ipl-logo

Disabled Wilfred Owen Analysis

792 Words4 Pages

Analyze how and why the contrast between past and present is explored in
‘Disabled’ by Wilfred Owen

The poem Disabled was written by Wilfred Owen, while he was convalescing at a hospital after his injuries at a battlefield. It portrays his honest confessions and feelings before and after the war, describing the significant changes he has went through. To summarize this poem, it’s about a physically disabled man (Wilfred Owen) who reflects on his experience when he was on the battlefield. It expresses the thoughtless image of him as he didn 't know what the forever consequences were after fighting in the war.

This war piece is one of the most famous piece that is recognized by lots of people and Owens uses 7 stanzas with various literary techniques to finish his story. By using these stanzas, the readers get a clear understanding of the contrast between past and present. He goes back and forth to reminisce about the old days, and to focus back on the actual reality or the pain he is going through.

To start out with, in the opening stanza, he describes himself sitting “in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,” which is the present situation of him. It suggests the immobility of the character (legless) and is feeling very isolated, losing all his hope in life. He is just waiting for death. He further uses comparison to show how his life is so much different from those voices of boys and is indeed astonishingly dull and negative. He uses literary techniques like simile and

Show More
Related

  • Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner Analysis

    844 Words  | 4 Pages

    This description paints the scenes of the poem as they happen, the powerful connotations of the words battling against each other, and to the grievance of the reader, the negative feelings prevail. This battle illuminates the brutality and fear experienced by soldiers, in WWII, during their final moments on Earth - their fear, sadness, and horrified disgust all hidden between the lines of these two sentences. Foreshadowed by the soldier's machine like tone, the speaker alludes to the fact that he will fight for his life, and

    Read More

  • Ted Hughes 'Bayonet Charge' And Wilfred Owen's Exposure

    1571 Words  | 7 Pages

    This metaphor displays his uncertainty as per his crucial part in that moment in time. The soldier pictures himself as the hand on a clock, subject to the inevitable force of a clockwork motor that cannot be slowed or quickend. He realises that he does not really know why he is running and feels “statuary in mid-stride”. However, towards the end of the poem, all moral justifications for the existence of war have become meaningless- “King, honour, human dignity, etcetera Dropped like luxuries in a yelling alarm”, which is extremely dismissive of all the motives people provide for joining the army, explicitly stating that those motives do not justify and do not withstand the war. Disorientation is also highlighted in the line “Stumbling across a field of clods towards a green hedge That dazzled with rifle fire” where the confusion between the natural world and man-made world is expressed.

    Read More

  • The Drugs Of War Les Murray Analysis

    1259 Words  | 6 Pages

    He writes to depict a theme that war never truly ends, and people who have experienced it generally do not know how to end it, thus an unseen minority turn to drugs and alcohol for salvation. Inevitably they end up in a loop of substance abuse, as it seems to be a pattern through history, as he writes in each stanza. “Rome’s Legions stemmed avalanches” (line 1), “flogged peasant boys faced front” (line 4). Each stanza interoperates a new period of time where war was a predominant piece of that era, starting back with the Roman Empire and gradually moving forward through time. However, the parallel to these stories is the progression in illicit substances and how that effects a soldier’s lifestyle with these movements throughout history.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Emasculation In Regeneration

    798 Words  | 4 Pages

    This contempt of emasculations is also made clear in Owen 's "Disabled". This poem discusses the faith of a teen soldier who has lost his limbs in the trenches and is confined to his wheelchair, utterly helpless. Relationships

    Read More

  • Capital G By Nine Inch Nails Poem Analysis

    1296 Words  | 6 Pages

    As the poem continues, he explains how he does not care for the problems around the world and justifies that the war victims would not understand what he was going through as “You haven’t had enough to know what it’s like.” This line shows how the speaker does not care for the suffering of war victims. He know the war victims are underprivileged as they “haven’t had enough” but doesn’t care if they are killed so that he can keep his privileged life say. As the poem ends, a refrain which is repeated twice in the poem has the lines, “Well I used to stand for something but now I’m on my hands

    Read More

  • The Theme Of Despair In Poe's 'Silhouettes'

    1465 Words  | 6 Pages

    “Silhouettes” continue the familiar theme seen in the first two examples of despair. The reason for the narrator’s despair is love, or more precisely the loss of the love object. In all of the three examples, hell seems to describe the feelings of despair, agony and anxiety connected with love. The three examples also represent the lost love object in fairly negative manner as she is described as a serpent and a destroyer whose poisonous words and burning tongue as she sang her siren song and lured him into hell – into unceasing despair. A hell that he no longer cannot live without.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Wilfred Owen And Edward Thomas

    1066 Words  | 5 Pages

    Although they shared their differences, they also shared their similarities. The most prominent similarity in the two poets’ poetry is that they both wrote about exactly what they saw. Yet, a difference is that each tended to look for a different aesthetic to write about. Since Owens tended to write of the reality of war, he often wrote of the soldiers battered appearance and the brutal scene of deaths he may have witnessed. On the opposite end of Owen’s type of writing was Thomas’.

