Wilfred Owen - poetry

As I finish writing a book, I find it difficult to read or focus on prose so opted to read poetry for the past few weeks. It provides a distraction from my work at coffee breaks and lunchtimes, so I opted for this collection by Wilfred Owen. I used to teach secondary school pupils, so was familiar with a couple of Owen’s poems. I knew of his ‘the war poet’ label and often wondered if such a clichéd title was justified or purely lazy categorising. I listened to a fantastic podcast from Melvyn Bragg and guests on ‘In Our Time’ and discovered a wealth of information which I hadn’t known whilst studying or teaching. It gave me an invaluable sight into his life prior to reading the poetry. I’ve listened to the podcast three times in fact, revisiting it whilst partway through the collection as certain aspects have come through in his poetry, as you’d expect. They don’t make for easy reading, there’s various descriptions which capture the suffering and true horror of war – several brought me to tears! Certain lines have lingered, as poetry does, providing an invaluable escape from my own work. 

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