Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier, one of the leading poets of the First World War. His shocking, realistic war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was heavily influenced by his friend Siegfried Sassoon and stood in stark contrast to both the public perception of war at the time, and to the confidently patriotic verse written by earlier war poets such as Rupert Brooke. Among his best-known works – most of which were published posthumously – are "Dulce et Decorum Est", "Insensibility", "Anthem for Doomed Youth", "Futility" and "Strange Meeting".

Read more about Wilfred Owen:  Early Life, War Service, Poetry, Relationship With Sassoon, Death, Depictions in Popular Culture

Famous quotes by wilfred owen:

    To-night, His frost will fasten on this mud and us,
    Shriveling many hands, puckering foreheads crisp.
    The burying-party, picks and shovels in their shaking grasp,
    Pause over half-known faces. All their eyes are ice,
    But nothing happens.
    Wilfred Owen (1893–1918)

    And Death fell with me, like a deepening moan.
    And He, picking a manner of worm, which half had hid
    Its bruises in the earth, but crawled no further,
    Showed me its feet, the feet of many men,
    And the fresh-severed head of it, my head.
    Wilfred Owen (1893–1918)

    the white eyes writhing in his face,
    His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
    If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
    Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
    Obscene as cancer,
    Wilfred Owen (1893–1918)

    To-night he noticed how the women’s eyes
    Passed from him to the strong men that were whole.
    How cold and late it is! Why don’t they come
    And put him into bed? Why don’t they come?
    Wilfred Owen (1893–1918)

    Happy are men who yet before they are killed
    Can let their veins run cold.
    Wilfred Owen (1893–1918)