1914
War broke: and now the Winter of the world
With perishing great darkness closes in.
The foul tornado, centred at Berlin,
Is over all the width of Europe whirled,
Rending the sails of progress. Rent or furled
Are all Art’s ensigns. Verse wails. Now begin
Famines of thought and feeling. Love’s wine’s thin.
The grain of human Autumn rots, down-hurled.
For after Spring had bloomed in early Greece,
And Summer blazed her glory out with Rome,
An Autumn softly fell, a harvest home,
A slow grand age, and rich with all increase.
But now, for us, wild Winter, and the need
Of sowings for new Spring, and blood for seed.
The first line of the poem “1914” by Wilfred Owen reveals the setting for the poem. You can tell that World War 1 is underway by the first line and the second part of the line could be a metaphor for how the author saw the world. In winter everything is cold and and dark and that is how he describes the time. The second line explains that as more people are dying, darkness is coming over the world. “The foul tornado” is a metaphor for the war with how big and destructive tornados could be where the war was centered. Then the next line is telling you how big the war is spreading all over Europe. To rend something is to break it so a ship with no sails isn’t moving and no progress is being made. To rent or furl is to tear or put something away so Owen is saying that art is going away during the war. In the next line a famine is mentioned which is a shortage so he’s saying people have lost their feelings during the war. “Love’s wine’s thin.” means there is isn’t a lot of love because if wine is thin it’s dry. “Human Autumn” could mean the soldiers and how they are starting to die and “down hurled” means the soldiers are dying violently. The second stanza starts out talking about seasons which could be a metaphor for how the war went on. And by using the words “bloomed” and “blazing” it helps you understand that they were happy times. “An Autumn softly fell,” shows it could still be a happy time but it’s starting to close into winter which symbolizes darkness. Also “slowly fell” means it seemed like it was a long time and there was a lot of increase. Then the next line states they are in the winter of the war and they need spring to come which is happier times but they need blood for it to come.
The Next War
War’s a joke for me and you,
Wile we know such dreams are true. – Siegfried Sassoon
Out there, we’ve walked quite friendly up to Death,-
Sat down and eaten with him, cool and bland,-
Pardoned his spilling mess-tins in our hand.
We’ve sniffed the green thick odour of his breath,-
Our eyes wept, but our courage didn’t writhe.
He’s spat at us with bullets and he’s coughed
Shrapnel. We chorussed when he sang aloft,
We whistled while he shaved us with his scythe.
Oh, Death was never enemy of ours!
We laughed at him, we leagued with him, old chum.
No soldier’s paid to kick against His powers.
We laughed, -knowing that better men would come,
And greater wars: when each proud fighter brags
He wars on Death, for lives; not men, for flags.
“The Next War” by Wilfred Owen starts out with a quote from another soldier describing the war from his point of view. In the first line in the stanza, Wilfred Owen tells you that in the war they have “walked quite friendly up to Death,” and “Sat down and eaten with him,”. This means they aren’t scared of dying during the war. The next line could be a metaphor for spilling blood, or killing, in the war. The fourth line could mean they’ve been very close to dying in the war because they could smell its breath. Then he says they cried but they didn’t lose their courage during the war. “He spat at us with bullets” is another metaphor for them being close to dying. Shrapnel is fragments of a bomb thrown out by an explosion. This means there had been a lot of explosions during the war and brought them close to death. Then the last line of the first stanza says, “We whistled while he shaved us with his scythe.” This is another way of telling the audience that they weren’t afraid of death. The first three lines show more of how they weren’t scared of death like the beginning of the first stanza. The fourth line means the soldiers weren’t scared of death because they knew more soldiers would come along with more wars. The last line is “He wars on Death, for lives; not men, for flags.” and this could mean that in the end they had to fight death to get to the ending point (the flag).
Happiness
Ever again to breathe pure happiness,
So happy that we gave away our toy?
We smiled at nothings, needing no caress?
Have we not laughed too often since with Joy?
Have we not stolen too strange and sorrowful wrongs
For her hands’ pardoning? The sun may cleanse,
And time, and starlight. Life will sing great songs,
And gods will show us pleasures more than men’s.
Yet heaven looks smaller than the old doll’s-home,
No nestling place is left in bluebell bloom,
And the wide arms of trees have lost their scope.
The former happiness is unreturning:
Boys’ griefs are not so grievous as our yearning,
Boys have no sadness sadder than our hope.
The first two lines in “Happiness” by Wilfred Owen are “Ever again to breathe pure happiness, So happy that we gave away our toy?”. Wilfred Owen was a soldier who wrote poems during the war so these lines are most likely him thinking about a time when he was happy because he brought up giving away a toy which you would if you were a child and that would make you happy. The next line also could be him remembering time as a child because he says “We smiled at nothings,”. The next two lines of the poem could be talking about present time because he says they have had moments of laughter that had joy during the war and he’s questioning his happiness. Then to finish out the first stanza, he is talking about how time will go on but sometime in life God will give them happiness. The first line of the second stanza says, “Yet heaven looks smaller than the old doll’s-home,”. This means to Owen, he can’t see a lot happiness in his life and it is also a reference to being a child when he’s talking about a doll. The next two lines are also talking about how happiness is small to him but it could also mean how winter is coming which references darkness because the plants are dying in this poem. Then in the last three lines of the poem he talks about how the happiness before the war never came back, and the grief isn’t as much as their longing but nothing is sadder than the hope they have.