| On the Poet |
| Ø Wilfred Edward Salter Owen, (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918)
Ø His poetry is a sharp contrast to the patriotic verse written by earlier war poets such as Rupert Brooke. Ø On 21 October 1915, he enlisted in the Artists’ Rifles Officers’ Training Corps Ø Owen was killed in action on 4 November 1918 during the crossing of the Sambre–Oise Canal, exactly one week before the signing of the Armistice, which ended the war Ø He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant the day after his death. Ø The Romantic poets Keats and Shelley significantly influenced his early writing and poetry. Ø Sassoon was his close companion Ø Owen was a homosexual |
| On the Poem |
| · The poem was written sometime in 1918 and was published in 1919 after Owen’s death.
· The poem is renowned for its technical innovation, particularly the pararhyme, so named by Edmund Bluson regarding Owen’s use of assonant endings. · Pararhyme or double consonance is a particular feature of the poetry of Wilfred Owen and also occurs throughout Strange Meeting – the whole poem is written in pararhyming couplets. Pararhyme is a half-rhyme in which there is vowel variation within the same consonant pattern. · There are many slant rhymes used in this poem (e.g. hall and hell), rather than perfect rhymes. Owen chose to use slant rhymes to build suspense and disorient us. · This poem is written in one stanza of iambic pentameter with an AABBCC slant-rhyme pattern. · Elliot B. Gose, Jr. writes that “the Other…represents the narrator’s unconscious, his primal self from which he has been alienated by war.” · The poet Ted Hughes noted in his writings on “Strange Meeting”: “few poets can ever have written with such urgent, defined, practical purpose.” |
| Text of the poem |
| It seemed that out of the battle I escaped
Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped Through granites which Titanic wars had groined. Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned, Too fast in thought or death to be bestirred. Then, as I probed them, one sprang up, and stared With piteous recognition in fixed eyes, Lifting distressful hands as if to bless. And by his smile, I knew that sullen hall; By his dead smile, I knew we stood in Hell. With a thousand fears that vision’s face was grained; Yet no blood reached there from the upper ground, And no guns thumped, or down the flues made moan. “Strange, friend,” I said, “Here is no cause to mourn.” “None,” said the other, “Save the undone years, The hopelessness. Whatever hope is yours, Was my life also; I went hunting wild After the wildest beauty in the world, 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. For by my glee might many men have laughed, And of my weeping something has been left, Which must die now. I mean the truth untold, The pity of war, the pity war distilled. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 . . .” |
| Explanations |
Ex: The tunnel (which may be a metaphor for the speaker) seems to be made of granite that huge wars had carved.
ANS: Engrossed in a strange fantasy the speaker in Wilfred Owen’s poem Strange Meeting finds himself, after having escaped death from the battlefront, in a strange place, which is, of course, nowhere other than hell, among lifeless soldiers, the victims of the war, who, now remain huddled together silenced either by the thought of their unfortunate lives on earth or by the fact of being dead.
ANS: In a bizarre poetic fantasy, conceived of most pathetically, the speaker in Wilfred Owen’s poem Strange Meeting finds himself in hell among the victims of the war, and comes across a soldier –killed by none other than the poet himself yesterday—to rise up before him suddenly to stare at him with pitiful recognition of past acquaintance and to lift his hands in a painful labouredly gesture of blessing, an act which is, of course, possible now, as death levels all and there can be no enmity after death.
ANS: The speaker in Wilfred Owen’s poem Strange Meeting finds himself among the victims of the war huddled together in the underground of grave created by the explosion of the shells, and comes across a soldier –killed by none other than the poet himself yesterday—to rise up before suddenly him to stare at him with pitiful recognition of past acquaintance and with a strange smile of a lifeless being. These unusual circumstances lead him to conclude that the strange place is hell itself. · “Yet no blood reached there from the upper ground,/And no guns thumped, or down the flues made moan.” Ex: The soldier’s underground in the soil are further than the depth of the blood that seeps down from the battlefield and the sounds of war. This isolation conveys the sense of detachment from the war that Owen feels and could imply that it is only the dead who are free from the horrors of war.
ANS: As the speaker in Wilfred Owen’s poem Strange Meeting, recognizes the enemy soldier killed by him yesterday and the place of the strange meeting in hell after death, he tells him that now there can be no grievances, as death puts an end to all kinds of enmity.
ANS: In a reply to the dry ironical understanding of the speaker in Wilfred Owen’s poem Strange Meeting that after death there can be no grievances in hell, the enemy soldier, killed by the speaker himself yesterday, speaks of the past life on earth most pathetically. He now understands that all his years on earth came to nothing as the dreams and hopes of a young man remained unfulfilled.
Q: What does the poet refer to as ‘which’ here? What is his conception of that? Why does he mean by “grieves richlier than here”? ANS: While talking of his shattered dreams on earth, the enemy soldier in Wilfred Owen’s poem Strange Meeting voices to his killer, the speaker’s idea of beauty that it does not reside in the beautiful, calm eyes of a woman, nor in the plaits of hair of some woman. Beauty, according to him and to Owen as well, is eternal in that it produces pure joy, which is necessary for happiness on earth. Since his life on earth terminated untimely, he laments that he could not enjoy the beauty or the joy of life, nor could he become a cause of joy to others.
