Wilfred Owen Jer Ning 1762014 Background of Poem Drafted May April 1917 at Ripon Yorkshire where Owen was holding camp then Revised July 1918 at Scarborough Subject The Sendoff describes a group of soldiers being sent off to the Front by train However their destination remain unk ID: 299689
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Slide1
The Send-off
Wilfred Owen
Jer Ning
17.6.2014Slide2
Background of Poem
Drafted May- April 1917 at Ripon, Yorkshire where Owen was holding camp then.
Revised July 1918 at Scarborough.Slide3
Subject
The Send-off describes a group of soldiers being sent off to the Front by train. However, their destination remain unknown.
Their uniforms are decorated by flowers given by family and friends. (women)
The troops came from a cheering crowd but by the time they got to the train station not many people were watching.
The train sets out and the narrator wonders whether these men would return home to celebration but concludes otherwise.
Occurs back in England. In a village. Slide4
Theme & Concern
This poem is actually about how many young men are killed at war and the reality of the harshness of war.
A contrast between the excitement of the send-off and the realities of death.
Also, a direct accusation of the leaders of the nation/the people being hypocrites. Slide5
Title – ‘The Send-off’
The title itself seem to have this dismissive feel to it.
Gives the feeling that the soldiers life are not of great concern. And that send-offs’ happen too frequently too be of any interest.
Supported by the description of the porter and tramps watching the soldiers being sent off. They seem indifferent.
Suggests hyprocrisy going on in England. No one is standing up for these young men going off to face the horrors of war or most probably, death. Slide6
Speaker/Situation
The poem is in 3
rd
person point of view. A narration of the sending off of soldiers.
Sense of ambiguity :
Owen’s POV or people’s POV. Slide7
Tone
A
sombre
tone is established at the very start of the poem by the description of the lanes. This is also strengthened by the use of words such as ‘grimly’ and ‘dead’.
Owen deliberately creates a downbeat mood, so that the ‘grimly gay’ soldiers contrasts with the normal mood of send-offs. (+)
Use of white flowers usually used for mourning. (+)
Dark (+) -> Anger. Slide8
Form & Structure
The poem is in 4 stanzas of 5 lines each. The lines are group into sets of 3 and 2 in each stanza.
In this version, the split is printed between the set of 3 and set of 2 in stanzas 1 and 3.
Each stanza has a rhyme scheme of ‘
abaab
’ in which all are full rhymes.
Lines 2 and 5 of each stanza is shorter and falls on the rhyme ‘b’. This sort of creates a jerky effect (+)
Some of the rhymes of these shorter lines are quite powerful. For example (+)Slide9
Imagery
One of the central images of the poem – the flowers pinned to the soldiers coats. (+)
Although send-offs were usually celebrations, Owen creates a somewhat subdued image by the people who were at the actual train. (+)
Suggests that the locals are not really interested in the soldiers fate. (+)
The final stanza contrast the return of the soldiers with the send-off that happens before the poem’s opening. (+)Slide10
Soldiers that might not return home.Slide11
1st
Stanza
1
st line : Long line, long vowel sounds : “down’, ‘lanes’, ‘sang’, ‘way’.
Implies journey is long and slow. (+)
Oxymoron : grimly gay (+)
Suggests that the soldiers are pretending to be happy.
They pretty much know their fate. Slide12
People in town give flowers as celebration of the soldiers bravery.
‘white’ with wreath and spray.
Huge Irony : because that is probably what they do when the young men are dead. Impromptu funeral. (+)Slide13
2nd
Stanza
‘Dull porters’ – either stupid
or
show
no emotion. (+)
‘casual tramp’ – ‘sorry to miss them’, because these men brought in money for him. Might even have got to liking them but is not doing or saying anything. (+)
‘signals nodded’, ‘lamps winked’ – first sign of conspiracy.
‘nodded’, ‘winked’ – its like they have this ‘inside thing’ going on that they are keeping from other people.Slide14
3rd
Stanza
‘So secretly, like wrongs hushed-up, they went’
From the use of ‘secretly’, we can see that Owen accuses directly the people of not speaking openly about these young men being sent off for slaughter.
‘They were not ours’ & ‘to which front these were sent’
‘they’ and ‘these’ are pronouns. There were no names for these young men. Air of detachment. (+)
Realisation
that the flowers were indeed for their funeral instead of a celebration. Irony. Slide15
4th
Stanza
The final stanza is a very dense stanza, dense in terms of meaning. Words that Owen chooses matter a lot in this stanza.
Use of rhetorical question. Underlining that no, the soldiers would not come back in wild train-loads.
Cluster of 3 – the repetition of ‘few’
emphasises
just how few of the men would survive war and return home.
The word ‘may’ suggests that none of them will return home too. (+)Slide16
There were so few people left in the village that the village well become still and not disturbed.
‘half-known roads – suggests that the soldiers are so emotionally
truamatised
that they don’t recognise
once familiar places. (+)
Also, the fact that they ‘creep silently’ adds to the sadness of the poem. These soldiers who returned home are ashamed to be seen. Slide17Slide18
General
Owen is accusing the people of hypocrisy.
The fact that they know about the young men dying but are not doing anything about it.
By doing this, they are not only destroying individuals’ lives but also communities. (+)
So he is asking the ultimate question :
“Why
isn
’
t anyone saying anything?”