Having been discharged in November, Wilfred spent Christmas 1917 with the Manchester's reserve battalion at Scarborough. It was here he read Under Fire, the first-hand account of a French soldier's harrowing experiences in the Great War, and a strong influence on Owen's writing. Thanks to Sassoon, Owen also met several other authors in the late months of 1917, including Robert Graves - a fellow war poet - and H. G. Wells, the acclaimed science fiction author. In March 1918 Owen was posted to Northern Command at Ripon, where he spent many of his off-duty hours writing in a rented attic; this period, which lasted until Wilfred was judged to be fit to serve again in June, ranks alongside the months in Craiglockhart as Owen's most poetically productive and important.
Growing Fame
Despite a low number of publications, Owen's poetry was now attracting attention, prompting supporters to request non-combat positions on his behalf, but these requests were turned down. It's questionable as to whether Wilfred would have accepted them: his letters reveal a sense of obligation, that he had to do his duty as poet and observe the conflict in person, a feeling exacerbated by Sassoon's renewed injuries and return from the front. Only by fighting could Owen earn respect, or escape the easy slurs of cowardice, and only a proud war-record would protect him from detractors.
Owen Returns To The Front And Is Killed
Owen was back in France by September - again as a company commander - and on September 29th he captured a machine gun position during an attack on the Beaurevoir-Fonsomme Line, for which he was awarded the Military Cross. After his battalion was rested in early October Owen saw in action again, his unit operating around the Oise-Sambre canal. Early in the morning of November 4th Owen led an attempt to cross the canal; he was struck and killed by enemy fire.
Aftermath
Owen's death was followed by one of World War One's most iconic stories: when the telegram reporting his demise was delivered to his parents, the local church bells could be heard ringing in celebration of the armistice. A collection of Owen's poems was soon created by Sassoon, although the numerous different versions, and the attendant difficulty in working out which were Owen's drafts and which were his preferred edits, led to two new editions in the early 1920's. The definitive edition of Wilfred's work may well be Jon Stallworthy's Complete Poems and Fragments from 1983, but all justify Owen's long-lasting acclaim.
The War Poetry
The poetry is not for everyone, for within Owen combines graphic descriptions of trench life - gas, lice, mud, death - with an absence of glorification; dominant themes include the return of bodies to the earth, hell and the underworld. Wilfred Owen's poetry is remembered as reflecting the real life of the soldier, although critics and historians argue over whether he was overwhelming honest or overly scared by his experiences.
He was certainly 'compassionate', a word repeated throughout this biography and texts on Owen in general, and works like 'Disabled', focusing on the motives and thoughts of soldiers themselves, provide ample illustration of why. Owen's poetry is certainly free of the bitterness present in several historians' monographs on the conflict, and he is generally acknowledged as being the both the most successful, and best, poet of war's reality. The reason why may be found in the 'preface' to his poetry, of which a drafted fragment was found after Owen's death: "Yet these elegies are not to this generation, this is in no sense consolatory. They may be to the next. All a poet can do today is to warn. That is why the true Poets must be truthful." (Wilfred Owen, 'Preface')
Notable Family of Wilfred Owen
Father: Tom Owen
Mother: Susan Owen
