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Disabled (pages 43–46 in the student book)

• Wilfred Owen was a poet who lived from 1893 to 1918 and died just seven days before the end of World War I.

• He fought in the British Army throughout the war but spent some time during the war in a hospital called Craiglockhart.

• At Craiglockhart, he met other soldiers who also expressed themselves through poetry – most notably Siegfried Sassoon.

Meaning: What is the text about?

Read the poem through and jot down what you think it is about. What is the ‘story’ or narrative of the poem and what do you think Owen was trying to communicate to us?

Nameless – he may be seen as representative of all soldiers.

Does this refer to the suit or the man?

‘Colour’ is a euphemism for blood – he can’t refer to it directly.

‘Race’ implies some kind of fun or competition.

This is ironic if you consider his current state.

Semi-colon represents his pause for thought.

This is almost a direct address to the reader.

Disabled

He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey,Legless, sewn short at elbow. Through the parkVoices 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 gayWhen 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 slimGirls’ 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;He’s lost his colour very far from here,Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry,And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot raceAnd leap of purple spurted from his thigh.

One time he liked a blood-smear down his leg,After the matches, carried shoulder-high.It was after football, when he’d drunk a peg,He thought he’d better join. – He wonders why.Someone had said he’d look a god in kilts.That’s why; and maybe, too, to please his Meg,Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jiltsHe asked to join. He didn’t have to beg;

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Use of enjambment means that the true meaning isn’t revealed until the second line – it is fear that the soldiers are scared of.

List of short phrases separated by semi-colons represents his excitement.

At the end of the poem he is left completely isolated and alone.

Some activities to help you revise the text

1. The annotated version of the poem shows you some of the comments you may want to make about language, structure and meaning. See if you can add your own by answering the following questions about the text:

• Comment on the imagery in the poem and how this imagery is created.

• Explain the use of the following devices in the poem, giving examples: Repetition, personifi cation, alliteration, metaphor.

• Look at the structure of the poem. Why do you think there is a stanza that is shorter than the others?

• Look at the punctuation used by the poet. What do the dashes in lines 9 and 24 represent? What do the italics in line 39 mean?

2. Much of the meaning of the poem is revealed through the contrast between how the soldier saw himself before he lost his limbs and how he sees himself after. Select two phrases, one that represents the soldier’s frame of mind before and one that represents his frame of mind after.

3. What do you think is the impact of the fi nal two lines of the poem?

4. Which stanza is the most important and why?

5. Why do you think Owen chose not to give his soldier a name?

Smiling they wrote his lie: aged nineteen years.Germans he scarcely thought of; all their guilt,And Austria’s, did not move him. And no fearsOf Fear came yet. He thought of jewelled hiltsFor daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes;And care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears;Esprit de corps; and hints for young recruits.And soon, he was drafted out with drums and cheers.

Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal.Only a solemn man who brought him fruitsThanked him; and then inquired about his soul.

Now, he will spend a few sick years in institutes,And do what things the rules consider wise,And take whatever pity they may dole.Tonight he noticed how the women’s eyesPassed from him to the strong men that were whole.How cold and late it is! Why don’t they comeAnd put him into bed? Why don’t they come?

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Red Cross workers in a trench tending to a wounded soldier, 1918.

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