War poetry was a way of soldiers telling of their experience of the war. Wilfred Owen uses his skills as a poet to tell his family of the horrors of war. War killed many British and they needed lots of reinforcements for back-up. Many of the young men went to war seeking an adventure and a way to see the world for free. The British government wanted to keep it this way because they needed constant reinforcements. The government often read and edited their poems to censor what it was like to be a soldier.
Wilfred Owen used war as a basis for a lot of his work. He wrote many poems about war and some were even published. Many of the poems written by Owen would have most certainly put most young men off going to war. His last letter home before his death describes the closeness to his fellow soldier but also tells of the horrors he faces everyday.
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"Dearest Mother,.
So thick is the smoke in this cellar that I can hardly see by candle twelve inches away. And so thick are the inmates that I can hardly write for pokes, nudges and jolts. On my left, the company commander snores on a bench. It is a great life. I am more oblivious than the less, dear mother, of the ghastly glimmering of the guns outside and the hollow crashing of the shells.
I hope you are as warm as I am, soothed in your room as I am here. I am certain you could not be visited by a band of friends half so fine as surrounded us here. There is no danger down here - or if any, it will be well over before you read these line .".
Biographical Timeline.
1893 - 18 March, Born Plas Wilmot, Oswestry.
1911 - Becomes a lay assistant at Dunsden.
1913 - Leaves for Bordeaux, France to teach English.
1914 - Meets French poet Laurent Talihade.
1915 - October, Returns to England, enlists in 3/28 regiment.
1917 - Arrives in France to notorious Infantry depot as an Officer reinforcement.
1917 - 12th January, In charge In front line at Serre.
1917 - 14/15th March, Suffers concussion after a fall.