Disabled - Wilfred Owen > Reviews (1)

I learnt about this poem at school. This only part of my essay that I’m currently doing, and out of all the poems I’m studying about, this is one I really liked. When I first read it, the words didn’t make any sense to me, but I had explained to me and now I realise it has a lot of meaning to it.

This poem was written by a man called a man Wilfred Owen. He was born in 1893 and died just seven days before WW1 ended, in 1918. He was a soldier in WW1, but his experience only lasted four months, from this he only there for 5 weeks on the line, before he was injured. Owen was into poetry before the war, but he based most of his poetry on his experience from the war. He based it on people in the war, people he knew. He wrote over 33 poems.

Disabled is just one of his great poems. It was written in 1917 (when he was aged 24) and he wrote it when he visited a hospital during WW1. The poem is dedicated to another war poet called Jessie Pope.

Disabled is a poem about a soldier in a hospital who has no legs and possibly got one/two arms. So Wilfred Owen would have been in one of these hospitals in Britain. The title itself is negative, so this may mean that the poem is negative. The first verse is about a soldier who is a victim of war. He has no legs and arms “sewn short at elbow.” Owen shows that the soldier is a victim because he says he waits for dark. This means that the soldier waits for night, so he can sleep and forget about his disability. Then there’s an image of young boys playing in the park. The boys are echoes of his youth because he’s jealous as he can’t do anything no more. He can’t walk or play anymore. Then it says “Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him.” This means that sleep takes possession. Sleep protects the young boys, as they can sleep, but he can’t.

In stanza two we go into the past, before the war, before he lost his legs. Owen writes about the things the soldier did in the past. In this case it’s about when the soldier used to go out into town. Basically in other words, go on the pull. He writes how girls used to look pretty. But now he will never feel “how slim girls’ waists are, or how their subtle hands.” He thinks he will never touch girls again. “All of them touch him like some queer disease.”

The third verse is about how he regrets going to war. But he chose to go war, and now he regrets it. He was a face of youth but now he’s disabled, he will never stand and he has lost all colour from his face. He has left his life behind him.

Stanza 4 is another story from his past. Here we hear that this soldier was a football hero. There is a contrast here. Owen writes that blood used to be good, if you had a cut in your leg. It means that you basically looked “hard”. Also the soldier joined the army to impress girls. He lies about his age, to join the army. He’s not fighting for war, but to impress girls. “And no fears Of Fear came yet.” He wasn’t scared of war. He liked the idea of salutes and was impressed by what things looked like.

He wasn’t thinking about the reality of war, just thinking about the girls.

In verse 5, we hear that he now regrets going to war. Owen says that only some people cheered, but not how they cheer ‘Goal!’ when he scores. No one really thanked him for fighting. Only a “solemn man who brought him fruits.” The solemn man says thanks and asks about his mind. But even his thanks has doubts.

Verse 6 is about the effects of war and how he will have to live his life. His life is now ruled by other people and he will take the pity they give. But tonight the women don’t look at him. Their eyes go straight to the men who aren’t disabled. And then he questions, why don’t they come and finished his life?

The poem is based on real things. It’s about a specific soldier, but it could be any soldier. It has no names. This poem is quite sad. But when you think that he only went to war to impress girls and now he’s disabled, it makes you think, did he deserve to become disabled?

I think this poem has different messages to it. It shows that people go to war for different reasons and it can affect their lives in different ways. I think the overall message is that you shouldn’t lie about yourself to impress someone else. Otherwise it can backfire and affect you and others around you.

And my message: be who you are

Thanks for reading. (im sorry that its boring)