‘Disabled’ by Wilfred Owen

Tone: Despondent Nostalgic Sardonic Bitter Angry

Structure 1: There is rhyme but it is uneven: Dark / park; grey / day; hymn / him Trees / knees / disease; dim / slim; There is also internal rhyme: Play / day Why is this important? This halting and broken rhyming scheme reflects the emotional state of the soldier who is desolate and damaged by his war experiences.

Structure 2: The poem switches between the soldier’s present and past, mirroring his memories of happy times juxtaposed with the reality of what he has sacrificed. The final stanza focuses on his future and ends with an exclamation that reflects his utter helplessness.

Stanza 1 Adjectives: emphasises sadness, loneliness, isolation of soldier; strongly contrasted with warmth of 2nd stanza Soldier is never named; forgotten and overlooked; symbolises many He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark, And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey, Legless, sewn short at elbow. Implications of waiting for death Alliteration: emphasises dreary clothes; reflects his morbid and depressed emotion state; formal; burial attire Sibilance: emphasises his disability and creates despondent tone

Repetition: emphasises the contrast of his solitude with the cheerful sounds of boys playing; reminder of joy he has lost Simile: joyous sounds transform into connotations of mournful church songs; like an appeal to God to stop boys dying in war Through the park Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn, Voices of play and pleasures after day, Alliteration: reinforces sounds of joy as an antithesis to soldier state

Metaphor: contrasts the emotional comfort the boys will get at home with the lack of any comfort the soldier receives; reminds us that sleep is his only respite Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him.

Stanza 2 Personification: emphasises its importance / significance in the soldier’s past life Visual imagery: emphasises joy and festivity of past life About this time Town used to swing so gay When glow-lamps budded in the light-blue trees, And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim — Alliteration: emphasises girls’ beauty; alluring and inviting Alliteration: links celebratory atmosphere with flirtations; contrasts sharply with next part of stanza

Metaphor: implies a needless sacrifice; reinforced by not being able to remember why he enlisted, hinting only at distant sense of duty and euphoria after a football match. In the old times, before he threw away his knees.

Physical and psychological loss: limbs and love Now he will never feel again how slim Girls’ waists are, or how warm their subtle hands;

Simile: provides sharp contrast of girls’ changed attitudes; he is an abnormality in their normal lives; they don’t want to be reminded of tragedy of war All of them touch him like some queer disease.

Stanza 3 Sibilance: stresses he was handsome and admired; picture reflected his innocence, youth and boyhood charm There was an artist silly for his face, For it was younger than his youth, last year. Metaphor: accentuates how the man has altered and no longer feels his true age; implies his face is now withered with experience and sorrow, worn by the ravages of war

Now, he is old; his back will never brace; Alliteration / Contrast: his previous immaturity for admiration, with excessive and tragic maturity

Deliberate, intense understatement heightens soldiers stoic bravery; no words could describe the hell he was in; life has been leached out of him Deliberate imprecision highlights unimportance of where the war was; therefore of general needless loss of lives in war He’s lost his colour very far from here, Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry, Metaphor: shows he has lost his youth and vitality Metaphor / Hyperbole: emphasises massive loss of blood / lives Emphasises the violence of battle

Metaphor / Hyperbole: emphasises waste Purple denotes life and vitality And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race, And leap of purple spurted from his thigh. Strong verb creates imagery of wound Metaphor / Assonance: stresses horror of injury

Stanza 4 Irony: this injury signals celebration, implies fiercely contested achievement, not helplessness Contrasts blood of wartime injury with sporting injury One time he liked a blood-smear down his leg, After the matches, carried shoulder-high. Ironic: also carried from battlefield when injured

Signed up because he was drunk on alcohol, pride and success of football match It was after football, when he'd drunk a peg, He thought he’d better join. — He wonders why. Punctuation: short phrases to demonstrate his thought process (caesura) and actions before he enlisted; trying to make sense of his choices

Indicates he was a member of a Scottish regiment; implies that he joined up for reasons of vanity Reinforces immaturity and trivial reasons for enlisting – to impress a girl; thought he’d looked mature / manly 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 jilts Society admired the bravery of soldiers but without understanding the realities Giggly, young girls Emphasises his bitterness towards women who now ignore him

Short sentence reminds himself that no-one forced him to enlist; he sought glory and recognition Poet reminds us that no one try to dissuade him either He asked to join. He didn't have to beg;

Stanza 5 Verb suggests merciless enlisting of young men; his youth was obvious; immoral tactics used by army recruiters Smiling they wrote his lie; aged nineteen years.

He knew nothing of the war, the reasons for war or the enemy; reinforces his immaturity / naivety / innocence; only thought of honour and glory Germans he scarcely thought of; all their guilt, And Austria’s, did not move him. And no fears Of Fear came yet. Personification: emphasises how intense his terror would become; too naïve to be afraid

Ornamental daggers He joined for frivolous reasons; further hints he joined a Scottish regiment Alliteration: emphasises a positive aspects of army life He thought of jewelled hilts For daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes; And care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears; Esprit de corps; and hints for young recruits. Literally: Spirit of body; Refers to pride, devotion and honour of the army Punctuation: stresses the reasons to enlist; echoing the propaganda of the recruiters / army

Rhyme: ‘arrears’ and ‘cheers’ further emphasises positive aspects of army life And soon he was drafted out with drums and cheers. Reminiscent of the football matches he won Alliteration: heightens sense of ceremonial departure; noisy, joyous parade

Stanza 6 Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal. Irony: for doing more than scoring a goal, he is greeted home with much less celebration; sense that the public has betrayed the men who fought for them Poet’s comment on how society treats war heroes; reprimanding Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal. People pitied him; returned destroyed, no longer attractive / admired in the same way; no-one wanted to see the negative side to war Referring back to football imagery – soldier wistful for life before enlisting

Probably a religious man Only a solemn man who brought him fruits Thanked him; and then inquired about his soul. Duty visit, impersonal; token appreciation and then another ‘sales pitch’

Stanza 7 Bleak future ahead 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. The once fine young athlete has been reduced to a state of dependency and helplessness; he is completely reliant on the mercy of others Personification: emphasising he will have to obey rules for the rest of his life; mirroring army life

Reminds reader of how important the loss of his attractiveness to the women is to him; reinforces the notion that he will remain alone and isolated Tonight he noticed how the women’s eyes Passed from him to the strong men that were whole. Was active now he is passive, passed over by the women; he thinks they are horrified or embarrassed by his injuries He is incomplete, less than a man – physically and mentally

Exclamation: emphasises strong feeling of discomfort and frustration How cold and late it is! Why don't they come And put him into bed? Why don't they come? Repetition: stresses his helplessness and frustration by re-establishing how dependent; he must wait for the orderlies or nurses; cyclical ending – waiting: or poet warning other / calling for end of war / reinforcements? Rhetorical Questions: demonstrate helplessness and loneliness; emphasises how much he wishes to get away for park and memories

Essay is due by email on 22 August – coylef@thebsbh Essay is due by email on 22 August – coylef@thebsbh.com; milness@thebsbh.com; gauntletr@thebsbh.com; wharriem@thebsbh.com Word Limit: between 800 and 1000 words Format: A4; TNR14; Margins: 3 cm; Line Spacing: 1.5 Header (top left): Surname, Name; British School of Bahrain; Centre No: 90306, Candidate No: Bloggs, Joe British School of Bahrain Centre No: 90306 Candidate No: 5555