Disabled

1. Summary
The man sits in his wheelchair waiting for nightfall. He is chilled in his gray suit which is
legless and sewn at the elbows. Boys' voices ring out in the park; the voices are of "play
and pleasure" that echo until sleep takes them away from him.

Around this time the town used to be lively, with lamps in the trees and girls dancing in
the dim air. These were the old days before "he threw away his knees". He will no
longer have the chance to put his arms around girls' slim waists or feel their warm
hands. They look at him like he has a strange disease. Last year there was an artist that
wanted to depict his youth, but now he is old. His back will not "brace" and he gave up
his color in a land very far from here. He let it drain into "shell-holes" until it was all
gone. Half of his life is now passed from that "hot race", when a spurt of purple burst
from his thigh.

One time before the war he saw a blood smear on his leg and thought it looked like the
"matches carried shoulder-high". He had been drinking after football and he thought he
might as well sign up for war. Besides, someone had told him he would look like a god
in kilts. This is why he joined the war, and it was also for Meg.

It was easy for him to join. He lied about his age – said he was nineteen – and they
cheerfully wrote it down. He was not yet thinking of Germans or "fears / of Fear". All he
thought about were "jewelled hilts" and "daggers in plaid socks" and "smart salutes" and
"leave" and "pay arrears". Soon he was drafted, and the air was filled with "drums and
cheer". Only one serious man who brought him fruit asked him about his soul.

Now, after war, he will spend his time in the Institutes, doing what he should do and
accepting whatever pity the rulers want to give him. This evening he saw the women's
eyes pass over him to gaze on the strong men with whole bodies. He wonders why they
do not come and put him to bed since it is so cold and late.

Analysis
"Disabled" is one of Owen's most disturbing and affecting poems. It was written while he
was convalescing at Craiglockhart Hospital in Edinburgh after sustaining injuries on the
battlefield, and was revised a year later. This work was the subject of Owen's initial
relationship to poet Robert Graves. Owen wrote to his mother on October 14th, 1917,
saying, "On Sat. I met Robert Graves...showed him my longish war-piece 'Disabled'...it
seems Graves was mightily impressed and considers me a kind of Find!! No thanks,
Captain Graves! I'll find myself in due time." A few days later Graves expanded his
critique, telling Owen it was a "damn fine poem" but said that his writing was a bit
"careless". Graves's comment may derive from the fact that there are many irregularities
of stanza, meter, and rhyme in "Disabled".

In the first stanza the young soldier is depicted in a dark, isolated state as he sits in his
wheelchair. Almost immediately the reader learns that the soldier has lost his legs in a
battle. Owen casts a pall over this young man with the depiction of sad voices of boys
echoing throughout the park, perhaps as they echoed on the battlefield. The voices
throw him back into his memories, which is what will constitute the rest of the poem until
the last few lines. Words such as "waiting" and "sleep" reinforce the sense that this
soldier's life is interminable to him now.

In the second stanza the soldier reminisces about the old days before the war. He
conjures up sights and sounds of lamps and dancing girls before he bitterly remembers
that he will not get to experience a relationship with a woman now; they look at him as if
he has a "queer disease". It is not explicitly stated that the soldier, like Ernest
Hemingway's Jake Barnes in The Sun Also Rises, suffers from impotency deriving from
his war accident, but it is possible that this is also the case. The soldier feels
emasculated, ignored, almost betrayed by women.
In the third stanza the recollections continue, with the soldier musing on the happy days
of yore. He used to be young and handsome and an artist wanted to draw his face. Last
year he possessed youth, he says, but he no longer does - the soldier "lost his colour
very far from here / Poured it down shell-holes until veins ran dry". Another famous WWI
poet, C. Day Lewis, said this line possesses "deliberate, intense understatements – the
brave man's only answer to a hell which no epic words could express" and is "more
poignant and more rich with poetic promise than anything else that has been done
during this century." In the fourth stanza the boy also recalls that he was a football hero,
and that once a "blood-smear" on his leg sustained in a game was a badge of honor.
This is in stark contrast to his war wounds, which are shameful. He explains the almost
casual way he decided to go to war – after a game, when he was drunk, he thought he
ought to enlist. Swayed by a compliment and a girl named Meg, his justification for
going to war illustrates his youthful ignorance and naïveté is in full effect.

In the fifth stanza he says that he lied about his age to get into the military, and gave
nary a thought to Germans or fear. All he thought about was the glory and the uniforms
and the salutes and the "esprit de corps". This young man could have been almost any
young man from any country involved in the war, who, possessing such youth and lack
of worldly wisdom, did not think too deeply about what war really meant and what could
happen to his life. Owen is obviously sympathetic to the soldier's lack of understanding,
but he is also angry about "the military system that enabled the soldier to enlist through
lying about his age". Owen is careful to balance "the immaturity of the soldier...with
anger at the view of war as glamorous, a view held by both the soldier before the war
and by much of the public throughout."

In the sixth stanza a curious encounter occurs on the boy's way to war – one man who
is cheering him on is "solemn" and takes the time to inquire about his soul. It does not
seem like the boy took the time to wonder too deeply about this at the time, but the
encounter is a foreshadowing of the difficulties to come.

In the seventh stanza the soldier comes back to the present, realizing the bleakness of
his future. He knows that he will be in and out of institutes and hospitals, and will have
to suffer through the pity of those in power that put him in danger in the first place. What
exacerbates his situation is the continued slights from women, who look past him like he
is invisible to men that are "whole". The poem ends on a sad and mundane note as the
young man wonders why "they" do not come and put him to bed. It is a reminder that he
will have to have others do things for him from now on. His days of autonomy, and, of
course, glory, are clearly over. The poem is about one soldier, but what makes it so
compelling and relevant is its universal quality.

2. Language in Disabled
The language Owen uses in Disabled swings between the bleak diction used to describe the
man’s present life and the upbeat words of his glory days as a young, healthy man. At both
extremes Owen keeps the words simple.

Time shifts
The opening stanza, which depicts activity eclipsed by stillness due to the passing of
the hours, serves as a metaphor for the effects of time on the young man in the rest of
the poem. There are many references that signal the past: ‘about this time’ l.7 / ‘in the
old times’ l.10 / ‘one time’l.21. Owen’s triple use of ‘now’ pulls us back to the present.
Each time the word appears at the start of the line. In l.11 and 16 it appears within the
stanza and is the first word of the final stanza.

The present
Negatives
Owen heaps up negatives to illustrate the harsh ‘now’. In l.1 ‘waiting’ conveys a sense
of hopelessness rather than anticipation, given its association with the ‘dark’ and cold
(conveyed by ‘shivered’ l.2). The ‘ghastly’, ‘legless’ suit, ‘sewn short at elbow’ l.2-3
relentlessly exposes us to the man’s plight. 

Loss
In stanza two the ‘Now’ returns us from the man’s past to the present and a future
where he will:
               never feel again how slim
Girl’s waists are, or how warm their subtle hands. l.11-12
The sexual tension implied by these words builds throughout the poem. ‘Now’:
All of them touch him like some queer disease. (l.13)
Owen juxtaposes the women’s revulsion at the end of stanza two with the man’s lost
beauty in stanzas three, four and five. This has the effect of making the final female
rejection of him ‘tonight’ more poignant:
                         the women’s eyes
Passed from him to the strong men who were whole (l.43-4)
Owen has given us the reasons for this in stanza three: ‘Now he is old’, and he repeats
the plosive ‘b’ to emphasise the harsh truth that ‘his back will never brace’. (l.16).
Owen’s use of the present tense in, ’He’s lost his colour’ l.17, is a reminder of how the
actions of the past continue to have an impact in the present ; one moment of warfare
has changed the man’s life forever.

Pity
Owen concludes Disabled with one of the most pitiful endings of any of his poems:
How cold and late it is! Why don’t they come
And put him into bed? Why don’t they come? l.45-6
Exclaiming about the temperature and lateness of the hour is the kind of comment
associated with the elderly; it would never have bothered the fit young footballer the
man once was. The repeated complaint strikes a querulous tone and the sheer fact it
needs asking (twice) emphasises the man’s physical helplessness – like a child he
needs ‘putting to bed’.
Owen sees the ex-soldier’s future as dismal: a ’few sick years’ are all that are left, doing
only what ‘the rules consider wise’ and taking ‘whatever pity they may dole.’ Each word
is dreary and empty of hope and joy. The ‘pity’ is given out as if it is a duty, the term
‘dole’ being associated with charitable hand-outs to the destitute.

The past
Light and loveliness
In contrast to the ex-soldier’s current situation, Owen depicts the past in enticing detail.
In ‘Town’ before the war, it used to ‘swing so gay’ when ‘glow-lamps budded’ and ‘girls
glanced lovelier.’ Here Owen’s use of alliteration serves to emphasise the glamour. The
‘light blue’ of the trees and sense of light and spring (‘budded’) offer a contrast to the
greyness and absence of colour in the present (l.1,2,17).

Beauty
As well as the attractiveness of the girls, Owen records how beautiful the young man
had been. An artist was ‘silly for his face’, someone said that in a kilt ‘he’d look a god’.
The man himself recognises his physical appeal and dreams of:
           jewelled hilts
For daggers in plaid socks (l.32-3)
all part of the allure of the highland uniform. The ‘smart salutes’ and ‘esprit de corps’ of
l.33 and l.35 add to the glamour of joining up.

The horror
Owen concentrates his poetic techniques in the description of the turning point when the
man’s ‘lifetime lapsed’ l.19. The sudden flow of blood is conveyed by the flowing ‘l’
alliteration:
half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race
And leap of purple. l.20
whilst the plosive ‘p’s and hard ‘t’ and ‘d’ make the assonance of ‘purple spurted’
somehow distasteful. Owen’s use of the active verbs ‘threw away’ l.10, ‘lost’ l.17 and
‘poured’ l.18 are ironic, suggesting as they do that the man’s suffering was of his own
volition. 
It would be easy to dismiss the whole incident as hyperbole, but for the grim outcome of
these injuries: multiple amputation. The blood would indeed ‘leap’ and spurt from
severed arteries, the veins would ‘run dry’ and limbs would die as a result. The use of
the verb ‘poured’ l.18 is ambiguous. Blood would literally pour from an open wound but
Owen means more than that. Sacrifices on the front were often compared to Christ’s
pouring out his life blood (see Matthew 26:28) in order to save others. By this analogy,
the soldier’s blood ‘poured .. down the shell-holes’ is to save his country.

Tone
Owen sets the overall tone of sadness and despair in the first lines. The voices of the
boys playing in the park ‘rang saddening’. Their ‘play and pleasure’ casts the immobile,
disabled man into deeper gloom. Whereas they are ‘mothered’ home to sleep, the ex-
soldier is stranded, apparently forgotten, at the poem’s end.
The moments when Owen takes us back into past do little to lighten the tone of
Disabled. We are constantly reminded of the waste of war. The triumph of a victorious
footballer ‘carried shoulder high’ is juxtaposed in the reader’s mind by images of WWI
stretcher-bearers carrying damaged bodies like that of the ex-soldier. Although the
soldier had helped ‘win’ the war, he was not cheered as he would have been if he’d
scored a winning ‘Goal’, despite his much more costly efforts.
Investigating language and tone in Disabled

 Each stanza is a vignette (a brief sketch) of different phases in the man’s life.
How does Owen’s diction create a picture of a handsome, healthy young man?
 How effective is Owen’s language in building up a picture of the disabled man as
a victim of war?
  How does Owen use juxtaposition to bring home the contrast between the past
and the present in Disabled?

Structure in Disabled
Owen recounts the man’s life and present condition over seven stanzas of differing
lengths. Sadness and despair are threaded through every verse:
Stanza one shows us the man in his wheel-chair. He is cold and motionless, waiting for
the day to end. The poem is ‘bookended’ by the same scene in the final stanza, when
the day has ended and he is left behind in the cold darkness
Stanza two introduces the sexual longing experienced by the wounded man. Recalling
how girls ‘glanced lovelier’, he realises that he will never feel again the slimness of
‘Girls’ waists’ l.12
Stanza three juxtaposes the past handsomeness of the young man which had attracted
the attentions of a painter with his current appearance – unable to sit up straight, devoid
of limbs and colour, ‘half’ the man he was l.19
Stanza four depicts the youthful innocence of a lad more swayed by football, girls,
glamour and alcohol than by any measured reflection about the cost of war. We learn
that he was not yet nineteen and trying to impress a girlfriend (‘his Meg’ l.26, whose
fickleness is conveyed by her absence from the man’s current situation). Now bitterly
experienced, the man’s bewilderment and regret are captured by the understatement:
‘He wonders why.’
In stanza five Owen tells us that the disabled man had had no idea of the realities of
warfare. He’d not previously experienced focused enmity or paralysing ‘Fear’ l.32;
rather, he joined up for the uniform, comradeship and pay, cheered to the front by
crowds and drums
The brief penultimate stanza details the man’s inactivity once wounded, merely the
passive recipient of others’ unenthusiastic attentions
The final stanza reminds us that the ex-soldier is now permanently excluded from the
ranks of those who are ‘strong’ and ‘whole’ l.44, unable even to go to bed unaided.

Versification
Rhyme
Owen’s rhyme scheme in Disabled is fairly regular with words rhyming within two or
three lines of each other and within the stanza. However, he links the narrative from
verse to verse by overlapping rhyme patterns into new stanzas. Thus, ‘grey’ and ‘day’ in
stanza one rhyme with ‘gay’ in the second verse; ‘dry’ and ‘thigh’ in stanza three link to
‘shoulder–high’ in the next verse. The bringing together of veins running dry and the
purple spurting thigh of the injured man with the 'shoulder-high’ triumph of his glory days
distils the pity. 
Similarly, in l.35 (stanza five) the man is in his prime, one of the ‘young recruits’. This
brave phrase is rhymed in the forlorn sixth verse with the ‘fruits’ he earned from his
labours – not glory, but sympathy and a life (in stanza seven) of ‘sick years in
institutes’. 
It is perhaps significant that l.12 ends with ‘hands’, which has no counter rhyme
anywhere else in the poem. The warmth of the girls’ hands will never again be
experienced by the disabled man.

