‘Spring Offensive’ of Wilfred Owen
‘Spring Offensive’ of Wilfred Owen: Offensive and Its Outcome
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Wilfred Owen Masters the group of war poets who have the first hand experienced of modern war fare. ‘Spring Offensive’ like other poems of Owen, is an eloquent protest against the cruelties and horror of war and it is drawn on Owens own experience of the Anglo French offensive launched in April 1917 to attack the Germans who took shelter behind the river Somme in France.
The very title of the poem embodies a conflict in the poem. The word ‘spring is a season of love and beauty, of birth and regeneration, of gala and union while offensive suggests an attack destruction oozing blood. Thus ‘Spring Offensive’means an unnatural offense of war against nature. The violence of natural beauty and smoothness is the interpretation of the offensive which is quite contrary to the will of nature.
Wilfred Owen
In the poem we see that a troop of unidentified soldiers halting near the shade of a last hill. The soldiers have been fed and after having unloaded their load packs, are resting. Some soldiers are sleeping carelessly, leaning on the chests or knees of their fellow comrades. Many soldiers stand still, acing the empty sky beyond ridge knowing in the heart of their hearts that they have just a few hours more to live. They are expecting the order, they watch the long grass being swirled by the may breeze, murmourous with wasp and midge and feel the pleasing summer oozing into their veins like an injected drug of their physical pain. They ponder over the field and the distant valley they have left behind. Their slow boots have been blessed with the golden pollens of the buttercups. The little brambles seem to couch and cling to them like the arms of sorrowing man. While remembering of these the soldiers’ remains standing motionless like trees before the gale. Then the order offensive comes and the soldiers get ready for the attack. In a moment the whole sky
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Wilfred Owen Masters the group of war poets who have the first hand experienced of modern war fare. ‘Spring Offensive’ like other poems of Owen, is an eloquent protest against the cruelties and horror of war and it is drawn on Owens own experience of the Anglo French offensive launched in April 1917 to attack the Germans who took shelter behind the river Somme in France.
The very title of the poem embodies a conflict in the poem. The word ‘spring is a season of love and beauty, of birth and regeneration, of gala and union while offensive suggests an attack destruction oozing blood. Thus ‘Spring Offensive’means an unnatural offense of war against nature. The violence of natural beauty and smoothness is the interpretation of the offensive which is quite contrary to the will of nature.
Wilfred Owen
In the poem we see that a troop of unidentified soldiers halting near the shade of a last hill. The soldiers have been fed and after having unloaded their load packs, are resting. Some soldiers are sleeping carelessly, leaning on the chests or knees of their fellow comrades. Many soldiers stand still, acing the empty sky beyond ridge knowing in the heart of their hearts that they have just a few hours more to live. They are expecting the order, they watch the long grass being swirled by the may breeze, murmourous with wasp and midge and feel the pleasing summer oozing into their veins like an injected drug of their physical pain. They ponder over the field and the distant valley they have left behind. Their slow boots have been blessed with the golden pollens of the buttercups. The little brambles seem to couch and cling to them like the arms of sorrowing man. While remembering of these the soldiers’ remains standing motionless like trees before the gale. Then the order offensive comes and the soldiers get ready for the attack. In a moment the whole sky