Wilfred Owen - The Parable of the Old Man and the Young

So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,

And took the fire with him, and a knife.

And as they sojourned both of them together,

Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,

Behold the preparations, fire and iron,

But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?

Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,

And builded parapets and trenches there,

And stretched forth the knife to slay his son.

When lo! an Angel called him out of heaven,

Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,

Neither do anything to him, thy son.

Behold! Caught in a thicket by its horns,

A Ram. Offer the Ram of Pride instead.

But the old man would not so, but slew his son,

And half the seed of Europe, one by one.

Key words

•      Parable – a short story which illustrates a moral or religious lesson

What is the poem about?

Owen takes directly from the Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac in this poem (see the document marked “Abraham” to see which bits he’s borrowed directly). The poem talks about the sacrifice Abraham offers God and how an angel saved his son at the last minute. However, in the poem, the man goes ahead and sacrifices his son anyway. It is an attack on those in charge of the war.

Structure

•      The poem roughly follows the story as set out in Genesis 22 until the stanza break – why does the poet break the stanza here? – it is a changed ending and therefore provides a twist. A dramatic pause.

•      A shift occurs after line 6 – from the traditional Bible story to WW1

•      Is there a rhyme scheme? What is the effect? – no real rhyme scheme (though you could say the final two lines almost form a rhyming couplet: one/son) – which makes the poem quite disjointed and loose – reflecting how destructive the war is and how things are falling apart.

Language

The poet uses Biblical language like “clave” (cut) and “sojourned” (rested) to mimic the original story and give the poem authority.

When the poem shifts to WW1 (line 6 onwards), “the youth” suddenly becomes all the young men of Europe – like “the Young” of the title. They are bound with “belts and straps” (soldiers’ uniform) and “parapets and trenches” are built (obviously a reference to the structures in the war). At the last minute, the “youth” are saved by an angel – God provides an alternative: “the Ram of Pride”. Pride is, Owen suggests, the reason for the war (perhaps patriotism, a desperation not to be seen as cowardly) – and God suggests that is killed instead of the youth.

We then get a pause: “But the old man would not” – the old man is representative of those in charge of the war, sacrificing “his son” – all the men who have gone to their deaths who are, of course, somebody’s son. The scale of the deaths is emphasised through the phrase “half the seed of Europe” – with seed representing both their own youth and the children they would have had – their lost futures, Europe’s lost generations. “one by one” suggests that the death and the war just goes on and on with no end.

By mimicking a parable from the Bible, Owen suggests that the war is going against the teachings of God as the old man in the parable goes directly against what God advises.

In summary

•      A reworking of Genesis 22, the story of Abraham and Isaac.

•      A symbolic poem which attacks the “old men” in charge of the war who are sacrificing the youth, needlessly.

•      A suggestion that the war is going against God’s teachings.

Wilfred Owen - Spring Offensive

Halted against the shade of a last hill,

They fed, and, lying easy, were at ease

And, finding comfortable chests and knees

Carelessly slept.


But many there stood still 

To face the stark, blank sky beyond the ridge,

Knowing their feet had come to the end of the world.

Marvelling they stood, and watched the long grass swirled

By the May breeze, murmurous with wasp and midge,

For though the summer oozed into their veins

Like the injected drug for their bones' pains,

Sharp on their souls hung the imminent line of grass,

Fearfully flashed the sky's mysterious glass.

Hour after hour they ponder the warm field--

And the far valley behind, where the buttercups

Had blessed with gold their slow boots coming up,

Where even the little brambles would not yield,

But clutched and clung to them like sorrowing hands;

They breathe like trees unstirred.

Till like a cold gust thrilled the little word

At which each body and its soul begird

And tighten them for battle. No alarms

Of bugles, no high flags, no clamorous haste--

Only a lift and flare of eyes that faced

The sun, like a friend with whom their love is done.

O larger shone that smile against the sun,--

Mightier than his whose bounty these have spurned.

So, soon they topped the hill, and raced together

Over an open stretch of herb and heather

Exposed. And instantly the whole sky burned

With fury against them; and soft sudden cups

Opened in thousands for their blood; and the green slopes

Chasmed and steepened sheer to infinite space.

Of them who running on that last high place

Leapt to swift unseen bullets, or went up

On the hot blast and fury of hell's upsurge,

Or plunged and fell away past this world's verge,

Some say God caught them even before they fell.

