CONTEXTUALIZE

- Written by English poet Wilfred Owen who was born in the late 19th century and died in battle in the early 20th
century during the first world war
- During his time in the war Owen was diagnosed as suffering from ​shell shock​ and was sent to ​Craiglockhart War
Hospital​ in ​Edinburgh​ for treatment. It was during treatment at Craiglockhart that he met fellow poet ​Siegfried
Sassoon​ who inspired him to translate his experiences into poetry
- This poem, alongside many other poems by Owen, are a commentary on the first World War, which took place
from 1914 to 1918

OVERVIEW
- Recounts a meeting between 2 enemy soldiers in the imaginary Hell, with one of the soldiers having had killed the
other in battle just earlier. The soldier which narrates the poem can be thought of as being Owen, given the Owen
incorporated his own experiences of the war into his poetry. Owen’s soldier persona soon learns that the enemy
he killed is not so much different from him after all, as it is unraveled how they share the same thoughts about
the brutality and pointlessness of war.
- It is also strange that these men are in hell because they fought and died for their countries – mocking Dulce et
Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori (tis sweet and right to die for one’s country)
- Therefore, the message of this poem was to express the horrors of war on the battlefield and to depict how war
would bring about consequences for the world.

NARRATION
- Told from the perspective of two soldiers. Owen narrates the poem initially but about midway the other soldier is
quoted

STRUCTURE
- Split into 4 stanzas, the first discusses Owen’s entry into a deep tunnel (hell), the second is his observations of
those around him and his recounting of his encounter with a dead soldier, revealing that they are in hell. The 3​rd
stanza is composed of a conversation between them, with the majority of it coming from the enemy soldier
regarding his life before and during the war. The 4​th​ stanza addresses and clarifies the relationship between the 2
men, Owen is the man who killed this dead soldier.
- The poem's rhymes, such as they are, fall into heroic couplets (rhyming couplets of iambic pentameter)—or,
maybe it's more accurate to say failed heroic couplets, where the rhymes fail to fully line up. As their name
suggests, heroic couplets are often used to describe heroism and bravery in idealized ways. The poem’s slant
rhymes suggest that it is intentionally messing with the form, as if to show the reader what heroic couplets look
like after they’ve actually been to a real battle. The slant rhyme may also reflect the speaker’s trauma and fear
from the battlefield

THEMES
- Horrors of war and how the wider world and soldiers suffer because of war
- Reconciliation and solidarity

TONE AND MOOD

- Tone: Melancholy – as shown through the use of personification in the phrase, “sullen hall.” Sullen literally means
sad so it represents the sheer melancholy of the area Owen is in – asserting the tone
MIPs. in this commentary I will be returning to three main ideas:
- The main themes of this poem
- How Owen utilizes weaponry in the poem as a way to comment on the brutal and pointless nature
of warfare
- The ways in which Owen highlights the mistreatment of soldiers in the war

LINE-BY-LINE ANALYSIS
It seemed that out of battle I escaped

- Diction: ​“It seemed,” – use of the word seemed indicates uncertainty and makes it clear to the readers that this
poem is about a surreal experience
- Diction: ​“escaped,”- denotes leaving something horrible behind, and this is used to explain the how Owen
despised the war, but when we find out that Owen’s character is in hell, it is very ironic that hell is better than war

Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped

Through granites which Titanic wars had groined.

- diction and sibilance​: “long since scooped,” the tunnel has existed for a long time and has been in used for a
while, this sets the stage for the phrase, “titanic wars,”, as together it shows that war has claimed lives
throughout history, because we later discover that this male persona is in Hell
- Diction: ​“Titanic wars,” titanic alludes to the Titanic, a ship that crashed in April 1912 and killed thousands when it
happened, emphasising the number of people who die in war. It also alludes to the Titans, the fathers of Gods in
Greek mythology. The wars of the Titans

Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned,

Too fast in thought or death to be bestirred.

- Metaphor: ​“encumbered sleepers,” in the tunnel the speaker encounters soldiers which are metaphorically
described as sleepers as they are unresponsive to the speaker’s presence. These soldiers are “encumbered” or
“trapped” literally by their equipment and figuratively by their burden of suffering wrought upon them by the
war, reinforcing the theme of the horrors of war, and stirring up empathy in the public for the soldiers

Then, as I probed them, one sprang up, and stared

- Sibilance: ​“sprang..stared.”- is used to assert how sudden this action was

With piteous recognition in fixed eyes,

Lifting distressful hands, as if to bless.

- Simile: ​Using a ​simile​, the speaker compares the gesture of the one responsive soldier to a blessing. The simile
suggests that this other soldier wants to absolve the speaker of his sins, to forgive him. It is a striking and tender
moment—and it becomes more. so as the poem progresses.

