in this video I'll be talking through the poem disabled by Wilfred Owen this could be in preparation for your Edexcel IGCSE English language exam paper - it could be alternatively what you are covering for your coursework if your school has chosen that option or it could be that you're covering this poem for a different exam board before I start there is so much to this poem it was impossible and would be impossible for me to include everything so as people have done previously with other videos have uploaded please do write your comments below to share your interpretations as well because there's so many different ways to read many of the lines but I've tried to at least give you a variation of language form and structure okay so first of all let's look at the title now obviously you should have read the poem and know that it's about a war veteran so the title contrast to our typical image of a soldier someone that we would expect to be in excellent physical health and so this just indicates that harrowing effects of war and you might even go further to say kind of the simplicity of this title highlight the new identity of this veteran that he feels like he has just been reduced to someone who is disabled that's the way he sees himself and that's the way people view him as later we notice for instance people see him like a queer disease he sat in a wheeled chair waiting for dark and shivered in his ghastly suit of grey legless sewn short at elbow through the park voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn voices of play and pleasures after day till gathering sleep had mothered them from him so straight away you'll notice that the soldier is not named I would argue that keeping the soldier anonymous reiterates that this could happen to lots of different soldiers and as I'm sure you're aware Wilfred Owen was against the war he used this poem to really highlight what a waste of time war is and how it affects he really wants to highlight as well how it affects soldiers and how they were kind of misled by propaganda so he want he doesn't want you to think this is a one-off this happened to many many soldiers across the country or I should say across the Commonwealth notice also the diction wheeled it's not a wheelchair remember he his sone he is legless and sewn short at elbow so if he's sown short at elbow he doesn't have the ability to even wheel himself so even that shows the kind of great dependency he has now on others and that kind of sense of hopelessness and desperation he may be experiencing as someone who wants was a hero on the football pitch and someone who was physically healthy enough to go to war when he is waiting for dark you might argue that this is a euphemism for death is he just waiting for the day to be over which indicates that he's clearly extremely depressed or is he waiting actually for his life to end but either way he is definitely waiting for a state of oblivion to kind of shut everything out which you might argue you were able to do during night time when you sleep there's also some kind of ghostly image imagery as well the fact that he shivers and he's in this ghastly suit of gray so first of all the fact that he does shiver suggests a weakness as well but then looking at that alliteration or the quote the use of closest ghastly suit of gray brings our attention to this really grim image of someone who's really Lux that kind of vitality that he had previously so it's really quite a tragic image of a young man he remember he joined the the war effort underage so to see such a young man seemed so ghostly is really quite tragic and tells you just kind of how war as such the life out of him robbed him of his life Wilfred Owen might argue on the third line we have a surah here which I would argue emphasizes his disability he feels like he is sown short and that just kind of emphasizes that draws your attention to the physical consequences of him going to war it's interesting that he can hear these voices of boys playing pleasures of the day which you typically would associate with something positive it should be a nice sound that you can hear in the background but for him it is saddening like him so this serves to emphasize his loneliness it's it doesn't bring joy to him it if anything it creates a melancholic tone so he's again we've been reminding him reminded here that he's incredibly depressed he cannot find joy in anything and when he does see all here others that are enjoying life it only reminds him of the life that he no no longer has it's interesting that he feels like sleep mother's him from them so sleep is a form of protection he doesn't have to hear the joys of others in sleep he doesn't have to be reminded of what he's missing out on and mothered is quite an interesting word because he relies on sleep to have that form of companionship that form of comfort that a mother brings you which reiterates his loneliness and suggests maybe he doesn't have even any family members like a mother and who can provide that type of comfort anymore so it's interesting and real saps sad metaphor to use to just highlight what a terrible depressing position he is in after returning from the war change it there we go about this time town used to swing so gay when Glo lamps budded in the light blue trees and girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim in the old times before he threw away his knees now he will never feel again how slim girls waists are or how warm their subtle hands all of them touch him like some queer disease so notice again the universality of not naming a time this could be any soldier from any time there's the same idea as before the describing how town used to swing so gay you might say that the diction here connotes like a playfulness and reminds us of the youth that he used to have there's also kind of romantic I don't put it I don't think in the know I haven't in the annotations but the next line is also quite romantic image as well of these glow lamps budding the light blue trees everything seemed so serene and but you might argue also glow lamps or the glow at least connotes hope and budded is a metaphor for his young life as well before the war full of potential everything ahead of him and it just again reiterates what a waste but he went to war and he's had his life or his vitality taken away from him the alliteration for girls glance just introduces this kind of playfulness and this flirtatious that he clearly enjoyed he's a good-looking guy as we're about to read later and he enjoys having that attention from girls but we notice a transition here so he talks about you know how wonderful it was then in the old times before he threw away his knee so you start to notice I would argue this - here indicates a transition here he's kind of getting lost in his memory so this is a flashback and he's thinking how wonderful town was and how flirty the girls were and that - is a