Comparison of two poems by Wilfred Owen

This is a picture of Wilfred Owen, the poet. This picture demonstrates that he served in the war and died during service.
We are going to compare two poems by Wilfred Owen. One is from the book; The Send Off and the other we found on the internet; Disabled.

This is Disabled

He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,
And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey,
Legless, sewn short at elbow. Through the park
Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn,
Voices of play and pleasure after day,
Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him.

About this time Town used to swing so gay
When glow-lamps budded in the light blue trees,
And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim, -
In the old times, before he threw away his knees.
Now he will never feel again how slim
Girls' waists are, or how warm their subtle hands;
All of them touch him like some queer disease.

There was an artist silly for his face,
For it was younger than his youth, last year.
Now, he is old; his back will never brace;
He's lost his colour very far from here,
Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry,
And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race
And leap of purple spurted from his thigh.

One time he liked a blood-smear down his leg,
After the matches, carried shoulder-high.
It was after football, when he'd drunk a peg,
He thought he'd better join. - He wonders why.
Someone had said he'd look a god in kilts,
That's why; and may be, too, to please his Meg;
Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jilts
He asked to join. He didn't have to beg;
Smiling they wrote his lie; aged nineteen years.
Germans he scarcely thought of; all their guilt,
And Austria's, did not move him. And no fears
Of Fear came yet. He thought of jewelled hilts
For daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes;
And care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears;
Esprit de corps; and hints for young recruits.
And soon, he was drafted out with drums and cheers.

Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal.
Only a solemn man who brought him fruits
Thanked him; and then inquired about his soul.

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.
To-night 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?

This poem is about someone who has come home from the war and who is now disabled. It could be considered a sequel to The Send-Off because The Send-Off is about someone going into war, and Disabled is about someone coming back. Disabled may be referring to the people he saw around him when he was on sick leave from the war and The Send-Off may be referring to him going to the war.

In Disabled, Owen turns fear into a proper noun; "And no fears Of Fear came yet." This sentence means that the man in the poem didn't fear Fear yet. The use of personification turns fear into a concrete noun making it into someone and making it scarier. When it is a proper noun it seems to be more important, and as it is usually not capitalized the slight change is very noticeable and it makes you feel that you can't escape it. However, Owen does not use personification in The Send-Off and this shows how he can use different techniques for different effects and doesn't always have to fill his poems with every technique, but can use just a few and make them powerful.

When you read both poems you feel empathy for the people in it, but we think that we feel more empathy for the character in Disabled because of what he's gone through; "Legless, sewn short at elbow." This verse is very to the point and makes you realise what's happened. In The Send-Off you feel empathy for the women and children who are losing their loved ones because they are going to war. You also know that most of them won't come back so you feel for them more. When you read it you have the benefit of hindsight and you know what is going to happen to them when their loved ones don't come back.

The last stanza of The Send Off is contrasting to the previous stanza. While before it made it seem as though when the soldiers arrived home they would get a heroes welcome, the last paragraph contradicts this point. "May creep back, silent, to village wells, Up half-known roads" This shows the darker side, the real side of what happens when they eventually return home. The word half-known suggests that even though they may have spent most of their lives living there, the war had had made even the most important and memorable things in life seem distant and foreign.

from Ed Parry, Lucy Oliva, Georgie Bray and Ashley Layer group 3