    Read More

  • The Theme Of Disabled By Wilfred Owen And Out, Out

    1176 Words  | 5 Pages

    Disabled by Wilfred Owen and Out, Out- by Robert Frost are both concerned with the theme of loss in their two poems, but they still write about different types of loss. Disabled is focused on a soldier who lost his arms and legs, lost his social life, his looks and lost his potential. While Frost’s Out, Out- talks about the physical loss of a young boy’s hand, while doing a man’s job, which results in death at the end of the poem. Robert Frost’s Out, Out- is a monostanza, it is a blank verse, “And from there those lifted eyes could like”, this is not used constantly but Frost often interrupts the flow to make a point; and he uses iambic pentameter, “No more to build on there. And they, since they were not the one dead”, these are used frequently in the poem, there is a break in the middle of most of the lives.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of But Thy Summer Shall Not Fade By Langston Hughes

    159 Words  | 1 Pages

    Time will always continue to go on, and the boy will continue to live. He uses metaphor in, “But thy eternal summer shall not fade”, which personifies death. Making it “his shade”, he shows how the boy will be in fact, eternal. Alliteration and consonance is used in, “Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his

    Read More

  • A Poetic Analysis Of 'Disabled' By Wilfred Owen

    1450 Words  | 6 Pages

    "Disabled" by Wilfred Owen is a poetic analysis of war that exposes the struggles of adjusting to civilian life. A deeper analysis of "Disabled" reveals the irony of war; a soldier's fight for his country's freedom which results in the sacrifice of his mental and physical freedom. The soldiers and their families suffer from the scars and traumatic events of the war daily, while those that benefit can remain in oblivion of their suffering. Owen’s "Disabled" gives the readers an intimate poem detailing the tragic loss of humanity that a soldier suffers. Because of the war, the soldier has been reduced in mind and body.

    Read More

  • Dulce Et Decorum Est And Disabled Analysis

    1153 Words  | 5 Pages

    Finishing on the third stanza, Owen has used colour once again. “ purple spurted from his thigh”, it illustrates the bruises he had gotten from war and the deep impact on him, a colour signifying life and languor. Ending the poem with soldiers in the institute waiting for people to come emphasizes the fact that he is dependent and helpless. Also it reflected back to the start of the poem where he was waiting for death to come. “ How cold and late it is!

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Disabled And The Bright Lights Of Sarajevo

    982 Words  | 4 Pages

    Firstly within the poems, both Owen and Harrison present the horrific images of war through use of visual imagery. “And leaped of purple spurted his thigh” is stated. Owen describes the immediate action of presenting the truth of war as horrific and terrifying . The phrase “purple spurted” represents the odd color of the blood which was shedded as the boulder from the bomb smashed his leg in a matter of seconds. The readers

    Read More

  • Poem Analysis Of Hanging Fire By Audre Lorde

    720 Words  | 3 Pages

    Through repetition and a conversational tone, Audre Lorde conveys the isolation and anxiety of a young girl who is trying to bridge the gap between childhood and adulthood. “Hanging Fire” goes through a young girl’s thoughts. These thoughts illustrate her isolation, anxiety, and lack of guidance. This poem shows what happens when children are growing up alone, and hints and the horrible things that can happen.

    Read More

  • Alliteration In Wilfred Owen's Anthem For Doomed Youth

    1433 Words  | 6 Pages

    “Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle” is an example from the third line of first stanza. Owen constructs the rhythm “rifles’ rapid rattle” by using alliteration to allows us to get the sound, and the image of the strong sound of rifles’ fired. The onomatopoeia ‘rattle’ usually comes with the word ‘rapid’, to emphasise how fast it is, and also to express the violence of the rifle. Rhythm of the poem helps develop the feelings and the mood of sorrow and anger to the reader to convey the theme. The rifles express how evil and how reckless the war was for the soldiers to keep on shooting guns while the fellow members are passing away, suffering with the pain they got from the shot from the rifles from the enemy forces.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Last Laugh By Wilfred Owen

    1730 Words  | 7 Pages

    The poem features a soldier, presumably Owen, speaking to fellow soldiers and the public regarding those atrocities. Correspondingly, drawing on the themes of innocent death and the barbaric practices of warfare, Owen expresses his remorse towards his fallen comrades and an antagonistic attitude towards the war effort through a solemn tone and specific stylistic devices. The poem is structured as free verse, contributing towards the disorganized and chaotic impression Owen experienced while witnessing these deaths firsthand, enabling the audience to understand the emotional circumstances of demise in the trenches as well. Throughout the poem, Owen routinely personifies the destructive weapons of war, characterizing them as the true instruments of death rather than the soldiers who stand behind them. Owen describes how, “Bullets chirped…Machine-guns chuckled…Gas hissed…”

    Read More

More about Disabled Wilfred Owen Analysis

Open Document