Repetition
Owen’s use of repletion is particularly effective in the fourth stanza, as the ex-soldier
stumbles through his recollections of why he ended up fighting on the Western Front.
Recalling his footballing prowess, - ‘After the matches’ l.22 – it is ironic that he
remembers it was ‘afterfootball’ l.23 that he signed up. The idea that ‘he’d better join’
l.24 becomes the active decision ‘He asked to join’ l.28, after his wondering ‘why’ l.24
clarifies into a reason – ‘That’s why;’ l.26. And the role played by the attitude of women
in his decision is emphasised by the repetition of ‘to please’ in lines 26 and 27 – a
desire to please remembered with bitterness as ‘his Meg’ is equated with the fickleness
of all adolescent girls – she is just a ‘giddy jilt[s]’ l.26-7 (to jilt means to throw over a
lover).
The phrase ‘no fears / Of Fear’ neatly contrasts the man’s previous insouciance with the
terrifying reality of warfare. Via the repeated use of ‘cheer’, Owen strips away the
enthusiasm of people for war: 

 ‘cheers’ l.36 are plural and magnified by drums

 ‘cheered’ l.37 refers to an event in the past which has now lost its power
 later in l.37 ‘cheer’ is stripped to a single sound, negated by referring to an event
(‘Goal’) that will never be attributed to the man now.

Rhythm
Owen received a letter from Robert Graves criticising him for the irregularity of his line
lengths and for daring to break with the poetic tradition which demanded a regular
pattern. Graves told Owen that, despite Disabled being a ‘damn fine poem’, he must
follow the rules:
‘Make new metres by all means, but one must observe the rules laid down by custom of
centuries’.
Writing largely in pentameter, in lines 10 and 40 Owen introduces an extra foot. This
serves to disrupt the narrative flow and halt the forward progress of the reader, just as it
has halted the progress of the young soldier. 
In line 23 Owen adds an extra syllable, subtly focusing on the incoherence of a man
who has drunk too much after a football match and signs up as a consequence. With
too much time to reflect, indicated by the dash, the man is now bewildered at how things
ended up as they did (‘- He wonders why.’ l.24). Owen evokes the halting search of the
man’s memory for the reasons he went to war by employing frequent caesurae in the
fourth stanza.
Though much of the metre is iambic, Owen reverses the opening feet of l.38 and 39 in
the sixth stanza which helps create a sense of stasis after the rapid, rhythmic motion of
the preceding lines, linked by a series of ‘and’s (l.33-6).

3. Wilfred Owen's poem "Disabled" is about a soldier who came home from
WWI missing limbs, and how this disability changed his life. This poem was
written when Owen was in Craiglockhart War Hospital being treated for
shell shock. It is very likely that he saw numerous soldiers like the one he
describes in this poem while he was at the hospital. It was common that
soldiers would return home missing limbs or severely wounded, there
wasn't a whole lot that could be done for soldiers while they were on the
front-line; so many injuries became more serious due to lack of medical
care.

In the dark, no one can see you; he can be the hero he was before he lost his
limbs. In the dark, he doesn't have to face reality.

"Shivered," in line two, indicates that he is outside and this conjecture is backed
up by line three, where the narrator mentions that he was going "through the
park".

It is a common practice to sew shut pant legs and sleeves when someone is
missing that appendage; this man appears to have lost his legs and a forearm.

The voices of boys and it made him feel sad; they make him remember his
childhood. It was not long ago that he was like those boys running around with
any cares, but it all seems like a distant memory. The war robs you of your
innocence and naivety. He is also probably a little jealous of them, they can still
believe in fairy tales and happy endings, whereas he knows that not every life has
a happy ending. Soldiers lose their youth to the war.

The second stanza of the poem is the narrator reminiscing about how things used
to be before he was injured.

Around this time of day he used to go out on the town and party with his friends.
Girls were always around and would flirt with him; they wanted to be with him,
because he was a hero of war, as cliché as that sounds.

He threw his knees away when he enlisted in the army. If he hadn't signed up he
would still be healthy, and the girls would still be looking at him. Girls do not want
to be with someone who is crippled; heroes do not get injured. It seems like he
has given up on life as much as life has given up on him. He has succumbed to the
idea that he is not a real man anymore; others can probably sense this about him,
and they stay away because they do not want to be dragged down by him and his
self-pity. Granted, women could be touching him with disgust, but it is equally
likely that it is him who is projecting his own feelings of disgust on them.

Line fourteen is basically saying that there was a girl, who is an artist, who was
smitten with him. "For it was younger than his youth" is just another way of
saying that he had a baby face. He adds "last year" to the end of line fifteen as a
way of telling the reader that he does not look like that anymore. His face has
changed a lot during the war. His face has lost its boyhood charm, and it has been
replaced by a face that is hard and worn by the ravages of war.

He describes himself as being old even though the oldest that he is likely to be is
twenty-two.

He lost his color, most likely means that he lost a lot of blood. He was caught in
enemy fire, which is how he lost his limbs. He bled and bled until there was no
more blood left. His injuries caused him to grow up very quickly; the reality of
warfare sunk in, and it was no longer something that was considered to be
honorable, glorious, nor fun.
At one time, the sign of blood on one's body was considered a good, honorable
thing. In line two, "carried shoulder-high" is from Houseman's poem "To an
Athlete Dying Young." The narrator is reminiscing about when and why he
originally enlisted. It was after a football game and a drink of brandy with soda
that he decided to join. When he says "He wonders why" he is trying to make
sense of his decision; did he join because he genuinely wanted to, or was it
because he was under the influence of alcohol, or was it just because of the girls.
"Kilts" indicates that he was from Scotland. "Jilts" are unpredictable women.

He didn't have to prove his worth to the recruitment officers; they just signed him
up without question. They didn't even question that he was nineteen years old,
which he was not. The fact that he was playing on a football team and in
immature way he describes his enlistment is proof that he is younger than
nineteen.

He knew nothing of Germans or Austria. He did not know anything about the
politics of the war. He only thought of how the uniform would make him look, and
how people would treat him once he put it on. "Jeweled hilts" are ornamental
daggers; Scottish soldiers would put them in the top of one of their stockings.
"Pay arrears" means back pay. "Esprit de corps" means to have regard for the
honor and interests of a military unit.When men left for war they were sent off
with many drums and cheers, it would be like a big parade.

Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal.

There were not a lot of people there to welcome him home; no one wanted to
see the negative aspects of the war. The only way a nation could justify their
involvement in war is to not acknowledge that men were dying and being
severely injured. There was only one man who thanked him for defending his
country; perhaps that man was a former soldier.

He will now have to spend a few years in war hospitals, where they will
experiment with different treatments on him until they finally decide that there is
nothing more that they can do. He will then be released from the hospital, and he
will begin to receive monthly disability checks from the government.
Women didn't look at him the way that they used to. He seems to be very
depressed by the fact that he will never be a whole man again, and he will never
get to experience the love of a woman.

4. Analysis:

Owen’s ‘Disabled’ explores the effects of war on those who live through it by
comparing the present life of an injured soldier to his past hopes and
accomplishments.

The first stanza starts with the depressing description of a lone man sitting in a
wheelchair, in a park, being unable to walk or indulge in any of the activities
involving exercise going around him. His is dressed formally, but his suit is cut
at the waist, which shows that he has lost his legs, and he waits helplessly,
listening to the voices of young children which sadden him, as they remind him
of something he can’t ever have again.