transition in his tone and he starts to become more bitter more regretful in the old times interestingly a phrase that you might hear your grandparents say or your parents in the good old days so it's an interesting phrase for a young man to use he could very well be 18 19 20 to refer to just a few years back the old times so it depicts the young veteran as an old man and again emphasizes how war has really sucked the life out of him but it also indicates that life really is very very different after the war maybe there was this naivety before it and noticed the phrasal verb here threw away there's a bitter tone and it's definitely echoing Wilfred Owen's belief that going to war giving up your limbs giving up your life more so is not worth the sacrifice it's a waste so that's kind of where that bitter and regretful tone comes from look at the definitive adverb as well never so we've got this great sense of hopelessness he's never going to have the life he once had so again that kind of feeds into his depression and then all in yellow here is really just this romantic image contrasted with the harsh rejection he now has so he enjoyed being intimate with girls he enjoyed that closeness I've been able to feel their waists and hold that look and feel the warmth of their their hands think about how the warmth of their hands contrasts with how cold he is now sitting shivering in a dark room waiting to go to bed but now instead they touch him like some queer disease so especially zooming into the word queer suggests he is seen as something strange something different so he has this sense of other Nuss so we've got this sense of alienation really and it's really ironic but he went to war for his country for his people and now he comes back and he's rejected by them now he's alienated and he doesn't feel like he's accepted into society there was an artist silly for his face for it was younger than his youth last year now he is old his back will never brace he's lost his colour very far from here poured it down shell holes till the veins run dry and half his lifetime elapsed in the hot race and leap a purple spurted from his thigh so it's interesting that he is referring to an artist it sounds like an artist wanted to paint him he's clearly very good-looking but he refers to the artist is silly for his face does he look back now having experienced war I realized how shallow how naive how ignorant they all were beforehand how they were more concerned about you know the good looks of some guy that they want to paint so it's quite interesting I would argue that that might even be quite a bitter tone now looking back and so it's interesting he says here this is a good indication of how old he is for it was younger than his youth last year so that just is a good indication he wore has aged him within the span of a year so again this is just coming back to this idea of the harrowing effects of war but now he is old so again that just supports this idea that he is like an old man he's completely lost his use and that hope and joy that comes with it again we have the the adverb never so this definitive this sense of hopelessness his body will never be the same again his lost his color that being a metaphor for youth and vigor later on he talks about purple this being blood spurting out of his thigh but you know the color purple also signifies energy and vigor so he's not it's not just blood he's he's losing he's losing that that vitality that he once had notice the verb choice poured it down he doesn't lose it he doesn't sacrifice it He pours it down again kind of linked with this idea of throwing away his knees we've got this sense that going to war was a wasteful Act this wasn't a worthy sacrifice it was a great waste so again we've got this regretful bit at home this is all kind of linked to this hot race the excitement the action of war and that's important when we come to the next stanza where everything kind of comes to a so later on when we come to a shortest answer I should say when everything kind of comes to a bit of an anti-climax and he refers to losing his life metaphorically as well again all links to this idea that he's aged he's like an old man one time he liked a blood smear down his leg after the matches carried shoulder-high it was after football when he drunk a peg he thought he'd better join he wonders why someone had said he'd look a god in kilts that's why and maybe two to please his Meg I that was it to please the giddy jolts he asked to join he didn't have to beg so look at the irony there he's just talked about the blood spurting from his body in the previous stanza and the irony of beforehand when he was naive and innocent he used to like getting injured he likes that kind of luck that it make probably made him look masculine and heroic so look at the contrast and it really just indicates just how naive he was before the war he was again I ironically carried shoulder-high after matches he was the man of the match he enjoys that glory that he received before the war ironically he doesn't receive that afterwards when he's actually sacrificed a lot more and done something much more impressive than playing football the fact that he's drunk basically when he decides to join indicates that his decision was made on impulse you could link this as well to the propaganda at the time and say that that's kind of you know young boys got carried away looking at how war was depicted in in these propaganda posters as something almost like an adventure the short the short sentence also that follows he thought he'd better join reflects that impulsiveness as well in his decision and highlights that this hasn't been thought thought through linked with his age as well I mean he's he's young he should be behaving in an impulsive manner it's just a shame that this brought him to war the - who I would argue indicates a reflection of pause while he thinks one earth did I choose to go to war wonder if he comes back to that moment every time because it's ultimately this decision that has made a huge difference to his life someone had said he'd looked like a God in kilts so this simile indicates the motivation of this soldier it wasn't to protect his country it was really because he wanted the glory he did the chance to be idolized just how he enjoyed being idolized being carriage shoulder high and having that blood smeared down his leg he thought this was just another way so that you might argue that actually it was a vain reason he went for vanity more than he did for any patriotic reason notice as well that the clauses are very short in this line that's why and maybe two to please his meg you might argue that this indicates heightened emotion and it's it's painful for him to think about a girl that he clearly really likes really wanted to impress maybe his girlfriend but notice in the next line he refers to her as a jilt that being someone a girl that rejects a