings on events in World War I. Wilfred Owen was a British Poet that wrote and based on events in World War I. “Strange Meeting” was written in 1918 and then later published after his passing. Majority of his poems was written in a little over a year, from 1917 to 1918, while only five of his poems were published. Wilfred Owen died in action at the age of twenty-five, he died one week before the Armistice, which ended the First World War. Through pararhyme couplet, onomatopoeic words and imagery, Owen describes the similarities of war and hell in order to signify war’s psychological effects on a soldier coming home.
The narrator is a soldier who seemingly has escaped battle, now follows a path into a long, old tunnel by which had granite walls or formations. The soldier is walking and hears groaning of either sleeping soldiers, deep in thought or dead. Owens use many poetic devices such as in line three and four in which he uses pararhyme for groined and groaned. This use of pararhyme has a distinct similarity of consonants by which the second rhyme is lower toned like groaned. Owens uses another pararhyme with hall and hell and with the use of a second tone, which is in a lower pitch than the first. In lines nine and ten, “And by his smile, I knew that sullen hall-/By his dead smile I knew we stood in hell.”(9-10).
By the smile of the dead soldier, the speaker knows he is in hell and that he had died on the battlefield, which was described in line one when the speaker says it “seemed” that out of the battle I escaped. Pararhyme coupl...

... middle of paper ...

...g was, I re-read it and understood where Owen was reaching to the audience. I enjoyed reading the poem because of a personal connection to it, having had family die in war before.

Bibliography
Owen, Wilfred. “Strange Meeting.” Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
"Strange Meeting (poem)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 02 July 2014. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
"Analysis of Wilfred Owen's "Strange Meeting"" Yahoo Contributor Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
"Easy Literature Notes." : Analysis of Wilfred Owen's "Strange Meeting" N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
"Wilfred Owen: Poems Summary and Analysis." Wilfred Owen: Poems Study Guide : Summary and Analysis of "Strange Meeting" N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
Mays, Kelly J. "Section 16." The Norton Introduction to Literature. 11th ed. New York: W W Norton &, 2014. 841-42. Print.

Show More
Related

  • Comparing Owen's Dulce et Decorum Est and Crane's Do Not Weep, Maiden, For War Is Kind

    2015 Words  | 5 Pages

    Owen, Wilfred. “Dulce Et Decorum Est.” World War I British Poets. Ed. Candace Ward. Dover Publications, Inc; New York, 1997.

    Read More

  • Comparing Irony of War in Dulce et Decorum, Regeneration, and Quiet on the Western Front

    1172 Words  | 3 Pages

    Owen, Wilfred. "Dulce et Decorum Est." The Faber Book of War Poetry. Ed. Kenneth Baker. London: Faber, 1997. 3-4.

    Read More

  • Wilfred Owen's Ability to Draw in the Audience in His Poems, Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori and Anthem for Doomed Youth

    796 Words  | 2 Pages

    To draw into the poet’s world, the poet must draw relations between them, including the reader, making them feel what the poet feels, thinking what the poet thinks. Wilfred Owen does this very creatively and very effectively, in both of his poems, Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori and Anthem of Doomed Youth, who is seen as an idol to many people today, as a great war poet, who expresses his ideas that makes the reader feel involved in the moment, feeling everything that he does. His poems describe the horror of war, and the consequences of it, which is not beneficial for either side. He feels sorrow and anger towards the war and its victims, making the reader also feel the same.

    Read More

  • Comparing two war poems written by Wilfred Owen: Dulce et decorum Est

    1352 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... middle of paper ... ...is used to stress the moral horror of the war when Owen compares the victim’s face to ‘a devil sick of sin’. and when he compares the poisoned blood to the physical diseases of cancer and ‘vile incurable sores’. All these similes bring out the awfulness of dying in a gas attack, making a strong message to. contradict the vague, Latin phrase about how sweet it is to die for.

    Read More

  • Comparison of "Anthem for a Doomed Youth" and "Dulce and Decorum Est"

    484 Words  | 1 Pages

    powerful way through this poem. For example, Owen writes, "If you could hear, at every

    Read More

  • How Did Wilfred Owen Impact Society

    567 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is evident that the socio-cultural context in which Wilfred Owen operated had a powerful impact upon his poetic motivation and the messages he conveyed through his work. Before exploring Wilfred Owen’s work we first must understand the society that Wilfred Owen lived in, to be able to really understand appreciate his poems and their impact on society. At the time in which he operated, Britain’s public opinion on warfare and conflicts were astonishingly positive, especially in the early stages of WW1. These false perception on war led the vast majority of male citizens to perceive war recruitment as an opportunity to set off on ‘terrific adventures’ and earn immense amounts of honour for their families and nation. Government propaganda meant that soldiers believed that they were gathering fame and fortune in the name of Great Britain. This cruel and false perception of warfare which in turn led to a steady rate of volunteers for the war and included Wilfred Owen himself. The men who did not go and fight for their nations were perceived by society as cowards as