But what say such as from existence' brink

Ventured but drave too swift to sink.

The few who rushed in the body to enter hell,

And there out-fiending all its fiends and flames

With superhuman inhumanities,

Long-famous glories, immemorial shames--

And crawling slowly back, have by degrees

Regained cool peaceful air in wonder--

Why speak they not of comrades that went under?

Key words

•      Offensive – a military operation which aggressively attacks in order to gain territory or achieve a specific aim.

•      Apocalyptic – relating to the end of the world, particularly in a religious sense

What is the poem about?

This is the only poem we’re studying which looks directly at the fighting in the war. The first three stanzas show us the soldiers relaxing before the battle and appreciating the nature around them, before the fighting begins in stanza 4. The men who are left then return to where they came from.

The title itself is quite ironic as spring is a time of new life and growth, and war is obviously a time of death and destruction.

Structure

•      The majority of lines are composed of 10 syllables – but not all of them. This breaks the rhythm up, as does the sometimes irregular rhyme scheme – what is the effect of this? – it makes everything sound as though it is a bit disjointed and falling apart – reflecting the destruction and damage of the battle

•      The poem is divided into 6 stanzas.

•      Each stanza details a different stage of the “offensive”.

Because the poem is very long, I’ve broken it down into stanzas for you.

Stanza 1: Setting the scene

There is a sense of relaxation in this stanza, as the men reach the end of a long march. The words “eased” and “at ease” suggest they have reached some point of safety. They seem exhausted as they “Carelessly slept”, unable to support their own weight anymore: “leaning on the nearest chest or knees”. However, “many” still remain awake and look out at the landscape and “the stark blank sky” – “blank” possible because it holds no answers? (breakdown of religion?) and “stark” because it offers no comfort or shelter? They know “their feet had come to the end of the world” – because they may be about to die in the battle to come. There is also a sense of anticipation because of this.

Nature is celebrated in this stanza: “Marvelling”. Maybe they are trying to take everything in before they die. This section of the poem uses long vowel sounds (“murmurous” “oozed”) to slow it down and create a soothing image. Nature also helps the men “Like an injected drug for their bodies’ pains” – it makes them feel better. The anticipation grows towards the end of this stanza due to the word “imminent” and the increasing use of rhyming couplets (veins/pains, grass/glass)

Stanza 2 – The pause before the attack

The subject of nature continues. The setting sounds like paradise, where the men have time to “ponder” and are “warm”. Nature itself seems unwilling to let the men go: “Where even the little brambles would not yield/But clutched and clung to them like sorrowing arms.” (personification). The men are therefore almost part of nature, rather than the ugly and artificial world of war.

It’s worth thinking about the setting of the poem: spring. This is usually a time of new life – but these men are about to die. Ironic!

Stanza 3 – Tension building

The battle begins without the fanfare you’d expect: just a “little word”. The “cold gust” of the battle starting contrasts directly with the “warm field” in the 2^nd stanza – war vs nature. The repetition of “no” shows this too, as well as building tension. The simile “like a friend with whom their love is done” suggests that the men know they are going to their death and won’t see the sun again.

Stanza 4 – Attack

The action begins suddenly as the men “raced together” – showing some sense of comradeship. The caesura in line 29, after “Exposed” helps to emphasise the word, showing they didn’t stand a chance, and also makes you stop – before the long sentence to the end of the stanza when the battle properly starts. The battle makes nature suddenly seem violent: the sky “burned/With fury” and the earth “set sudden cups/In thousands for their blood”. It’s all very apocalyptic and makes it sound as though it really is the end of the world as mentioned earlier. You could also see it as nature (or God) being angry at the war, and also that the Earth is reclaiming the men who belong to it by catching their blood.

Stanza 5 – Casualties

The apocalyptic imagery continues with an emphasis on things being the “last”: “that last high place”, and with the mention of “hell”. Death is swift: “Some say God caught them even before they fell”. This battle is incredibly quick, violent and destructive.

Stanza 6 – The survivors

Not everyone dies. Some come “crawling slowly back” (which contrasts with their action earlier). They are painted quite heroically as they have faced “fiends” and “flames” like some Greek hero, and are “superhuman”.  The poem ends with a question – perhaps they don’t want to relive such horrors, perhaps they feel guilty for surviving when others didn’t.

