Lesson 1

WILFRED OWEN (1893- 1918)
"Wilfred Owen, the son of a railway worker, was born in Plas Wilmot, near Oswestry, on 18th March, 1893. Educated at the Birkenhead Institute and at Shrewsbury Technical School, he worked as a pupil-teacher at Wyle Cop School while preparing for his matriculation exam for the University of London. After failing to win a scholarship he found work as a teacher of English in the Berlitz School in Bordeaux.

"Although he had previously thought of himself as a pacifist, in October 1915 he enlisted in the Artists' Rifles. Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant, he joined the Manchester Regiment in France in January, 1917. While in France, Wilfred Owen began writing poems about his war experiences.

"In the summer of 1917 Owen was badly concussed at the Somme after a shell landed just two yards away. After several days in a bomb crater with the mangled corpse of a fellow officer, Owen was diagnosed as suffering from shell-shock.

"While recovering at Craiglockhart War Hospital, he met the poet, Siegfried Sassoon. Owen showed Sassoon his poetry, who advised and encouraged him. So also did another writer at the hospital, Robert Graves. Sassoon suggested that Owen should write in a more direct, colloquial style. Over the next few months Owen wrote a series of poems, including "Anthem for Doomed Youth", "Disabled", "Dulce et Decorum Est" and "Strange Meeting".

"In August 1918 Owen was declared fit to return to the Western Front. He fought at Beaurevoir-Fonsomme, where he was awarded the Military Cross. Wilfred Owen was killed by machine-gun fire while leading his men across the Sambre Canal on 4th November 1918. A week later the Armistice was signed. The bells were ringing on November 11, 1918, in Shrewsbury to celebrate the Armistice when the doorbell rang at his parent's home, bringing them the telegram telling them their son was dead.

"Only five of Owen's poems were published while he was alive. After Owen's death, his friend, Siegfried Sassoon, arranged for the publication of his Collected Poems (1920)." http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jowen.htm

  • Alfred Bastien was a Belgian painter who was seconded to the famous French-Canadian 22nd Battalion (the van Doos) during World War 1. Like the works of many other Canadian and international artists, his paintings provided authentic depictions of events and experiences during this "war to end all wars". World War I recorded one of the highest death tolls in history. The painters sent to record events of the war did not attempt to glorify it. Their works are still important records of the war today.

Note that this scene depicts the realistic horrors of war. The landscape is blighted and the dead and wounded are the focus of the visual. Bastien was not trying to glorify the war or bolster enthusiasm for the war effort. His purpose appears to have been to honestly record some of the real and horrific costs of the war and perhaps to balance some of the propaganda pushing the war effort.

In terms of visual techniques, note the impact of the stretchers and the dead in the foreground; the contrast between the blue sky in the background and the brown, blighted landscape; the lonely figure standing in front of the stretcher in the centre of the painting; and the stark impact of the two dark and blighted trees.

Read and study the notes on WRITING A PERSONAL RESPONSE TO TEXT. 
Read and study the notes on "The Hybrid Approach".

View the tutorial on writing a personal response to text 

.