Remembering the war poet Wilfred Owen

 

I blogged about South Africa's connection to the 2 minute silence held on Armistice day / Remembrance Sunday. It is accepted that it was initiated by Sir Percy FitzPatrick after the loss of his son. 

Another connection is that of John Mccrae who penned the moving poem, In Flanders Fields. 

He served as a medic in the Boer War of 1899-1902 in South Africa. One of the many famous names to have served for the British side - Churchill, Gandhi, Kipling, Conan Doyle etc.

A war poet I have come to appreciate is Wilfred Owen because he is Shropshire born & commemorated in our county. His poetry is raw,  war is not celebrated like some other WW1 war poets speaking of 'the glorious dead' ethos of Robert Brooke etc. Owen's 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' says it as it was.

Wilfred Owen was born in 1893 in Oswestry, educated in Shrewsbury in Shropshire where he lived & studied afterwards. He enlisted in October 1915 & was sent out to France.  In 1917, he was injured by a trench mortar shell & treated in Edinburgh for some injuries & for shell shock too. It was there that he met & was befriended by the celebrated war poet Siegfried Sassoon who read Owen's poems & encouraged him to write them down. 

Owen returned to the Western Front line in October 1918, he was killed on 4th November 1918, a week before the Armistice that ended the terrible war. His story is well documented, and his mother received the telegram of his death on Armistice day as the bells were ringing out over Shrewsbury. What feelings of despair she must have had with the war ending & him not coming back. 

I have studied his poetry with my older students & it does not try to gloss over the reality of war. 

This week, with Remembrance Sunday & Armistice Day just past, I visited our county town of Shrewsbury & stopped by The Abbey to view their magnificent poppy display. 

In the entrance to The Abbey, a board remembers the Shrewsbury fallen, amongst them Wilfred Owen, his name where the red poppy is on the right. 

I did not know of the memorial in the Abbey grounds but was directed there by Abbey helpers. It is appropriate that it shows how brief his life was, some of his words on the memorial in a setting he would have known as he taught at the nearby school. 

The futility of war brought in to focus again each year, the county & country making sure they are never forgotten. 

Thank you for stopping by & reading this account. Have you read any of his poetry or do you find war poetry a bit dark? 

Dee ⛪️🔔📚📓📖