'Disabled' by Wilfred Owen

There is one particular line in this poem which has made me think about a deeper meaning:

"Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn."

This for me is one of the more useful lines I can learn for the War Synoptic. The fact that the boys voices are ringing is very good imagery, it is like they are echoing inside the soldier's head but he is not entirely with it and not really taking in what is going on around him: he is so sad that his mental state has deteriorated.

The question I have about this though is the use of a hymn. If the voices are 'saddening like a hymn', is Owen suggesting that religion is of no use to a soldier, and in fact, that religion is bad?

Reply 1

emilie87

I haven't actually done that poem, but my favourite line for the War Lit Unit is quite similar-

'Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad'

from 'Survivors,' by Sassoon.

Wow.

Reply 2

louinwonderland

2

Alex Mann

There is one particular line in this poem which has made me think about a deeper meaning:

"Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn."

This for me is one of the more useful lines I can learn for the War Synoptic. The fact that the boys voices are ringing is very good imagery, it is like they are echoing inside the soldier's head but he is not entirely with it and not really taking in what is going on around him: he is so sad that his mental state has deteriorated.

The question I have about this though is the use of a hymn. If the voices are 'saddening like a hymn', is Owen suggesting that religion is of no use to a soldier, and in fact, that religion is bad?

Yes I'd say so. Also, maybe it reflects the idea that religion, (represented by 'hymns') is distant from the reality of his situation: it is of no comfort to him now, though it might have been before the war.

Sorry if that didn't make sense!

Reply 3

Montrose

OP

17

Yes that does, although I think I would have a lot of trouble expressing it in an exam.

Reply 4

louinwonderland

2

Maybe, but you could link to that bit in 'Birdsong' when a group of miners and the padre watch the battle of the Somme. The padre sees the men dying and rips off his cross because he realises that religion has no place in war, it's godless if you like.

Reply 5

Charlottie

12

I like the distance idea, you take it from another angle and look at the idea that contemporary society often turned to religion to comfort them, that in early war poetry soldiers were at one with God, the war was just, and the dead beatified with the torment of the injured largely ignored. Now, he is distant from the ideals of religion and thus society, and he is the only one who realises, in the most painful way, the truth about the war. Slightly like Owen himself, perhaps - at home people were still optimistic, jingoistic and vague, for Owen the war was graphic and real, just like his poetry.

You could consider the later raference to 'his lie: nineteen years', which perhaps gives some context to the reason the 'hymn' is saddening. He was too young for the army, and thus he still young, still a boy, like them, but at the same time different. There's also a reverse, 'younger than his youth last year' which suggests he is now older than his youth. Perhaps the hymn speaks to him in saddness, because he wants to be what he was before?

Reply 6

igloo

1

Charlottie, what do you mean by jingoistic?

Reply 7

Charlottie

12

Extreme chauvinistic patriotism is jingoism.

Reply 8

glitterxsparkle

10

Jessie Pope WW1 poet- very jingoistic. Owen actually wrote one of his poems in response to attitudes held by poets like Pope, 'dulce et decorum est' was one poem aimed at Pope. Owen is basically saying all you people at home may say it is 'sweet and fitting' to die for your country but the reality is that it isn't. He uses some very vivid imagery 'froth corrupted lungs' 'devil sick of sin'.

I would just like to ask a question about disabled 'leap of purple spurted from his thigh' what do you make of this line. In my coursework i suggested that it could have something to do with sexual imagery. One of my teachers told me this is what it meant, but my other lit teacher showed it to two other teachers and said she disagreed. So i had to take it out of my cwk. Just interested in what others think of that line. Thanks

Reply 9

rachplatt

2

Just looking at the ref to Birdsong earlier in this thread. How does everyone plan to include references to books in their answer? Direct quotations? or just brief explanation as to what happened and why it is significant, like louinwonderland has done above?

Reply 10

Montrose

OP

17

I include direct quotations if I know them, else I just summarise it in my own words.

Another question then to chew over; this time from 'How To Die' by Siegfried Sassoon.

"You'd think, to hear some people talk, that lads go West with sobs and curses."

Given the sarcastic nature of the poem (at the end of the poem Sassoon satirieses in a dark manner the expected 'dignified' nature of death within war by making it look ridiculous), that this is also a sarcastic line or meant to be taken at face value? My first reaction was that this was Sassoon defending his fellow soldiers, commending them for their bravery. However, may it also be sarcastic, as in to say "well after all this talk of bravery you've got it completely wrong and most men are nervous wrecks"?

I'm inclined to go with the former but would be interested in others views.

Reply 11

Jenni_Kitten

2

rachplatt

Just looking at the ref to Birdsong earlier in this thread. How does everyone plan to include references to books in their answer? Direct quotations? or just brief explanation as to what happened and why it is significant, like louinwonderland has done above?

Both, wihichever happens to be more appropriate at the time. After all, you want to show wider reading through remembering and analysing certain quotes, but you also want to prove you've read the whole text and can comparse/contrast sections and events.