Wilfred Owen was a young poet who was interested in the
idea of beauty. His experiences as a soldier in World War I, however, taught him that
beauty is short-lived. Owen himself was killed in combat in
1918.
At the beginning of Owen's poem "Disabled," the
setting is a park, near the end of a day. A disabled man, crippled in the war, sits in
a "wheeled chair" and hears the "voices of boys" and the "voices of play and pleasure."
The disabled man can only observe, because he is "legless" and "sewn short at
elbow"--missing the lower part of an arm.
The poem
describes his life before the war, when he was a football hero popular with girls. He
joined the army because he thought he would "look [like] a god" in his
uniform.
Near the end of the poem, Owen informs us more
clearly of the setting. The disabled man is now in some kind of "institute" for the
handicapped. Here, he will "spend a few sick years," taking "whatever pity they may
dole."
As the poem ends, the disabled man wonders why his
caretakers have not come to take him back inside:
Why don't
they come
And put him into bed? Why don't they come?
He
seems to have reached the ultimate in helplessness. He cannot participate in the fun
that the young people in the park are having; yet neither does he have the physical
ability to move away from them. He is stuck, pathetically watching others live pleasant
lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment