1. ‘Disabled’
by Wilfred Owen

2. Tone:
Despondent
Nostalgic
Sardonic
Bitter
Angry

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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

9. 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.

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

11. 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.

12. 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

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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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;

20. 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.

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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’

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. Essay is due by email on 22 August – coylef@thebsbh
Essay is due by on 22 August –
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