Wilfred Owen - The Next WarOut there, we’ve walked quite friendly up to Death; Sat down and eaten with him, cool and bland, -- Pardoned his spilling mess-tins in our hand. We’ve sniffed the green thick odour of his breath, -- Our eyes wept, but our courage didn’t writhe. He’s spat at us with bullets and he’s coughed Shrapnel. We chorused when he sang aloft; We whistled while he shaved us with his scythe. Oh, Death was never enemy of ours! We laughed at him, we leagued with him, old chum. No soldier’s paid to kick against his powers. We laughed, knowing that better men would come, And greater wars; when each proud fighter brags He wars on Death – for lives; not men – for flags. |
AnalyseWilfred Owen’s poem “The Next War”, is written from his own perspective, the imagery or subject matter in the poem are actual circumstances he had to cope with when on the front in 1917, during World War One. The tone of the poem is reasonably melancholy, but somehow Owen has captured one of the most sorrowful events of our lives, death, and turned it into a tolerable situation, where death is not the enemy; rather the companion. Throughout the poem there are continuous references to “Death”. Not, however, as in the loss of life, but rather “death” being a specific character. Death is personified: death is now an “old chum”. We’ve sat down and eaten with death, we’ve pardoned his spilling mess-tins that he spilled in our hands, we’ve even sniffed the green thick odour of his breathe. But these stanza’s are not puerile sentiments, they are more so a deep symbolisation of the tragedies that are faced at war.
On the second line of the poem, “...Sat down and eaten with him, cool and bland”, it is conveying how death is always amongst the soldiers, even when undertaking a simple task, like eating. On the third line, death is the explosion that is responsible for “spilling the mess-tins in our hands”. But it is not a metaphorical explosion, this line represents the gas attacks the soldiers, and Owen, had to endure. Line four reads, “...sniffed the green thick odour of his breath.” This particular verse is showing the aftermath of the explosion, the ‘green thick odor’ is the poisonous gas. On line nine it continues, “Oh, Death was never an enemy of ours!”, for death cannot be the enemy to the soldier. Death has become a constant companion with the soldier, for the soldier has killed also: “we leagued with him”. |