Wilfred Owen, a veteran of World War I, died at 25 years old, shortly before the Armistice was announced. (Armistice Day became Veterans Day, which we just celebrated.)
Before Owen died, he had been seriously wounded in combat, hospitalized, and then diagnosed with the era-appropriate term for post-traumatic stress, which was "shell shock."
While in the hospital, he met fellow poet Siegfried Sassoon. Robert Graves, another important British literary figure and veteran, wrote "Wet Bond of Blood," describing the relationship among combat veterans, for Sassoon. (We wrote about that poem several years ago, in an item linked here.) All three men -- Owen, Graves and Sassoon -- fought in World War I and all three of them suffered from what we now know as PTSD. Owen used his time in the hospital to write many of the poems that later made him famous.
There's a terrible/beautiful one called "Insensibility," whose phrases speak powerfully of combat, loss and numbness. A few key lines, pulled out of sequence so we can sense their evocative power, are those selected below. Think about how much they relate to veterans today. Combat and its effects, including PTSD, are timeless. The HBO documentary, Wartorn, just released makes that point powerfully by following individual soldiers' unraveling after combat from the Civil War to the present. But Owen's poem also covers some of the same ground. A few lines in particular stand out:
"Happy are men who yet before they are killed
Can let their veins run cold."
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"And some cease feeling
Even themselves or for themselves."
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"Happy are these who lose imagination:
They have enough to carry with ammunition.
Their spirit drags no pack.
Their old wounds, save with cold, can not more ache.
Having seen all things red,
Their eyes are rid
Of the hurt of the colour of blood forever."
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And the closing lines, about men ("dullards") who never fought, but feel nothing for those who died:
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"By choice they made themselves immune
To pity and whatever moans in man
Before the last sea and the hapless stars;
Whatever mourns when many leave these shores;
Whatever shares
The eternal reciprocity of tears."
Editor's note: For more about famous WWI poet, Wilfred Owen, click here. For a selection of Owen's poems, all about war, online, click here. For the full text of Owen's poem, "Insensibility," referenced above, click here.
