Wilfred Owen

[Paul Reed]

This is a close up of the inscription. It is a slight misquote of one of his stanzas.

[KIRKY]

Where is Ors?

Tony

[Paul Reed]

It's a few miles north-east (approx) of Le Cateau. Takes just under 90 minutes to get there from the Somme, depending on what route you take.

[Alan_J]

The misquote is indeed slight - I'm not sure what the mileage is in this "travesty" of his verse mentioned above.

Remember, Owen (apart from a couple of poems in the Hydra and the Nation) was not a published poet during the war. He went through several drafts of his verse, and I can't see why his mother, with whom he had a very close relationship, would do anything adverse to his memory.

The telegram announcing his death was delivered a wqeek after he died, the day the Armistice was signed.

[bernardmcilwaine]

in owens letters home,he mentions that his friend and fellow officer has left to join another lancashire regt,i know the ID of this officer and i have his picture,apart from his g/daughter,i am the only one with a copy,so if any of you who have a big interest in owen want a copy,let me know,bernard

[Graham-McAdam]

Owen's lines actually read (in 'The End', his most bitter, bleakest work)

"All death will he annul, all tears assuage?"

The question mark is vital, because the question is answered at the end -

When I ask white Age, he saith not so:

'My head hangs weighed with snow.'

And when I hearken to the Earth, she saith:

'My fiery heart shrinks, aching. It is death.

Mine ancient scars shall not be glorified,

Nor my titanic tears, the seas, be dried.'

So the answer to this plea for comfort and hope is NO - an appalling shock for most Edwardians, and, especially, his mother. And still, especially this week for us.

You have to call the atempt to find some hope in this text a travesty of what he was writing about. Good words, yes, but avoiding his meaning.

Didn't his mother also suppress his MC citation, beacause it made hime sound like a violent warrior. He was that too, which is why he is such a great poet - he knew what it was all like, including the need to kill. His mother couldn't cope with that.

This is all expanded in Dominic Hibbard's wonderful biography and by Helen McPhail & Philip Guest in Leo Cooper's "Wilfred Owen"