Then he remembers what his life had been like before his injury: at this time of
the night, after the work had been done for the day, the town had come to life
at night. He remembers how the streets used to light up and how the girls
would become more inviting and alluring. He regrets losing his legs, for he
knows that he will never again dance holding a woman, or feel their soft slight
touches, as they now only touch him out of pity, like as if he is a strange
abnormality in their normal life.

He remembers once there was such vitality, such sheer life in him that an artist
had been insistent on drawing his face, for just a year ago, it spoke of
innocence and clarity of heart. But now his face has become withered with
experience and sorrow, and he can’t even support himself, both literally and
figuratively. He has become pale, as if all his life had been leached out of him
through the wound on his thighs, and he feels that half of his life is already
over.

He remembers how before he had become disabled, he had been a renowned

football player, and had been proud of the blood smear on his leg which had
resulted from a match, and how the crowd had carried him on their shoulders,
celebrating his valor and excellence. It was after such a match itself that, drunk
on alcohol, pride and his success, he had thought first of enlisting in the army,
just to appear more manlike to the ladies as someone had suggested he would
look dashing in a uniform. Thus out of mere pride and vanity, had he joined
the war, even going as far as to lie about his age: a fact that shows one that
the ex-soldier in discussion might still be a very young man, maybe only in his
early twenties.

The motive behind joining the war is questioned, as the soldier remembers
that he had never ben patriotic enough to care much about the invading
Germans or Austrians, and he had been young and naïve enough to not be
afraid of fear yet. He had thought only of the distant lands he would travel to;
the honor and glory associated with the army; the excitement and exhilaration
of holding a gun and hiding a dagger; and the pride of giving a smart salute. He
was drafted and sent overseas with much ado; lots of people cheered and
celebrated his valor and courage, reminiscent of the football matches he had
won.

The soldier is rudely brought back to reality as he remembers how out of the
many people who had applauded his departure, few had been there on his
return, and all his accomplishments in the war were forgotten as instead of
encouraging his deeds, the people pitied his loss, and the fame and glory he
had expected were denied him. Only a sole aged man visits him now and
inquires about his life and health.

It is now that sitting alone in the park, noticing how women’s eyes pass over
him after glancing at him piteously, to men who are still whole and complete,
the ex-soldier thinks about his future. He knows he will live in an institute were
there will be people to take care for him, and he will do as they say, following
their rules to live the rest of his life. He wonders in the end helplessly, that
why has no one come looking for him, to put him to bed. It has grown late and
cold, but there is nothing the man can do to protect and warm himself, except
hope and pray that someone would remember him and take care of him.

Disabled is a potent and strong poem because of mainly the style and
structure that Owen has used. Harsh words are used subtly to emphasize
meaning behind the poem: the man is wearing a ‘ghastly suit of grey’, showing
his morbid and depressed state of mind; sleep ‘mothers’ him from the laughter
and noises of young boys, suggesting that he no longer finds the pleasures of
life worth living for and prefers the temporary respite sleep provides. He
regrets ‘throwing’ away his knees, suggesting and later confirming that the
ideas and inspirations behind joining the war were not as patriotic or loyal as
they should have been, and his vanity only has now left him a cripple. The girls
all touch him like a ‘queer’ disease: the word ‘queer’ had started being used to
describe homosexuals, so to think his social standing is the same as those
considered, in those times, to be an unnatural blasphemy, is extremely
revealing on how people think of disabled people. The imagery of his life
bleeding out of him through the wound on his thigh, and the use of the word
‘purple’, a colour denoting life and vitality, shows that the ordeal the soldier
had gone through when he had been injured had a deep impact on him, as he
no longer feels alive or has any desire to live. The analogy drawn between
playing sports and being a soldier in a war, though by no means new, is
nevertheless effective. Along with highlighting the egoistic and vain motives
the man had for joining the army, it also acts as a reminder to him that his
pride had caused him the exact thing he had been proud of: he would never
again run in a field or score a winning goal, he would never again be praised
for being a hero; only pitied endlessly for being a cripple. The things which he
used to boast about: the wounds received in a match, and being carried on the
shoulders of his team mates; have become permanent sources of sorrow: he
no longer has his legs, and cannot help but be carried around helplessly. This
contrast is both chilling and distressing.
The structure of the poem: the frequent switches between present and past
and the juxtaposition of remembrance and realization casts a harsh light on
everything the soldier has lost. Each stanza starts with describing the soldier’s
present conditions and then compares it to his past life, or vice versa. The final
stanza however depicts what he thinks his future holds for him: a life lived by
rules set by other people, a life of utter dependency and helplessness.

Considering Owen’s own discharge from the army due to neurological

problem, the poem carries considerable weight as it must have been written
from direct observation. Perhaps this is why the words ring so true: the man in
the wheelchair had been no patriotic passionate youth ready to die for his
country. Rather he had been, more realistically, a vain and egoistic man
seeking glory and recognition through the war, caring only of how he would
look in uniform, and how the fairer sex would react to him. There are no
medals and endless people doting on him when he returns disfigured and
destroyed: there is only a wheelchair, and a few people with pitiful looks.
Instead of celebrating his heroism and applauding his contribution to the war,
the people all express their sorrow for his loss, making him feel even more
unworthy and pathetic.

Something which keeps recurring in his recollections of the life he used to live
before the war is his active and successful interaction with women. He was a
very appealing figure, lively and exuberant, enjoying all the ladies’ attentions,
and living his life to the fullest. Now he is left sexually incompetent and can no
longer derive pleasure from the very things which had once been such a
comfort to him. The last lines highlight this deplorable state: Gone is the man
who used to lead and win matches singlehandedly, and left in his place is a
lifeless and hopeless shell who pleads desperately and helplessly for someone
to appear and put him to bed.
 The poem is one of the most reputed protests against war as it not only shows
the meaningless of it, and the wastage of life caused by it, but also highlights
the after effects it has on those who live through it and survive it, returning
home maimed either physically or troubled mentally, unable to get over the
horrors they had seen and experienced. It shows not only the soldiers but also
the people they interact with, providing a strong comment on society who
considers the man who has sacrificed his very being for his country, to be
‘whole’, and thinks that his disability makes him less of a person than he was
before. It is sad to the point of being depressing and frank to the point of being
unsettling. It disturbs one, just as it moves one. One sympathizes with the
man’s helplessness despite being repelled by his selfishness.

Owen’s Disabled is a force to be reckoned with.

5. DISABLED:

Owen’s poem of 1917/18 tells the story of what happens to one of the heroes of the Great War
once he is wounded and invalided out of the army. It shows in detail the shift from being the
heroic young man, proudly showing –off the scrapes of a game of “football” –to a forgotten
shell of a man, unable to act for himself and ignored by society as a whole. Owen is warning the
reader and invoking pity for the soldiers by showing the stark reality of the Great War. This
does not mean that students should consider him a pacifist – nowhere in his poems does he call
for an end to war and seek peace, rather he strives to educate the reader to the reality of war
once the patriotic jingoism had been removed. Possibly, before reading the poem, students
should consider the quotation paraphrased here “if you want to know the reality of war, look in
a field hospital”. These words were written in the 1920s by the German Erich Maria Remarque
following his experiences in WW1.

