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Y12 - Wilfred Owen - Insensibility
Y12 - Wilfred Owen - Insensibility
The main British offensive in 1917 was at Ypres against the Passchendaele Ridge. Unusually heavy rain fell. Stretcher bearers, like these Canadians on 14
November, struggled to bring back the wounded.
British troops at Serre, France, 1917
British soldiers (from the Royal Warwickshire Regiment) and German soldiers (from the 134th Saxon Regiment) together. Photograph taken December 26,
1914 by Second Lieutenant Cyril Drummond
1.
unconsciousness.
2.
lack of awareness or concern;
indifference
Task
• In groups of 1 – 2, you will be given a stanza to analyse.
Consider:
• Summary
• Theme
• Mood
• Poetic Devices and their Effect (on audience and on the text)
irony.
I: Analysis
LACK OF COMPASSION
In the first stanza Owen begins by saying that soldiers are happier
when they can desensitize themselves to the war. Compassion is useless,
and they certainly should not be looked at as rife with poetry or
sentiment. The soldiers are barely men, in fact – just "gaps for filling"
and the numbers that make up the losses. No one really cares about
them. This belief, beautifully articulated by Owen, that the young
soldiers are replaceable and less than human is present in the work of
all of the great WWI poets. Of course, Owen's poetry seeks to refute
those truths and to give dignity and worth to the young men so brutally
ignored; he does "bother" with them
II
Half-Rhyme
The dulling of their senses, Even themselves or for themselves.
has minimised their worry They no longer have feeling,
for possible death. Process i.e. the continued notion of
of dealing with the constant losing compassion.
possibility of death.
Dullness best solves Therefore, they have
transitioned from human
beings to killing machines.
In the fourth stanza the soldier who returns home is happy because
he does not have to know more about the battles, and the soldier who
never learned the value of emotion or feeling in the first place is happy
as well. Suddenly, in the middle of this stanza, Owen switches to first
person, using "we" to depict him and his fellow soldiers marching along
solemnly and interminably. He speaks not of universal truth, but his
own specifically as well. The days and nights meld into one long
darkness and soldiers have little to alleviate their boredom and despair.
V
We wise, who with a thought besmirch
Blood over all our soul,
How should we see our task
But through his blunt and lashless eyes?
Alive, he is not vital overmuch;
Dying, not mortal overmuch;
Nor sad, nor proud,
Nor curious at all.
He cannot tell
Old men’s placidity from his.
“Wise” are those who see
V Their Soul: Which only
war for what it really is. shows in their work – has
Reference to other poets, the blood of all the dead
who write about their soldiers over it. They speak
experiences. for those who had no voices.
We wise, who with a thought besmirch Relaying the war experience
to everyone and consider
themselves responsible for
His life is not considered Blood over all our soul, this.
important when he is alive;
and in death , he is not
Soldier referenced is not
remembered for his sacrifice How should we see our task named: highlights a shared
and is replaceable with
war experience.
another soldier. Links to the
gaps mentioned earlier But through his blunt and lashless eyes? Rhetorical Question: shows
he is seeing war through the
eyes of the dead soldier.
Not sad, because he has lost
feeling.
Alive, he is not vital overmuch; Being empathetic.
Not proud, as he assumed
he would be when he
enlisted.
Dying, not mortal overmuch;