In summary

•      A detailed account of a military attack

•      6 stanzas detailing 6 stages of the attack

•      The only poem we are looking at which deals directly with battle

Wilfred Owen - The Send-Off

Down the close, darkening lanes they sang their way

To the siding-shed,

And lined the train with faces grimly gay.

Their breasts were stuck all white with wreath and spray

As men's are, dead.

Dull porters watched them, and a casual tramp

Stood staring hard,

Sorry to miss them from the upland camp.

Then, unmoved, signals nodded, and a lamp

Winked to the guard.

So secretly, like wrongs hushed-up, they went.

They were not ours:

We never heard to which front these were sent.

Nor there if they yet mock what women meant

Who gave them flowers.

Shall they return to beatings of great bells

In wild trainloads?

A few, a few, too few for drums and yells,

May creep back, silent, to still village wells

Up half-known roads.

Key words

•      Anonymity – this is when a person’s identity is removed and they become just another number. This is a key theme in WW1 poetry – that so many people were killed and injured that they became just a statistic and not a human anymore.

•      Think of the “men” in Journey’s End - the Colonel talks of “six men and – er – Osborne” as having died – the average soldier in the trenches is not referred to by name.

Think first of all – what would you expect from a “send-off”? If you or a friend were moving away, you’d expect a celebration, a party, something fun and noisy and exciting. Is that what you get in this poem? The title itself is quite ironic, as it emphasises the fact that the men are not getting this big ceremonial send-off but are being quietly sent away.

What is the poem about?

The poet writes about the experience of men being moved from their training camp to the trenches in France. The men would have come from a variety of places in the country to the training camp, and the town would therefore have little connection to the men. The poem highlights this sense of anonymity and the very low-key way in which the men are transported out to the war – like a guilty secret. The last 5 lines of the poem asks how many will return and what state they will be in when they do.

Structure

•      Structured in stanzas of 3 lines and then 2 lines.

•      What happens in the stanzas of 3 lines? – this is the “story” of the poem, detailing what is happening as the men are moved away from the camp.

•      What happens in the stanzas of 2 lines? – this is the comment on what is happening, almost the poet’s internal thoughts and the reality of the war. If you look, these 2 line stanzas are often talking about or alluding to death

•      How does the rhyme scheme help to tie these stanzas together? – the rhyme scheme spreads over the stanza breaks so that each 3 and 2 line stanzas form a 5 line rhyme scheme.

Language

The language is all pointing towards a very low-key secretive send off. The first 8 lines are full of dull words: “close”, “darkening” (suggesting being hidden), “siding-shed” (they’re being pushed to one side), “Dull porters” (uninterested, they’ve seen it all before. No one is there to see them off, just “a casual tramp”, suggesting he only ended up there by accident as he had nothing better to do. There is no ceremony in this send-off – maybe because it happens so often, maybe because the people of the town have no relationships with these soldiers from other places: “They were not ours” is quite an isolated line and shows this lack of connection, whilst the mystery and secrecy of the whole business is emphasised in “We never heard to which front these were sent”

The poet uses personification to create quite a sinister effect: “Then, unmoved, the signals nodded, and a lamp/Winked to the guard” – it makes it sound as though all the workings of the railway station are in some kind of conspiracy and in on some secret then the men are unaware of. The winking of the lamp could also refer to flickering light – which could be symbolic of flickering (dying) life?

The men are described as “wrongs hushed up” implying they should not be going and that the real truth is being hidden, not only from them, but the country as a whole.

The state of the men if and when they return is highlighted through the use of the verb “creep” – very different to those cheerful men we read about in “Joining the Colours”. The small number of them is shown through the repetition of “A few, a few, too few”.

Oxymoron

•      An oxymoron is when two deliberately contrasting words are used together.

•      “grimly gay”

•      Why does the poet use this image? – emphasised by the alliteration and suggests that they are putting a brave face on it? Or some sense of pain on the poet’s part – these men are quite cheerful about going (“gay”) and yet the poet knows what they are going to.

In summary

•      An ironic title – the poem tends to suggest the men are being taken away very secretively

•      Structured in stanzas of 3 lines and 2 lines, separating the “narrative” of the poem and an underlying meaning.

•      Deals with ideas of the anonymity of the soldiers