Owen, Wilfred (1893-1918), was a British poet known for his poems about World War I (1914-1918). His collection of poetry, Poems (1920), places him high among the soldier poets. His poetry reflected with painful clarity the agony and ugliness of war. In Owen’s verses, assonance, rather than rhyme, creates the poetic effect. Assonance is characterized by combinations of words that have like vowel sounds.
A complete edition of Owen’s 59 poems was published in 1931. The British composer Benjamin Britten incorporated some of Owen’s powerful verse into his War Requiem (1962).
Owen was born on March 18, 1893, in Oswestry, in the county (now unitary authority) of Shropshire, England. He was educated at the Birkenhead Institute and London University. Owen was killed in action in France on Nov. 4, 1918, only a week before the war’s end.
See also “Anthem for Doomed Youth.
