In the second in our series on First World War sources, second-year UoP student Charlotte Lewis discusses what can be learned from a letter by famed WWI poet Wilfred Owen to his mother Susan.
Whilst Wilfred Owen’s poetry is well known for describing the horrors of the First World War, his letters to his mother, Susan Owen, give the reader an insight into Owen’s personal experiences and reactions hiding behind his poetry. In light of this, this blog will focus on a letter written by Owen in February 1917 to his mother.[1] Through the analysis of this letter, this blog will try to convey not only its significant use in describing the conditions of the First World War, but also how it provides us with an understanding of Owen and his emotions reflected in his poetry, in particular his renowned poem Dulce et Decorum Est.[2]
The value of the content of Owen’s letter can only truly be understood when the conditions of trench warfare at this time have been fully acknowledged. Ashworth recognises that very early on in the war, at the end of the first battle of Ypres, the primary mode of warfare at the western front was static trench warfare.[3] During this time, armies were largely deadlocked and “movement was more often measured in yards than miles”.[4] This is clearly demonstrated in the opening sentence of this letter as Owen describes how “so little happens that I can’t keep up my instalments of blood-and-thunder literature”.[5] This line also reveals Owen’s relationship with descriptive writing as he writes “blood-and-thunder literature”, a genre of literature in which his Poem Dulce et Decorum Est conforms to in its description of the daily horrors experienced at the Western Front.[6] Potter argues that his letters from this time are “as evocative, shocking and profoundly moving as any of the poetry that his experiences inspired”.[7] For example, both the poem Dulce et Decorum Est and this letter portray a graphic imagery of fatigued, limping soldiers.[8] Owen describes in his letter how they marched “miserably slowly” as “some of the men could not wear boots” due to frost-bitten feet.[9] According to Ashworth, a trench foot was swollen and always painful.[10] There are strong parallels between this letter and the experiences described in Dulce et Decorum Est, supporting Rivers’ argument that his letters can be used as sources for his poems. However, whilst this letter does show clear similarities to his poem Dulce et decorum Est, it also shows a possible motivation for the creation of the poem.
A case of trench foot which required plastic surgery, Wellcome Institute photo no. L0025834
A theme presented in Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est is his dissatisfaction with the portrayal of the western front through propaganda. In private through his letters, and public through his poem, Owen highlights his contempt for the image of war portrayed by the home front. Bebbington recalls that of the two British Museum drafts of Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est, “one has the ‘dedication’ to ‘Jessie Pope, etc’”.[11] Pope frequently wrote jingoistic poetry as propaganda for newspapers and often portrayed an image of the war which was the polar opposite to that described by Owen in his poetry.[12] In his letter, Owen comments on the propaganda shown by the Daily Mirror, and how it “still depicts the radiant smiles of Tommies”.[13] This could be an indirect comment on the work of Jessie Pope and so this letter could act as a source for understanding the initial dedication of the poem to her, as well as the running theme of anger towards softened portrayals of war experiences which discredited and undermined the heroic nature of the soldiers. The perusal of this letter allows us to understand some of the multitude of emotions behind Owen as a poet through his description of soldiers’ daily experiences, whilst representing the realities of Trench warfare.[14]
The 2nd Manchesters capturing a German battery at Francilly Selency, April 1917 by Richard Woodville
However, when using this letter as a source, there are a number of considerations to take into account when assessing its use in understanding Owen’s experience of the war and associated emotions hiding behind his poetry.[15] Kerr acknowledges that Owen had an incredibly strong relationship with his mother, as he suggests that Susan Owen was the family’s still point and an “inner sanctuary”; one aspect of his devotion to her could be his willingness to “protect her from distress”.[16] Subsequently, we must consider whether Owen has refrained from describing the true nature of his experience at the time of the letter in order to protect his mother, and so this letter is less likely to emphasise the whole picture; reading the vivid details in the poem Dulce et Decorum Est it is possible to recognise that this letter might not contain the whole truth.[17] However, by using this letter as a source for understanding Owen’s poem, as well as understanding experiences of the First World War in general, it can be very useful in as much as it avoids popular memory.[18] Roper highlights that frequently other WWI sources such as memoirs and autobiographies can be influenced by public narratives created by popular fiction and television of what it means to be a soldier hero, whereas a letter is arguably free from this bias as it captures the moment in order to “communicate the self to the recipient”.[19] Thus, it would be beneficial to analyse Owen’s other letters alongside this letter in order to grasp a better perception.
Through analysis of Owen’s letter to his mother in 1917 we are able to develop a clearer understanding of Owen and his experiences of the war, providing a source for interpreting the emotions and messages conveyed through his poetry, in particular Dulce et Decorum est.[20] This letter offers a unique portrayal of the realities of warfare as well as an insight into Owen’s relationship with the war as a result of his experiences.[21] Whilst we are unable to gain a full understanding of Owen’s experiences through this single letter, it does offer a significant basis for a first understanding of Owen, and so we would benefit greatly from a comparative analysis of other letters written by Owen.
[1] Wilfred Owen, “‘Sunday February 18 1917’, Harold Owen and John Bell”, Wilfred Owen: Collected letters, (London: Oxford University Press, 1967), 435-436.
[2] Bryan Rivers, “Wilfred Owen’s Letter No. 486 as a Source for “Dulce et Decorum Est”, in ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, vol. 21, (2014): 29.
[3] Tony Ashworth, Trench Warfare, 1914-1918: The Live and Let Live System (London: Pan Books, 2000), 2.
[4] Ashworth, Trench Warfare, 1914-1918, 2.
[5] Owen, “’Sunday February 18 1917’”, 435-436.
[6] Owen, “’Sunday February 18 1917’”, 435-436.
[7] Jane Potter, Wilfred Owen: An illustrated life, (Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2014), 70
[8] British Library. Dulce et Decorum Est, a close reading. https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/a-close-reading-of-dulce-et-decorum-est Last accessed 25 May 2016.
[9] Owen, “’Sunday February 18 1917’”, 435-436.
[10] Ashworth, Trench Warfare, 1914-1918, 3.
[11] W.G. Bebbington, “Jessie Pope and Wilfred Owen” in Ariel: a review of international English literature, Vol. 3, (1972): 82.
[12] Anderson Araujo, “Jessie Pope, Wilfred Owen, and the politics of pro patria mori in World War I poetry” in Media, War & Conflict, Vol. 7, (2014): 337
[13] Owen, “’Sunday February 18 1917’”, 435-436.
[14] Michele Kaltemback, “Wilfred Owen’s personality as revealed by his letters”, in Caliban, Vol. 10, (1973): 43; Owen, “’Sunday February 18 1917’”, 435-436.
[15] Owen, “’Sunday February 18 1917’”, 435-436.
[16] Douglas Kerr, Wilfred Owen’s Voices, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), 48.
[17] Owen, “’Sunday February 18 1917’”, 435-436; British Library. Dulce et Decorum Est, a close reading. https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/a-close-reading-of-dulce-et-decorum-est Last accessed 25 May 2016.
[18] Michael Roper, “Re-remembering the Soldier Hero: the psychic and social construction of Memory in Personal Narratives of the Great War” in History Workshop Journal, vol. 50 (2000): 183
[19] Roper, “Re-remembering the Soldier Hero, 183; Penny Summerfield, Histories of the Self: Personal narratives and Historical practice, (Florida: Routledge, 2018), 22.
[20] Owen, “‘Sunday February 18 1917”’, 435-436.
[21] Owen, “‘Sunday February 18 1917”’, 435-436.
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