Facts about Wilfred Owen

• Discovered poetry at a young age
• Disillusionment with the Church prior to 1913
• Enlistment in 1915
• Diagnosed with shellshock
• Met Friedrick Sassoon

Owen’s life is much like the other poets who contributed to World War I poetry and our understanding thereof. His experiences in the Hells of trench warfare resonated with many who served at the time. His friendship with Friedrick Sassoon, another poet of similar background and subject matter, would attest to that. Our understanding of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is still limited, and in the early 20th century, then known as shellshock, it was almost non-existent. Not surprisingly, the disturbed mind frame rears itself in WW I poetry. In Owen’s Preface he writes, “This book is not about heroes… My subject is War, and the pit of War.”  Earlier than this time due to the constraints of society and their conceived authority, dissonance against the Church and approaching taboo subjects such as shellshock and disabled veterans not finding their place in the world after serving could not have its place in literature.