Poetry Owen, Wilfred: Poems. V1. 6 Nov 2010

[seagull]

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was a British poet and soldier, one of the leading poets of the First World War. His shocking, realistic war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was heavily influenced by his friend Siegfried Sassoon and sat in stark contrast to both the public perception of war at the time, and to the confidently patriotic verse written earlier by war poets such as Rupert Brooke. Some of his best-known works—most of which were published posthumously—include "Dulce et Decorum Est", "Insensibility", "Anthem for Doomed Youth", "Futility" and "Strange Meeting". His preface intended for a book of poems to be published in 1919 contains numerous well-known phrases, especially "War, and the pity of War", and "the Poetry is in the pity".

He was killed in action at the Battle of the Sambre a week before the war ended. Ironically, the telegram from the War Office announcing his death was delivered to his mother's home as her town's church bells were ringing in celebration of the Armistice when the war ended.

It's Remembrance Day this week and I urge everyone to read this. It depicts the war so vividly that you'll find it hard to hold back the tears. Please post here if you see any formatting errors, mistakes or would just like me to tweak a bit!

With thanks to:
Harry T - For creating the foundation of this upload, which you can find here
The First World War Poetry Digital Archive - For providing the text necessary for the corrections to the above

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[doreenjoy]

Many thanks for posting this. It's some of my favorite poetry.

[issybird]

Oh, thank you! How I love WWI poetry.

[dave.m]

Thanks for the posting. I am trying to get more into poetry.