Owen and the Soldier

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Owen dislikes English lessons but his teacher believes in his ability and asks him to read a poem at the new opening of the school library. Owen refuses until he realises that this may be a way to save his soldier. It could have been worse, I suppose,” I said as I took the towel off his head and put it and the Coke can in the bin. “At least it isn’t bird poo.” He might have sat on the bench for the past fifty years, but the town’s memorial soldier has now served his time and is destined for the bin. Council member Camilla Broadly said the council have exciting plans to revamp the memorial garden:

By May 1918 Owen regarded his poems not only as individual expressions of intense experience but also as part of a book that would give the reader a wide perspective on World War I. In spring 1918 it appeared that William Heinemann (in spite of the paper shortage that his publishing company faced) would assign Robert Ross to read Owen’s manuscript when he submitted it to them. In a table of contents compiled before the end of July 1918 Owen followed a loosely thematic arrangement. Next to each title he wrote a brief description of the poem, and he also prepared in rough draft a brief, but eloquent, preface, in which he expresses his belief in the cathartic function of poetry. For a man who had written sentimental or decorative verse before his war poems of 1917 and 1918, Owen’s preface reveals an unexpected strength of commitment and purpose as a writer, a commitment understandable enough in view of the overwhelming effects of the war upon him. In this preface Owen said the poetry in his book would express “the pity of War,” rather than the “glory, honour, might, majesty, dominion, or power,” which war had acquired in the popular mind. He distinguished also between the pity he sought to awaken by his poems (“The Poetry is in the Pity”) and that conventionally expressed by writers who felt less intensely opposed to war by this time than he did. As they wrote their historically oriented laments or elegies for those fallen in wars, they sought to comfort and inspire readers by placing the deaths and war itself in the context of sacrifice for a significant cause. But Owen’s message for his generation, he said, must be one of warning rather than of consolation. In his last declaration he appears to have heeded Sassoon’s advice to him that he begin to use an unmitigated realism in his description of events: “the true poet must be truthful.” Lisa Thompson's book Owen and the Soldieris a touching tale of a lonely young boy who confides in a stone soldier in the park. The author tells us why war stories are still so important for children, and how reading can help us walk in other people's shoes... These whole class reading sessions aim to develop children’s comprehension skills through a reading of extracts from a range of modern fiction texts.

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Sassoon called “Strange Meeting” Owen’s masterpiece, the finest elegy by a soldier who fought in World War I. T.S. Eliot, who praised it as “one of the most moving pieces of verse inspired by the war,” recognized that its emotional power lies in Owen’s “technical achievement of great originality.” In “Strange Meeting,” Owen sustains the dreamlike quality by a complex musical pattern, which unifies the poem and leads to an overwhelming sense of war’s waste and a sense of pity that such conditions should continue to exist. John Middleton Murry in 1920 noted the extreme subtlety in Owen’s use of couplets employing assonance and dissonance. Most readers, he said, assumed the poem was in blank verse but wondered why the sound of the words produced in them a cumulative sadness and inexorable uneasiness and why such effects lingered. Owen’s use of slant-rhyme produces, in Murry’s words, a “subterranean ... forged unity, a welded, inexorable massiveness.” A beautiful tale of a courageous young man who overcomes his fears to stand up for what he believes. Lisa Thompson writes stories that must be written. Here, she sensitively weaves complex ideas of young carers, social anxiety and remembrance into a story that somehow remains light and accessible.

In October 1915 Wilfred Owen volunteered and joined the Artists' Rifles. Eight months later (4th June 1916) he was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the Manchester Regiment and in December 1916 he left for the Western Front. This story features a dyslexia-friendly font and is suitable for struggling or reluctant readers, though parents/guardians should be aware that loss and grief feature in the story. I am incredibly proud of that poem and my teacher put it on the classroom wall! I think I only started appreciating reading poetry when I was studying for my English Literature A Level. I loved analysing them and dissecting why they chose particular words or rhythms.I put my hand on the soldier’s rough arm and rubbed his sleeve. Some of the stone crumbled against my fingers. I could see he was damaged, but surely there must be a way to repair him rather than get rid of him altogether? I’ve got something to tell you,” I said to the soldier. I could feel a painful lump forming in my throat. “The council said they are going to do up the memorial garden. They want to make a lot of … changes.”

The poem is used as the theme for The Listener Crossword 4343, "Bear, Bear Bearing". The title hints at "Rupert Brook-e", and features from the poem are hidden in the grid. I’ve only just started practising that one,” I said to the soldier, breathing normally now. “Anyway, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Het gedicht wat Owen schrijft is simpel. Maar het raakt me. Ik heb enorm met Owen te doen en het maakt zo goed duidelijk dat herdenken belangrijk is. Het stil staan bij dat wat ooit gebeurde kan je doen, maar dat is voor mij uiteindelijk heel abstract. Wat weet ik nou van oorlog… Dit boek laat zo mooi zien dat je vandaag, ook al ben je nog maar 10, een hele hoop te herdenken kan hebben. Lisa Thompson, schrijfster van De 'Goudvisjongen', 'De Nachtlantaarn' en 'De dag dat ik verdween', schetst in haar herkenbare stijl zonder omhaal of sentiment een korte periode uit het leven van een jongen die na zijn vader ook zijn moeder dreigt te verliezen, én dan nog de stenen soldaat. Tot hij van zich durft te laten horen - en de juiste mensen zich om hem bekommeren. Megan huffed and said, “That’s not fair. But I guess Mr Jennings doesn’t want to push you if you really don’t want to.”

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I am writing to you about the removal of the First World War soldier from the town’s memorial garden. I don’t believe that this should happen. My dad said that the soldier represents all those who died in the war. I think taking him away would be wrong. I opened my mouth to tell him that there was no way on earth I was going to stand up and read out a poem, but Mr Jennings left before I could speak. They’re going to rip everything out that’s in here and redo it all,” Megan told me. “The whole park is getting a revamp and they’re starting with the war memorial garden. Didn’t you know?” I don’t want to,” I said. “I told Mr Jennings today and he’s fine about it. It’ll just be you and Sean.”