Send_Off

Wilfred Owen was born on the 18th of March 1893 in United Kingdom. He is probably, one of the most important English War Poets. The popularity of Owen today can be explained by his condemnation of the horrors of war. As an English poet, he is noted for his anger at the cruelty and waste of war and his pity for its victims. He said, “My subject is War and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.” being a soldier, he got killed in action on November 4th, 1918 in France, seven days before the end of the First World war. The poem suggests that the outcome of war is grim for the vast majority of the soldiers who if they return home would either be dead or injured. Pictures of death are painted in the poem. Wilfred Owen is trying to put forward the idea that when you are ‘sent off’ you never come back. A thought- provoking poem, written in the spring of 1918, describes the scene at a railway station. The poem was written at Ripon, where there was huge army camp. T he men who are recruited to join the army to fight for their country, made their way to the siding-shed. The troops have just come from a sending-off ceremony- cheering crowd, bells, drums, flowers have been given by strangers- and now they are being packed into trains to an unknown destination. From the beginning, the atmosphere seems sinister. The lanes are darkening and claustrophobic, adding to the sad and gloomy atmosphere of their leaving. The soldiers who are lining the train are ‘grimly gay.’ This is an example of oxymoron. They are happy as it is patriotic to fight for one’s country. But their happiness is shadowed by the fact that they are going to war and may not come back. The phrase ‘grimly gay’ also describes the uncertainty as well as the desperate attempts made by the soldiers to be brave. The poet sees the men as dead as they get into the train. Their breasts are ‘stuck’ with flowers and spray. It is something that the soldiers can never depart from as these flowers and sprays signify the same which will be used for their funeral. Traditionally flowers have double significance- coloured for celebration and white for mourning. So the women who stuck flowers on their breasts think they are expressing support but are actually garlanding them for their slaughter. ‘Breasts were stuck…… white with wreaths’ describes the soldiers’ appearance. It is as well an imagery of death and beauty. The crowds have gone elsewhere and they are watched only by ‘dull’ porters and the uninspiring figure of a tramp. Porters in the railway station looked dull. They are not enthusiastic in carrying the baggages of the soldiers. They know that they are leaving their friends on the train which will return but never with them. Even a ‘casual tramp’ who doesn’t bother to worry about other things ‘stood staring’ as if he is sorry to miss these people. Even the insensitive people are moved to pity. The alliteration in ‘stood staring’, ‘grimly gay’ adds to the strength of the feelings. These reflect the uncertainty of the situation. The signals seemed ‘unmoved’, it ‘nodded’ and the lamp ‘winked’ as if approving the departure of the soldiers. These are examples of personification. The verbs like ‘watched’, ’stood staring’, unmoved’, ‘nodded’, ‘winked’ describes the feelings of the various men and things to the soldiers’ sad fate. Their departure is secret, ‘like wrongs hushed-up,’ because the true nature of what is happening to them is being concealed. Thus creates a sense of guilt. The wrongs are ‘hushed-up’ so secretly and quickly. Likewise, the soldiers, even though they feel sad, they hush up all their tears. Their fates are written for their country. It seems they make fun of the women who give them flowers as these flowers which now have a positive aspect will soon change into flowers for funerals. The first person plural ‘we’ and third person plural ‘they’ all point out the unity both sides feel as a part of the group. ‘Shall they return……train loads’ is a rhetorical question. Owen seems to have disturbed public emotion and felt that the highly organized displays can only obstruct true communication between people and clear thought. The poet gives us the idea that ‘a few, a few’ may return for all the celebrations and feasting of their safe arrival ‘drums and yells.’ Of the men who have been sent off, only a few will survive and each of them must find his own way back; the healing process needs silence and privacy. Some may come back ‘silent’ to the village, dead or injured to continue their journey on ‘half-known roads.’ In a letter home, Owen had described how the Germans ‘choked up the wells with farmyard refuse’, and the image found its way into two poems, ‘Strange Meeting’ and “the Send Off.’ Village wells were traditional meeting- place where travelers can find refreshment, and half-known roads, it is suggested, are better than the broad highway of public opinion. --------------------------------------