ANS: While talking of his shattered dreams on earth, the enemy soldier in Wilfred Owen’s poem Strange Meeting voices his grievances to his killer that had he been alive he could have told the unenlightened peoples of the world how he suffered at the cost of his life for some fictitious ideological causes, how war hits mankind; for, he now knows the essence of war and peace, life and death.
ANS: Before going to expose his identity, the enemy soldier in Wilfred Owen’s poem Strange Meeting tells his killer, the speaker that he had the courage to face the naked truths of war, and that he had the enlightenment, like Christ, that mankind makes a retreat from civilization in violence through war and reaches a place, which is unprotected like the fortresses giving in to decay and destruction. That is why he did not kill the speaker yesterday.
ANS: Before going to expose his identity, the enemy soldier in Wilfred Owen’s poem Strange Meeting tells his killer, the speaker that, since he has known the deepest truths about war and peace, life and death, he hopes to go forward to cleanse the soiled spirits of the victims of war with the power of his secrets when the machines of death and destruction in another war of the same magnitude will spill human blood.
ANS: It is only towards the end of their conversation that the enemy soldier exposes his identity to the speaker in Wilfred Owen’s poem Strange Meeting that he is the enemy soldier killed by the speaker yesterday in the battlefield. The enemy soldier recognizes the speaker on his arrival in hell by his frowning, for yesterday, while thrusting his sword into his body on the battlefield, he frowned in the same way. But the enemy soldier felt loath to react in the same way and laid his life before him.
ANS: Towards the end of their conversation, the enemy soldier exposes his identity to the speaker in Wilfred Owen’s poem Strange Meeting that he is the enemy soldier killed by the speaker yesterday on the battlefield. But now, after their death, since they are now in hell, there can be no enmity. Therefore, they can now sleep in peace forever.
ANS: Everything in Wifred Owen’s poem Strange Meeting is strange. It is a strange poetic fantasy. It deals with an encounter between the speaker and a supposedly unknown or strange person, the enemy soldier killed by the speaker yesterday on the battlefield. Again the encounter takes place in the strangest place of all, hell. but above all, the stranger speaks of his strange experience and realization of war and peace, life and death. Ultimately, the reader experiences a range of emotions while reading the poem. |
| MCQs |
| 1. The title of the poem is reminiscent of
A. Shelley’s The Revolt of Islam: “Gone forth whom no strange meeting did befall” 2. Name a poem by Sassoon where two dead soldiers meet A. “The Rear Guard” 3. The poem can be categorized as a/an A. Elegy B. Monologue C. Dramatic monologue 4. The poem can be categorized as A. Symbolist poem B. A surrealist poem 5. The setting of the poem is A. Fictional B. Real C. Surreal D. Absurd 6. Was Owen a clairvoyant? A. Yes he was B. Perhaps he was [perhaps he foresaw his own death as can be found in the poem] C. Not at all 7. “Dead smile.” What is the figure of speech? A. Oxymoron [having both positive and negative connotations] [Similar: ‘Strange friend’ also a paradox] 8. “Foreheads of men have bled where no wounds were.” It refers to A. Shell-shock in WW1, a kind of mental trauma which the soldiers carried mentally without having any physical injury. 9. What does the “Chariot wheels” refer to? A. The engaged nation as war machine and the progress it was making in the war. 10. What can the expression “Retreating world” mean? A. Dying world and loss of civilization. 11. “Vain citadels” refers? A. Earth becoming worthless because of death and destruction. 12. “walls” means? A. Protective human qualities like compassion, respect, fellow-feeling 13. “They” refers to A. the soldiers [an indication of humanity becoming savage and animalistic] 14. “None will break ranks” means A. The soldiers will continue fighting, while “nations trek from progress”, furthering themselves from civilization and humanity. 15. “Now men will go content with what we spoiled./Or, discontent, boil bloody, and be spilled.” How can these lines be best described? A. Plain truth B. Ambiguous [“Men” can refer to the people safe at home and they are not fighting. They are satisfied with what their country has done for them, but unaware of what had to be done to achieve it. It can also mean: they could be unsatisfied with the war and be angry with what they had to do. C. Pity of war 16. “Foreheads of men have bled where no wounds were.” What is the figure of speech? A. Metaphor [for psychological pain and other various forms, such as shellshock.] 17. “sleepers” refers to the A. Other dead soldiers. 18. “Groined/groaned” is an instance of A. Pararhyme [produces an effect of dissonance, and failure.] 19. “down some profound dull tunnel” is an instance of A. Oxymoron [between the profound and dull] 20. “long since scooped” means A. The tunnel had been there for a long time. [Tunnel to hell] 21. ‘Titanic’ means A. Having an enormous effect 22. What is ironic about the situation of the two soldiers? A. They are ‘friends’ now at hell after death but were enemies while alive. 23. The final line of the poem indicates that the poem is a A. Dream [ellipses show there is more to come (repetitive dreams)] 24. Who saw in the poem a “technical achievement of great originality” A. T. S. Eliot 25. “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.” Who says this? A. The enemy soldier (and not the first-person narrator of the poet 26. “I parried” means A. I tried to justify my position or bless the person. (ambiguous meaning |
Owen: Strange Meeting
