the pity of war. wilfred owen.
“My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.”
– Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owen (whom I adore…exceedingly) was a British poet and soldier who signed up for the Artists’ Rifles in 1915. He was known for his shocking, realistic war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare – images which sat in stark contrast to both the public perception of war at the time, and to the confidently patriotic verse written by earlier war poets.
Owen was killed in action on November 4 1918, just a week before the war ended. He was 25 years old.
Launched 90 years after the end of the First World War, the University of Oxford’s The First World War Digital Archive now comprises over 7,000 digital images relating to the poets of the Great War.