And by his smile, I knew that sullen hall,—

By his dead smile I knew we stood in Hell.
 - Parallel construction:​ in these lines the speaker realizes that he is in Hell. He delays this revelation as long as
possible by using a parallel construction: “by his …, I knew …”
- Allusion:​ the speaker’s description of the tunnel of hell alludes to the description of hell in ​the Odyssey​, an ancient
Greek poem. In The Odyssey, Hell is less a place of punishment and more a place to reflect on the cruelty and
injustice of war. "Strange Meeting" follows this tradition, using Hell as a place to critique war.
- Oxymoron: ​“dead smile,” one cannot smile when one is dead, depicts the emptiness of the soldier's soul

With a thousand fears that vision's face was grained;

- Metaphor: ​“thousand fears that vision's face was grained” - the soldier's fears metaphorically seem etched into
his face, reflecting the persistence of wartime trauma; even in Hell, this other soldier looks scared and anxious.
The word, “thousand,” quantifies this impact, expressing the number of horrors he had been exposed to

Yet no blood reached there from the upper ground,

And no guns thumped, or down the flues made moan.

- Irony:​ No "blood" from the battlefield trickles down into the tunnel from the battlefield above and they couldn’t
hear the sound of guns thumping. The speaker is basically saying that this place is free from violence and is
ironically safer and more peaceful than the battlefield. This is, in turn, a pretty severe condemnation of the horror
of war.

“Strange friend,” I said, “here is no cause to mourn.”

- Oxymoron: ​“strange friend,” indicates that these two have met in some way before, yet one man is not familiar to
the other (i.e stranger), but this is so because they had been enemies on the battlefront. However, both carry the
familiar burden of pain and brutality on the battlefront, making them sort of friends.

“None,” said that other, “save the undone years,

The hopelessness. Whatever hope is yours,
Was my life also; I went hunting wild

- Diction: ​“that other,” – lack of a name or title expresses how war steals the identity of soldiers away, leaving
nothing but consequences that war has wrought upon them – used by Owen to evoke sympathy in readers with
regards to the plight of the soldiers in war. Lack of identity is a running theme in most Owen poems like Dulce,
anthem for doomed youth
- diction:​ the hopes and aspirations which the other soldier has are also “yours”, illustrating that all soldiers,
regardless of the side they were on, had some universal aspirations and dreams. In this way, Owen criticizes the
ways in which propaganda would depict enemy soldiers as inhumane.
- Thematic link:​ the speaker tells the other soldier that there is no reason to be sad down here in Hell (again
reflecting the poem's ironic stance that Hell is actually safer and calmer than the war-torn world above). The
other soldier disagrees, saying that the “undone years” and “hopelessness” are reasons to be sad. In other words,
the enemy soldier is sad that he has lost so much life and opportunity, which allows Owen to express the brutality
and pointlessness of war as the average soldier in World War 1 was only in his early 20s.

​ fter the wildest beauty in the world,

A
Which lies not calm in eyes, or braided hair,
 But mocks the steady running of the hour,
And if it grieves, grieves richlier than here.

- Diction:​ the use of the word “wild” to describe the other soldier’s “hunt” in life after beauty emphasizes the
passion and aspirations which the other soldier had when he was alive. While it isn’t clear what this beauty is, it is
clear and very sad that this soldier never found what he was looking for in his life. (pointlessness of war)
- Personification: ​“steady running of the hour,” – refers to the passing of time
- Personification:​ the beauty which the soldier seeked in life is being personified as something that looks at the
passage of time and laughs; maybe it's laughing at the fact that this enemy soldier ran out of time before he could
find it
- Repetition: ​“grieves, grieves,” – this repetition accentuates that even if the beauty which the soldier sought was
mixed with grief, the grief would be more “rich” and “human” in real life that it could ever be in Hell. By saying
this, the soldier emphasizes that he has lost complete hope in finding the beauty he sought.

For by my glee might many men have laughed,

And of my weeping something had been left,
Which must die now. I mean the truth untold,
The pity of war, the pity war distilled.

- alliteration: ​“glee might many men have laughed,” – explain how humourous the man was, as shown through the
use of the word, “laughed,” that expresses his ability to induce laughter. This stresses what he has lost when he
died, in the next line
- Thematic link: ​the enemy soldier tells the reader what he learned as a soldier, and what he wants to
communicate to the world about war. The "untold truth" is that war isn't heroic or glorious: it's a "pity." In fact,
war "distill[s]" this pity, reduces it to its essence, so that it is as powerful and intense as possible. This truth about
war is all the more important since it is "untold": it’s something that people don’t know and need to learn—yet
which they won’t be able to learn because the soldier has taken that truth with him to his grave.
- Parallel construction and repetition: ​The ​parallel​ construction of the “The pity of war, the pity war distilled” , plus
the repetition of the word "pity", reinforces the intensity of the pity that he wasn’t able to tell others the truth
about war before he died by forcing the reader to read it twice.

Now men will go content with what we spoiled.

Or, discontent, boil bloody, and be spilled.
They will be swift with swiftness of the tigress.
None will break ranks, though nations trek from progress.

- Metaphor: ​‘men’ refers to people back home in the UK who will, according to the other soldier, either “go
content” or in other words be happy with the war: they’ll think it was right or justified, Or they’ll be angry about
the death of the other soldier and use it as a justification for further violence and further death: they will be
"discontent, boil bloody, and be spilled."
- Metaphor: ​the other soldier elaborates on the second scenario and says that ‘men’ who’d be angry about his
death (and the defeat of the British) will be “swift with the swiftness of tigress”. This metaphor means that they
will be as ferocious and fast as a female tiger and reduce the men to violent animals instinctually protecting one
of their own. This subtly emphasizes the animalistic mentality that undergirds war - the "us" vs. "them" dynamic -
that ignores the fact that soldiers on both sides of the battle are human beings.
- Metaphor: ​Despite war being unjust and dragging nations backwards in development, no one will dare speak up,
suggesting that violence and war enforce conformity; thus diminishing people’s capacity to protest their nations’
actions.

Courage was mine, and I had mystery;

Wisdom was mine, and I had mastery:
To miss the march of this retreating world
Into vain citadels that are not walled.

- Parallelism:​ instead of reminiscing over universal aspirations, now the other soldier discusses aspirations which
were personal to him. His courage gave him mystery and his wisdom gave him mastery. This allows Owen to show
that soldiers were both universally bound by their common aspirations but also had an individual identity and
personality.
- Personification: ​the other soldier personifies the world as “retreating” and “marching” into vain citadels, thus
illustrating how his wisdom and courage made him smart enough to object going to war when the world was
going backwards (this sliding backward of the world is also emphasized by the ​enjambment ​in the following lines)
- Metaphor:​ citadels that are not walled are metaphorical for something that is redundant and therefore
unjustified. By utilizing this metaphor, the other soldier implies that the world’s retreat into war and violence is
vain (trying to appear like a mighty citadel) yet is in itself useless (thematic link). Ultimately, the other soldier
shows that he doesn’t use courage and wisdom in the way that one might expect a soldier would, outwitting the
enemy on the battlefield. Instead, he uses his courage and wisdom to object to the backsliding of the world
around him, to protest violence and war itself.

Then, when much blood had clogged their chariot-wheels,

I would go up and wash them from sweet wells,
Even with truths that lie too deep for taint.

- Symbolism:​ the other soldier thinks about how he could’ve stopped war if he was still alive. The image of a
chariot (which is used in war) clogged with blood (symbolic for the deaths of soldiers)
- Metaphor:​ the other soldiers says he’ll wash the symbolic blood-clogged chariots with “water from sweet wells”
which metaphorically contains truths which are too “true” to be tainted. By saying this, the other soldier (and thus
Owen) expresses the impact which the truth could have on the world in helping to stop war.

I would have poured my spirit without stint

But not through wounds; not on the cess of war.
Foreheads of men have bled where no wounds were.

- Metaphor: ​the other soldier goes as far to say that he would have given his entire soul to tell the truths about war
and end the suffering and brutality caused by war (thematic link)
- Diction: ​“not through wounds (meaning death), not on the cess of war,” –cess means tax, illustrating how the war
has cost people so much pain and suffering. Particularly, the other soldier emphasizes that he wouldn’t tell the
truth by using force or violence, like war has attempted to do.
- Metaphor: ​“Foreheads of men have bled where no wounds were,”: (visually shows their mental suffering)
Foreheads of men is a metaphor for the minds of men, as the brain is located behind the forehead. This metaphor
therefore describes how men might have no physical injuries but still had mental conditions (which Owen was all
too familiar with).
 “I am the enemy you killed, my friend.
I knew you in this dark: for so you frowned
Yesterday through me as you jabbed and killed.
I parried; but my hands were loath and cold.
Let us sleep now. . . .”

- Climax: ​the other soldier confesses that the speaker had killed him in war, the climax of the poem.
- Oxymoron:​ the other soldier and the speaker can’t be enemies and friends. However, the other soldier suggests
that they ​should​ be friends but war has divided them. This separation between enemy and friends is further
accentuated by the use of ​caesura​.
- Diction: ​“sleep” – sleep and death can be seen as synonymous