[OWEN] |
With reference to three of his poems, discuss how Wilfred Owen depicts the deep bonds of friendship and understanding that develop between soldiers.
Several of Owen's poems depict the deep bonds of friendship and understanding that develop between soldiers. Shorn of their familial connections, these young men have only each other to rely on. This brotherly love is even more powerful than erotic love, Owen suggests. Friendship is one of the few things these soldiers have to live for, and Owen ably conveys its significance. This is brought out in three particular poems, 'Greater Love', 'Strange Meeting' and 'Apologia Pro Poemate Meo'.
In 'Greater Love', Owen takes up the religious theme of Christ's love, reflected and a love of soldiers for each other, comparing this to the sentimental love shown by romantic lovers. Roses and red lips and soft voices are no match for the coarse sounds of war, for those sounds are more authentic and constitute the environs in which the soldiers develop their camaraderie.
English: Portrait of Wilfred Owen, found in a coll...
- the grave in communal cemetery
English: Portrait of Wilfred Owen, found in a coll...This is brought out when Owen says,
'' Red lips are not so red As the stained stones kissed by the English Dead.''
In this poem, Owen is responding to a poem by the romantic poet Swinburne, who depicted love in the usual romantic language and tone which Owen uses in order to criticize it and show its inferiority to the greater love shown by the soldiers. Wilfred Owen uses images of war full of harsh violent language and imagery which convey the tough but truer love that soldiers have for each other in the battlefield. The soldiers fell on the stones and "kissed" the stone, red because of the blood. Here we see the generosity between the lover and the beloved. When a soldier dies for one another, the other...