    Read More

  • Wilfred Owen Conflict Analysis

    1305 Words  | 3 Pages

    In ‘Anthem of Doomed Youth’ Owen shows another version of the suffering- the mourning of the dead soldiers. When Owen asks “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?”, his rhetorical question compares the soldiers to cattle as they die and suffer undignified. Owen uses this extended metaphor to confront us with the truth, that there are too many fatalities in war. As such, the soldier’s deaths are compared to livestock, to emphasise their poor treatment and question our perspective about soldiers dying with honour. With an overwhelming death toll of over 9 million during WWI, Owen depicts how the soldier’s die with the repetition of “Only the...” to emphasise the sounds of war that kills soldiers in the alliteration ‘rifles’ rapid rattle.’ Owen also illustrates the conditions that the soldiers died in and how they were not given a proper funeral in the cumulation ‘no prayers nor bells,/ nor any voice of mourning.’ Owen painfully reminds us that we have become complacent with the deaths of soldiers, seeing them as a necessary sacrifice during human conflict. Thus, Owen shows us what we have overlooked about war, that is, that it brings endless death and long-lasting grief to the surviving soldiers and the people around

    Read More

  • The Harsh Reality of War in Wilfred Owen’s Poem Dulce et Decorum Est

    1056 Words  | 3 Pages

    Owen’s poem uses symbolism to bring home the harsh reality of war the speaker has experienced and forces the reader to think about the reality presented in romanticized poetry that treats war gently. He utilizes language that imparts the speakers experiences, as well as what he, his companions, and the dying man feels. People really die and suffer and live through nightmares during a war; Owen forcefully demonstrates this in “Dulce et Decorum Est”. He examines the horrific quality of World War I and transports the reader into the intense imagery of the emotion and experience of the speaker.

    Read More

  • Effective Dramatic Imagery in Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est”

    719 Words  | 2 Pages

    The poem is divided into three sections with each part dealing with a different stage of the experience. In the first stanza, Owen describes the state the soldiers are in. The first line states that the platoon is “Bent double, like old beggars” (1). This gives the reader a vision that they are exhausted and compares them to the look of beggars on the street, who often times, look very ragged and shabby. The line “coughing like o...

    Read More

  • Comparision of "The Soldier" and "Dulce et Decorum Est"

    1577 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ultimately, we have two poems which can be compared on the grounds of their subject, but are poles apart regarding their message. The structure of these poems is not what would be typically expected from a war poem, but are structured on the basis of these typical structures in order to create some sense of familiarity. Brooke’s poem expands on this familiarity while Owen attempts to deliberately sabotage it. In regards to content, Brooke shows throughout his perception of the nobility of dying for one’s country, whilst Owen uses all of his poetic techniques to show the opposite.

    Read More

  • WIlfred Owen, and His Ability to Express the Reality of War through Poetry

    2027 Words  | 5 Pages

    Considered the leading English poet of the First World War, Owen is remembered for realistic poems depicting the horrors of war, which were inspired by his experiences at the Western Front in 1916 and 1917. Owen considered the true subject of his poems to be "the pity of war," and attempted to present the true horror and realities of battle and its effects on the human spirit. His unique voice, which is less passionate and idealistic than those of other war poets, is complemented by his unusual and experimental style of writing. He is recognized as the first English poet to successfully use pararhyme, in which the rhyme is made through altered vowel sounds. Owen’s distinct way of both writing and reading poems led to influence other poets in the 1920s and 1930s.

    Read More

  • Wilfred Owen Horror Of War Analysis

    637 Words  | 2 Pages

    Owens work can be defined by his use of language to transport the reader to the frontline of the war. His works evoke great emotion in the reader to empathize with feelings and circumstances of the soldiers he wrote about at the time. In his poem, Disabled, Owen shows the life of a soldier after the impacts of war as many soldiers were left without limbs. In the eyes of society, they were no longer fully human. He depicts how they were treated as outcasts, ostracized and left to die a lonely death:

    Read More

  • How Wilfred Owen Uses Language and Imagery in His Poetry to Communicate his Attitudes of War

    622 Words  | 2 Pages

    How Wilfred Owen Uses Language and Imagery in His Poetry to Communicate his Attitudes of War

    Read More

  • An Analysis of Wilfred Owen’s Strange Meeting

    1792 Words  | 4 Pages

    An Analysis of Wilfred Owen’s Strange Meeting. Analysis of a working manuscript for Wilfred Owen's "Strange Meeting" provides the student with insight into the creative process. Owen's original wording coupled with his subsequent revisions illuminate how he may have intended the poem to be understood by the reader. Owen's revisions show a determination to accomplish three apparent objectives. First, Owen paid close attention to the connotative meanings inherent in his diction.

    Read More

  • A Feminist Perspective of The Lady of Shalott

    2170 Words  | 5 Pages

    113- The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. of the book. Vol.

    Read More

More about Strange Meeting, by Wilfred Owen

Open Document