Owen’s writing seems remarkably prescient.

The poem is focused from the opening word on a soldier – wholly impersonal and therefore
representing all soldiers- who is sitting alone in an hospital ward having lost his legs in battle.
This man reflects on his past heroics and the current isolation he suffers now that he is fully
marginalized from society. Owen is able to reflect his loneliness and also to comment on the
nature of the war propaganda which led young men to join the army, even lying about their age
with the full connivance of the recruiting officers.
The language in this poem is indicative of the care taken by Owen to find precisely the right
words to suit his purpose. Looking closely at Stanza 1 will show what I mean. After the opening
word –“He” - which reflects the impersonal nature of the poem Owen’s scene setting
introduces a sequence of telling linguistic choices: The soldier waits for “dark”, prefiguring
death as well as the end of the day; he wears a “ghastly suit of grey” which not only bleaches
colour and strength form the young man but also introduces a sense of the hellish and the
ghostly into the poem; The third line, after shocking the reader with the opening “Legless”,
breaks half way through – the caesura seeming to reflect the very injury referred to in the line;
This sudden break is followed by references to unattainable “voices” of boys and play – the very
thing this boy will no longer have access to before

Owen uses the verb “mothering” to imply a sense of security and motherly love, both of which
he is now denied.

Another feature of the writing is the use of active verbs and euphemism when discussing his
injury.

He “threw away his knees” as though nothing more than waste paper; he “poured” his blood
down shell holes, again making the soldier the agent of his own misfortunes. Owen avoids any
graphic description of the wound, instead telling his tale of how it used to be when the boy was
carried shoulder high with a “smear” of blood on his thigh –a far cry from the heroic “leap of
purple” which “leaps” so athletically from him as he receives his crippling wound. And he sets
this against a beautiful and calm image of the “glow-lamps” of the times when the boy was fit
and healthy.

Owen also breaks up his syntax in stanza 4 as the young man recalls his enlisting. As he
questions his thought processes and realises the vanity and the hypocrisy evident in the process
his control falters.

The lines fragment as the sentences become short and broken. In this stanza Owen writes in
line 3 a line which manages to look both ways –first explaining the image created in the
opening couplet and then, as it moves to line 4 showing the reader that it was on the back of
his heroic sporting exploits that the boy “thought he’d better join”. The link is clearly made
between sport and the image of war portrayed by the authorities of the time.

This sense of propaganda is carried on into the next stanza and built up to further stress the
contrast with his return and the eerie man who “thanked” him – the italics stressing the word
possibly to highlight the lack of thanks received form official quarters – before trying to use his
injury to engage him in a proselytising exercise.
Left alone in the ward for “a few sick years”, his short life ruined by his actions, the man reflects
on his situation. At the end of the poem, after the contrast with the “whole” man which helps
to pick up the theme of the poor attitude of the women he has loved to his situation, Owen
places the reader into the soldier’s head and forces us to share his anguish. The repeated “why
don’t they come?” haunts the reader as it is a question that we simply can not answer and
possibly fear to do so. It is about so much more than bed time – it is about the attitude of those
who remained at home and allowed others to fight for them; about those who shy away from the
ill, the crippled and the infirm.

1. Owen did not want to write poetry that glamorized war, or made it seem
exciting and glorious, rife with opportunities for heroism. Regarding this
subject matter, he famously declared, "the poetry is in the pity". His
subjects are naive young men, not conventional heroes. They cry, sleep,
jest, mourn, rage, and die. Even when the war is over, the survivors must
deal with the aftermath of the conflict in the form of post-traumatic stress
disorder or horrific injury (see "Disabled"). Owen's poems were not deeply
personal though they drew from his personal experiences; instead, they
create a universal sense of what war was like and what war could do to a
person. It is certainly not pretty nor something a reader would think that
they would want to experience. Owen's poetry evokes pity for wasted life.

2. These lines make it clear that Owen wants to show that enforced
celibacy will now be the soldier’s lot, and that if anyone does look at
him, it will only be as an object of pity. This impression is reinforced in
the final lines of the poem:

Now, he will spend a few sick years in institutes

And do what things the rules consider wise,
And take whatever pity they may dole.
Tonight, he noticed how the women’s eyes
Passed from him to the strong men that were whole.
How cold and late it is! Why don’t they come
And put him into bed? Why don’t they come? 

3. One of Owen’s most famous pronouncements was ‘My subject is War, and
the pity of War. The poetry is in the Pity’. By this he meant that war was
 the ultimate evil, subverting all the values that human beings might hold
dear – values such as goodness, justice, compassion.

In this way the maimed soldier in ‘Disabled’ is an emblematic figure – one

who shows the terrible cost of war. But as Disability Studies academics and
activists have shown, to afford disabled characters a purely emblematic
status is both to shield oneself from the reality of continuing to live life and
exist in the world with an impairment, and to adopt an overly fatalistic
attitude to the difficulties – both physical and psychological – that
someone with an impairment may experience.

Throughout the poem, for example, Owen impresses upon the reader the
soldier’s isolation: he has no-one with him, he has no prospects, he will
never be a husband or father, the only gazes he will attract will be ones of
pity or By analyzing the poem "Disabled" outline how Owen uses the
poetic form to illustrate his ideas about the war.

4. In the poem "Disabled" Wilfred Owen clearly expresses his opinion about
First World War and the peer pressure that was used to force young
people to join the army. The images created by a poet are very realistic as
Owen was a soldier himself. In this poem he looks to the world through a
young man's eyes, who went to the war to become a hero, but had his life
finished before it has begun.

From the very first lines we are given a clue that a person has lost his legs
"He sat in a wheeled chair", this creates a sense of sympathy and pity at the
same time. The poet uses a very powerful imagery in the first three lines.
He expresses the sadness of man's life by using words "ghastly suit of
grey", which creates the dark and gloomy atmosphere, as the reader links
the grey colour with void, sadness. However in the third line it is written
"legless, sewn short at elbow" it is common to sew shut pant legs and
sleeves if someone is missing that appendage. This indicates that person
has lost his leg and forearm and now his life depends on other people. It is
fascinating how the poet plays with the reader's emotions, making him feel
responsible for the unenviable situation of the man, in just three lines. At
the same verse, the poet uses contrast to make the created atmosphere
even stronger by describing the happy life of boys playing outside. "Voices
of play and pleasures after day" is very sad phrase, as the man is not able
to do anything by himself, yet is forced to listen to voices of playing
children until the night time comes and kids have to go home to their
families, where they are safe. But this man is in an institute, he doesn't feel
 safe, he doesn't feel like home and he never will. The words, "dark",
"shivered", "ghastly" and "grey", as shown in the first stanza, reveal the
isolation of the soldier and help to create pitiful atmosphere.
embarrassment.

