Analysis Of Disabled By Wilfred Owen

Peace is one of the most important concepts that many people around the world long for. However, during World War I, propaganda in Britain and other countries meant that many soldiers were ecstatic to join the war and serve their countries. After gaining first-hand experience himself, Wilfred Owen’s “Disabled” exposes the calamity of war, by contrasting a generic disabled soldier who is young and naive before the Great War, when he was “whole”, and after losing his legs (and possibly arms) in the war, to highlight not only the physical but also the psychological and societal damages caused by war.

The title, “Disabled”, is extremely straightforward yet powerful, summarising the content of the poem and implying an impairment from society. The introduction of the poem also creates a ghastly atmosphere, and the soldier is introduced as “waiting for dark”. This implies that he is waiting for darkness which could signify death. Darkness can also symbolise a lack of hope which suggests that the soldier is hopeless. This contrasts with the positive and enthusiastic images in stanza 2. He is also described as shivering “in his ghastly suit of …show more content…
However, “Disabled” is arguably one of Owen’s most tragic poems as the striking image of a disabled young soldier, a representative of the many disabled soldiers of World War I, is created through a range of devices, showing that surviving the war can be more agonizing than being killed in the war. Expressing fury towards the authorities for lying to young adults and indirectly causing them to be killed, in this poem Owen indirectly expresses his desire for peace and the experiences of these disabled soldiers, like the one in “Disabled”, to cease