Wilfred Edward Salter Owen (18 March 1893, Oswestry, Shropshire, England – 4 November 1918, Sambre-Oise Canal, France), English poet, considered by most the best, most important of the "War Poets" of World War I. From a middle-class family, he discovered his poetic vocation at about the age of ten, but due to the strained financial circumstances of his family, his education was rather piecemeal. Working as a tutor in English and French in Bordeaux when the war broke out, he returned to England, where he enlisted in 1915. He was later wounded and sent to recuperate in Scotland. There he met fellow poet and soldier Siegfried Sassoon, who assisted him in the crafting of this poem, and with whom he probably had a romantic relationship.
Returned to active service, on the front line in France, Owen was killed in action exactly one week - almost to the hour - before the signing of the Armistice. He was twenty-five. His mother received the telegram giving the news of his death as the church bells were ringing out in celebration of Armistice Day.
the old lie..pro patria mori.
ReplyDelete