5. ‘Disabled’, by Wilfred Owen, is about a young boy who experiences war

first hand, which results in losing his limbs. The loss of his limbs cause
him to be rejected by society and be treated ‘’like a queer disease’’.
Wilfred Owens personal opinion on war is evident throughout the
poem. Own expresses a negative attitude towards war due to own
traumatic past, experiencing war first hand.
Owen creates sympathy for the soldier in ‘Disabled’ by using a wide
range of poetic devices. Owen explores the themes of regret and
loneliness to portray sympathy for the soldier. Moreover he criticizes
the soldier for joining the war at a young age and for the wrong reasons.
The structure in ‘Disabled’ moves from past to present, then back to
past. In the first stanza (which is present) Owen emphasizes the soldiers
isolation, ‘’sat in a wheeled chair’’, this shows the aftermath of the war
(the loss of the soldiers limbs); this makes the reader fell pity for the
soldier. Also in the first stanza the imagery and language is dark. Owen
makes the reader empathize with the soldier by using the term
‘’shivered’’ which means to shake slightly and uncontrollably as a result
of being cold or frightened. In this case the soldier was cold and
frightened due to the traumatizing events of war. This also emphasizes
shock; it shows how the soldier is mentally scarred due to the war. This
contrasts with the second stanza which begins with colourful imagery,
‘’glow lamps…light blue trees’’, this illustrates the good spirits of the
town before the war. The contrast compares his life before and after the
war, emphasizing the impact war had on soldiers. The structure
highlights memory, emotion and sadness.
Owen portrays the soldier as helpless. In the second stanza the soldier,
‘’threw away his knees’’, the use of metaphor emphasizes his neglect
and lack of care for his limbs. Further in the stanza the author creates a
sense of sorrow as the soldier will ‘’never’’ be able to do the things he
used to do. ‘’Never’’ is a powerful word, it shoes how the soldier’s
 disabilities are long term and will never be able to fit into society. This
makes the reader feel sympathetic towards the soldier.
The thirds stanza contrasts between a young and old version of the
character. The soldier was described as an ‘’artist silly for his face’’, this
suggests he was really handsome. This contrasts with the next sentence
when the soldier had ‘’lost his colour’’, the metaphor emphasizes the
soldiers shock, almost as if he is a different person from what he was
before the war, this emphasizing how the soldiers were affected. It
highlights the horror of the war. Furthermore, Owen creates more
sympathy for the character when, ‘’half his lifetime lapsed in a hot race’’,
this suggests half of his life has gone mentally, socially and physically,
meaning he has the characteristics of an old man due to the war. This
makes the reader feel sympathetic for the soldier, who has been aged by
his experiences.
Owen...

6. Through His Poetry Wilfred Owen Wished to Convey, to the General

Public, the Pity of War. In a Detailed Examination of these Poems,
With Reference to Others, Show the Different ways in which He
achieved this.

Wilfred Owen fought in the war as an officer in the Battle of the

Somme. He entered the war in January of 1917. However he was
hospitalised for war neurosis and was sent for rehabilitation at
Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh that May. At Craiglockhart he
met Siegfried Sassoon, a poet and novelist whose grim antiwar works
were in harmony with Wilfred Owen's concerns. It was at Craiglockhart
where Wilfred Owen produced the best work of his short career under
the tutelage of Siegfried Sassoon. Siegfried Sassoon had recently made
a public declaration against the continuation of the war by throwing
his Military Cross medal for bravery into the River Mersey in
Liverpool. Wilfred Owen's earlier work ignored the subject of war but
Siegfried Sassoon urged him to write on the war. Wilfred Owen wrote
his poems while at Craiglockhart as a cathartic experience to help him
 to forget his experiences in France. He also wrote his poems as an
attempt to stop the war and to make people realise how horrific it
was.

In a thorough examination of the poems "Anthem for Doomed Youth",

"Dulce et Decorum Est" and "Disabled" and also with some reference to
other works by Owen, it can be seen that he uses different poetical
features, styles and methods. Wilfred Owen addresses his readers from
different stances right up to him addressing the reader personally.
This method is very effective in evoking feelings from great anger and
bitterness to terrible sadness and even sarcasm, making the reader
sometimes even feel guilty. Whichever way he chooses to portray the
pity of the war the end result is always the same.

"Dulce Et Decorum Est" is a direct attack at the people in Britain who

had been taken in by the propaganda drive by telling them the truth of
what life is really like at the front and in what conditions their
sons, fathers, brothers etc. are in. "Dulce Et Decorum Est" consists
of four unequal stanzas,

7. In ‘Disabled’, Wilfred Owen a war veteran tells the story of a young soldier who returns
from war and realizes how dissimilar his old life is to his new ne where he is disabled
both mentally and physically despite the fact that his mind may seem unaffected by past
traumas the reader will begin to understand the subtle hurts that have slowly damaged
him. In contrast, the story of ‘Out, out-‘ is of a boy completing his everyday chores,
sawing wood, in the backdrop of the Vermont mountains. He accidentally cuts his hand
off and he succumbs to death despite a doctor’s aid. Robert Frost’s poem on the human
condition and the short life span doomed for all humans is similar to Owen’s ‘Disabled’
in that the point that one apparently small decision has the ability to affect and have an
enormous influence on that person’s identity and life. The soldier’s choice to enlist for
the war then caused him to lose a leg and impacted him so drastically that he now views
the world differently moreover the vividness of his former life has drained away ‘down
shell-holes’ and his experiences are thus dull and meaningless. Whereas, in ‘Out, out-‘
the poem’s continuity also generates the effect of sudden death with the normal day to
day routine of the boy serving to further intensify death’s wiliness and how it can come
 to you when least expected. The nostalgia and sadness for the lost childhood and
innocence that the boy and soldier had thrown away is, furthermore, a key
characteristic of the two poems and instill and sense of melancholy and pity in the
reader. The world’s indifference present at the boy’s death and the soldier’s deformities
display to the reader how humans are more inclined to abhor the different and to ignore
the tragic. The soldier’s life has radically been altered as well as his perception of life
while the boy’s gruesome death is distinguished from the calm setting where his
innocence is lost and his life is damaged. Owen’s and Frost’s exploration of the pathos
evoked and relayed to the reader for the child and the soldier’s wrong opinion on war
emphasizes the reader’s experiences as well. The soldier’s expectation are let down and
he loses his former life. Therefore he asks himself the eternal question for he has
nothing else left to live for only waiting ‘Why don’t they come and put him to bed? Why
don’t they come?’

The pathos induced in the reader at the child’s unexpected death and the soldier’s erroneous
assumption that war glorious is a prime feature of both ‘Disabled’ and ‘Out, out’ The soldier
had believed that war would be magnificent but he however returns home unheroic and
shunned by other ‘whole’ people. His perception of life and his view of war have been affected
radically by his wrong choice. The young soldier had initially been caught up in an elaborate
dream with ‘jeweled hilts for daggers in plaid socks’ and also of ‘smart salutes, and care of
arms; and leave; and pay arrears.’ And yet, as he comes to understand, these are all illusions he
managed to trick and commit his self to. The wonderful war image that he had formed in his
childhood is soon changed and his high hopes contrast with the short, blunt reality where he
will ‘spend a few sick years in Institutes, and do what the rules consider wise’. We, as the
audience, feel pity and sympathy for him as his anticipation is let down and he is ultimately
disappointed. Furthermore, there is a shocking realization that all he had held true as a child
when he ‘liked a blood smear down his leg’ and ‘thought he’d better join’ was proved to be
wrong by his experiences and the reader feels the urge to give him some small measure of
comfort that he is deprived of now due to his deformities and he ‘noticed how the women’s
eyes passed from him to the strong men that were whole.’

Similarly, in ‘Out, out’ the reader feels pathos at the painful way the child must have died. The
saw ‘as if to prove saws knew what supper meant, leapt out at the boy’s hand’ This is an
example of vivid imagery that enables us to feel the events occurring and to comprehend all of
the emotions and sensory overload in the scene, and thus we suffer along with the child as well.
Some foreshadowing of his death is evident in the repetition of ‘snarled and rattled’ hinting at
the imminent death and also the pain that will be experienced, which produces a more intense
reaction from the reader, who feels a measure of grief and sympathy when they realize
something and is about to occur whereas, ironically, the boy is still unknowingly completing his
normal routine, unsuspecting. His terrified, angry and panicky voice when he screams ‘Don’t let
him sister!’, in addition makes he reader feel increased empathy and pity for his plight. As he to
such an extent that he is unable to organize his thought and feels pure terror. He will lose his
family as well as miss out on all the beautiful things in life that he yet to understand and feel –
such as the calm vista at the start of the poem and all the ‘;sweet scented stuff’ as well as the
‘five mountain ranges…. Under the sunset far into Vermont’. The persona’s strength of feeling
and compassion, that he wished they might have ‘called it a day…to please the boy’ deepens
and intensifies the regret and wretchedness of the scene because it suggests that I the day had
ended early then the boy might not have died so brutally. The melancholy and longing for what
could have been is highlighted and this makes the death the most poignant moment of the
poem.

The pleading and beseeching manner of the boy in ‘Out out’ when he ‘swung toward them
holding up the hand half in appeal but half as if to keep the life from spilling’ augments the
desperate atmosphere and instills pathos . In addition the persona is speaking directly to the
audience in ‘I wish’ and this implies that the loss was also personal. This special and particular
touch serves to make to boy seem much closer to us and we begin to know and understand his
person. This manages to involve us and by doing this thus makes the boy’s death seem even
more tragic.

In ‘Out, out’ the boy’s feelings are mainly dominated by desperation whereas in ‘Disabled’ the
soldier undergoes a period of regret and remorse as he knows that the reasons he had for
enlisting in the army were foolish and naïve. His choice was influenced by ‘someone saying he’d
look a god in kilts’ and to ‘please his Meg’. We gain the impression that his mind is still reeling
from his experiences hence the disorganized and chaotic thoughts and his disability. The war
had caused him damage both psychologically and physically and this evokes pathos as well. For
instead of just disabling his motor functions his mind, in which he had conjured all those
dreams has also been affected so now it can no longer dream those dreams when he had ‘no
fears of Fear’ and was ‘drafted out with drums and cheers.’ Moreover there is a more personal
feel in his reminiscences as he takes the audience into his past and now to his present, he is
talking to the reader and has accepted us into his mind therefore we experience a close
connection with him despite the poem being in third person and we are watching through a
third person observer. The opening of ‘Disabled’ establishes a gloomy pathos and the apparent
emptiness and lack of vitality in his life is a repetitive routine that he can not escape from. He is
lethargically ‘waiting for dark’, this imbues a sensation of loneliness as well as sympathy when
people treat him in degrading and insulting ways despite his deformities thus making the
moment one of the more remorseful and regretful of both poems. In addition, the enjambment
again accentuates the longevity and meaninglessness of his never ending days.

The structure of ‘Out out’ has no stanzas unlike ;Disabled’ and this produces a continuous
experience throughout the poem therefore accentuating the fact that life is short whereas
death is unexpected and the reader has no time to absorb everything in as events are very
suddenly and quickly over. Furthermore, the polysendeton also creates a list as if everything in
the boy’s life is a routine and he knows what he will do and is to be expected. On the other
hand, this highlights the abruptness of his death and how it came when he was unsuspecting
and unwary of the dangers that have eluded him thus far. The beautiful ‘sunset far in to
Vermont’ where the poem is set is eternal unlike the short life doomed for all humans. The
‘spilling’ of his life suggests fragility, which is so easy to lose. Moreover, when the boy ‘holds up
the hand half in appeal’ entails that his life is running away from him and escaping his grasp.

The soldiers question ‘Why don’t they come?’ in ‘Disabled’ echoes his questioning of the
choices he made in his life. The boy whom the soldier used to be ‘liked a blood smear down his
leg’ and ‘after football… drunk a peg’ implying naivety and that he is unaware of the realities of
war. This impression has always been with him but soon alters severely as he witnesses true
warfare. When he threw away his knees’ he shows the reader his disregard and lack of
appreciation for life and now he has forfeited it for a foolish decision ‘to please his Meg’

Life’s brevity and fragility, and that it can be lost so easily without thinking is additionally a
characteristic of both poems. There is a tone of regret and shock as death is unexpected or in
the soldier’s case, one decision can have a profound effect upon his whole life as he discovers
after the war. The pace abruptly slows down in ‘Out, out’ ‘and nothing happened: day was all
but done’ and ‘called in a day, I wish they might have said’ as the day is concluding and this
insinuates an unpredictable death and the fact that anything can happen for when we are doing
the most normal of routines and when we are going through a slow monotonous pace is when
we, including the boy, let our guards down and expect nothing different from the norm to
occur. ‘So’ a monosyllable further slows down the pace as well. The boy is slowly dying and yet
is helpless to stop events from happening as what he wants and desires is irrelevant despite his
cries to ‘Don’t let him cut my hand off, sister!’ he still eventually loses not only his hand but also
his life and the ‘hand was gone already.’ To the reader this reflects how short the boy’s life was
and its fragility creating a mood of regret ad sadness. The briefness of his life is also emphasized
by the pauses ‘-‘ which results in the reader feeling more connected with events in the poem as
the impression is given that the boy’s views and sufferings are also channeled through to us not
only as the observer but as if we were there experiencing his chaotic thoughts and pains. This,
in addition, also makes the scene more emotional and chocking as we get the sense that his life
is slowly slipping away and we are powerless to prevent it. The boy’s chores, sawing wood,
displays normalcy and of routine and due to the rhythm’s constant and repetitive style it
highlights the suddenness of the impending death.

This suddenness is similar to ‘Disabled’ where the soldier is just ‘legless’ this constitutes a very
blunt and brute fact without elaborating on it so the reader is shocked and distresses by the
harshness of the soldier’s reality. Moreover he is surrounded by ‘voices of play and pleasures’
this replicates the happiness, innocence and carefree life he used to live, one that held no
worries nor expectations or pity. He now regrets his decision to enlist and his glorious and high
expectations contrast to the brevity of his decision where ‘he asked to join. He didn’t have to
beg.’ This in turn reflects how fragile his life is, that ‘half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race’ that
he ‘poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry’ and ‘a leap of purple spurted from his
thigh.’

Nostalgia for the lost childhood that both the boy and soldier had thrown away is a sense that
runs throughout both ‘Disabled’ and ‘Out out’. A melancholy atmosphere of pity is also formed .
The boy’s perception of the world in ‘Out, out’ ‘since he was old enough to know, big boy doing
a man’s work’ gives the impression that he is prematurely old. Furthermore, both characters
have experienced things that children should not be forced to witness and this produces a sad
tone to the poems as we grieve for their lost innocence and childhood. The things that the
soldier will never get to experience again such as ‘girls’ waists’ and ‘warm subtle hands’ are only
fragments and memories from his past and former life before the war. Regret is a dominant
emotion in the second stanza as the naïve nature of boys is something he can not become
anymore. His life is missing that ‘warm’ element and this imprints nostalgia in both the reader
and himself as he is longing for his past that he can no longer relive. ‘Now he is old’ and ‘his
back will never brace’ suggests he is psychologically aged from his knowledge and familiarity
with real warfare. The certainty of the tone finalizes the situation and thus the soldier has come
to accept his predicament. ‘Half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race’ insinuating that all the
wasted time spent in war when he could have been enjoying and fulfilling his potential in life
was thrown away by one foolish decision. The pause in stanza four also slows down the pace
and represents realization. Before the war the soldier’s life was hectic, vivid and fast now he
has all the time to reevaluate and rethink his ideals and views with the second stanza,
consisting mainly of happiness, symbolizing the better times he and when he was a courageous,
young and risk taking boy.

In ‘Out, out’ the repetition of ‘boy’ emphasizes the young age and also the fact that he can
never come to fully understand and comprehend the beauty of childhood. The vista seen in the
first few lines can be compared to an image of potential to the reader, how the boy’s life would
have been if he had not died. This intensifies the melancholy atmosphere and the tragedy of
the death. He ‘was a child at heart’ but doing ‘a man’s work’ this hints that he is too young to
be doing these chores. The persona imbues regretful quality because if only the boy had been
let off work early then his life might not have been snuffed out so quickly and easily. The boy is
too young to die and he has not had a chance to see and enjoy life to its fullest yet.

The reader furthermore, experiences and witnesses the indifference, apathy and harshness of
the world towards the boy and the soldier in both poems. The boy’s death is seen as
insignificant and thus is ignored almost immediately and the soldier’s disability causes society
to reject him. The soldier in ‘Disabled’ is prepared to take ‘any pity they may dole’ signifying
that he is not reacted to as a war hero but rather people feel sorry and shamed for him that he
has lost part of his body and is no longer ‘whole.’ These people ‘touch him like some queer
disease’ as he is hindered in mobility by his injuries and others tend to shy away from him
instead of comforting and encouraging him. The young soldier now comes to understand the
fact that war is inglorious and that the ones who were not affected, do not care about his
former great hopes and dreams before the war. There is bathos as he was let down and
disappointed with himself for believing in an illusion and thus changing his life.

In ‘Out out’ the child is merely referred to as ‘boy’ and not by name suggesting his apparent
unimportance to others and that he ahs no identity-nothing to make him unique and
memorable. The last line in the poem ‘and since they were not the ones dead, turned to their
own affairs’ lacks any emotions one would expect to feel after a death of a family member but
instead, carries a neutral tone. This implies that the death does not matter even to those the
boy himself held dearest. A gruesome sensory image is present in the poem when the ‘saw
leaped out at the boy’s hand’ nevertheless the story still continues with a sense of numbness
and indifference with ‘the boy’s first outcry was a rueful laugh…but the hand was gone
already…and that ended it’ The poem continues the uncaring tone and tells the events
concisely without any emotion or feelings included thus gives the impression of a lack of
sympathy. His death does not affect anyone else in society and is promptly forgotten as he ahs
let nothing behind, no imprint for others to memorize him by. The human condition is
portrayed in this poem, insinuating that we are insignificant and that one boy’s death is of no
consequence, life still carries on in the same way without his presence-similar to the everlasting
scenery of the Vermont Mountains and the enormity of death goes by unnoticed.

The poems have a contrast between past and present. In the soldier’s life his past is vibrant and
full of opportunities whereas now he lives a gloomy, dull and meaningless life only waiting for
death. His life has been irreparably damaged and has been wasted therefore he can not go back
to change his decisions. The soldier is shunned and on the edge of society which contrasts with
his former life before the war and what he hoped to achieve, this creates nostalgia. The iambic
pentameter makes his life seem monotonous and lacking vigor as he has nothing left to live for.
He has no pride and dignity is his disabled body and is regarded as an outcast furthermore,
there is irony as what he thought he would get after the war contrasts to the reality of what he
received. His life is planned out by others while he can only follow their rules thus he has no
control left over his life and his decisions which is what he sued to have. The third stanza
reflects his confusion as he is struggling to understand his thoughts and is comparing past to
present. Initially he was popular and a sense of flirtatious excitement permeate the atmosphere
however now people ignore and reject his presence.

Similarly in ‘Out, out’ the boy’s past could be symbolized by the natural scenery representing
his innocence but this peaceful image is soon shattered when realization, when ‘the boy saw
all’, comes with death. Moreover, there is a contrast between the peaceful setting and the
horrific events taking place which seems ironic. The tranquil and calm scenery and the sensory
stimulation ‘sweet scented stuff when the breeze drew across it’ enables the reader to relax
however this soon changes with the shocking encounter between the boy and saw when
‘neither refused the meeting.’ The boy’s ‘rueful laugh’ is also an unimaginable way for an
injured person to react and yet the reader comprehends that he is still just a boy, and still
retains some innocence thus does not understand the complications until later on.

‘Disabled’ shows the reader another contrast between ‘legless’ and ‘blood smear’, this
compares the superficial cut with a life changing injury-his past and present. ‘No fears of Fear
came yet’ shows to the audience that the soldier had once thought that he was brave and bold
however despite this he is actually frightened of being a coward. The war has reminded him
that he holds neither of those virtues’ in addition; it has exposed him to the huge amorphous
collection of his fears that threaten to overwhelm him. Likewise, he only received sympathy not
cheers of celebration which was what he had expected after he had sacrificed himself to serve
in the war effort. He is confused after ‘only a solemn man thanked him and inquired about his
soul’, his disbelief is emphasized as he had been looking forward to coming back home but
received only sadness and pity for his current state. Besides, it contrasts to his earlier
personality because in his earlier days he was the one people looked up to and respected, now
only one person bothers to pity and feel sorry for the soldier and only one person comes to
offer his condolences and sympathies thus representing a great change for the young man and
it challenges his earlier view and ideals on life.

In conclusion, the poems’ Disabled’ by Wilfred Owen and ‘Out, out’ by Robert Frost evoke
emotions of pathos, regret, nostalgia, sadness and melancholy in the atmosphere and the
reader. The soldier’s hopes are dashed and the child’s violent last experience of life creates
sorrow and the idea of how brief and fragile life is, is evident in both poems. The reader is
overwhelmed and comes to understand the wistfulness and pity the boy and soldier’s lost
childhood, freedom and former life and yet also manages to feel how indifferent the world can
be towards these tragedies. Overall, ‘Disabled’ conveys the contrast between past and present
and evokes pathos more effectively than ‘Out, out’. However ‘Out, out’ succeeds in allowing the
reader to comprehend the brevity of life and feel more nostalgic and grief for the boy’s missing
childhood and liberty. The effect of the world’s apathy is felt more distinctively in ‘Disabled’ but
it is also constituent in ‘Out, out’ hence the boy’s family does not care for his death and the
monotonous feel prominent in the poem is able to manipulate the audience so that they realize
that life still goes on as normal. And in the end, the people the boy loved the most, ‘since they
were not the ones dead, turned to their own affairs’ while ‘the boy saw all…since he was old
enough to know..he saw all spoiled.’