man so we now really learn that he's been rejected by by his girlfriend or whoever he was trying to pursue so again we've got that kind of bitter tone as well smiling they wrote his lie aged nineteen years Germans he scarcely thought of all their guilt and Austria's did not move him and no fears a fear came yet he thought of jeweled hilts for dagger in daggers in plaid socks are smart salutes and care of arms and leave and pay arrears esprit de corpse and hints for young recruits and soon he was drafted out with drums and cheers so there's something quite heartless about it's a horrible image that he signs that we like we learned through the fact that he says it's a lie that he was young he was too young to join the war effort and that often happened where boys and underaged would sign up and just lie and but it's interesting that those that signed him up smiled as they wrote his lie and maybe they knew maybe they could tell and they were just happy to get another recruit and maybe it was just again a naivety but there's something that just doesn't sit well thinking that he's basically signing his will they are signing his life away so he pretends he's 19 years the fact that he doesn't think about the Germans or the Austria's but the Austrians sorry highlights his naivety again this just confirms that the reasons for him going to war were really for reasons of vanity rather than for what was really happening and that reflects an uneducated mass of soldiers at that time as well you know they highly depended on one source of news and so we can't really blame him he's also very young interestingly we have the capitalization of fear I think this is Wilfred Owen trying to highlight that there really is something to fear in war and that's something that those propaganda posters failed to relay to be their target audience which would be boys just like this veteran so he doesn't he has no fears of fear yet capitalizing it stresses the terror of war I think it's Wilfred Owen stressing that there's real fear in war never mind this pressure on young men at that time not to show fear to be this brave soldier that kind of lasts in the face of danger that he was trying to expose wasn't the case war was terrifying and then look at these this long long list really just influences and I think further supports this idea that his reasons for going to war are empty it's all about you know the outfit getting to salute things like leaving going home getting paid the kind of comradery of it all but not really anything to do with the war per se don't mean to do that okay and then look now what happens to this stanza we've got a short sander of three lines significantly shorter than the others so we've had this big just go back if I can don't want to get lost so we have this big kind of especially this long list that kind of builds up all this excitement all the things that he's looking forward to all the reasons why he's joined the wall and then they send him off with these drums and chairs so everything is very exciting and then we just have this three line stanza so the short stanza I would argue represents the short-lived glory that he experienced so the glory kind of ends once they send him off and before he knows it he's back home so it's really this kind of represents the kind of anticlimax of war it wasn't what he expected it was a huge disappointment some cheered him home but not as crowds cheer goal only a solemn man who brought him fruits thanked him and then inquired about his soul so look at the capitalization of goal suggesting that people placed greater importance on his performance in football than they did in war so that's just highlighting the irony of the situation again I think about again those drums and chairs and then the contrast of him coming back it's just the word solemn just creates this melancholic tone and again just adds that kind of anticlimax as well it suggests a probably a priest if he's inquiring about his soul as well so note as well that there's no one else there he doesn't have any family or friends that are waving him back and thanking him for his service now he will spend a few six years in Institute's and do what things the rules consider wise and take whatever pity they may doll tonight he noticed how the woman's eyes passed from him to the strong men that HUL how cold and late it is why don't they come and put him into bed why don't they come so here we just see this this whole stanza is really about his great dependence he's completely lost any agency in his life and the even the ambiguity of a few sick years he doesn't even know how long it's going to take there's an uncertainty of his future he's completely kind of up the wimmer of others he's at the mercy of the government highlighted in green as well he's dependent on their rules he's dependent on when it's well here it says whatever pity they may dole dole being the money you get through welfare from the government so it's not entirely up to them to decide what quality of life he has and how much money he should have but he's now dependent on their pity whereas before he really wanted that glory and all he's left with his pity if that interestingly think about the women and how they used to flirt with him we had artists that was silly for his face and wanted to paint him and now they pass their eyes pass him so the contrast here to how he used to be looked at by women on the verb choice obviously highlights kind of the dismissiveness of his of the treatment of him now and when they look at men who were whole literally they are whole because they have their limbs but I think this is metaphorical as well he is a lesser person now he's a shell of himself because of his experiences of war and when he notices it's cold this connotes death weakness loneliness remember the warmth of the girl's hands that he used to enjoy he doesn't have that companionship anymore look at the punctuation as well indicating increasing despair towards the end of the poem and he's asking continually why don't they come why don't they come and here he's asking to be put into bed now he could literally be asking just to be put to bed so he can go to sleep you could argue that this is a you from ISM for death he just wants to die whatever it is he's again yearning for a state of oblivion which you would get through sleep or death further emphasizing just how depressed and hopeless this poor veteran is so I feel like I've talked quite a bit about structure and throughout as well but some things that were difficult to mention without looking at the poem as a whole so just note that throughout the whole thing we have the juxtaposition of remembrance and realization throughout the poem that highlights the repercussions of war so when we have remembrance we typically have positive memories romantic imagery and a life that was exciting a life where he enjoyed the glory of being the man of the match and so on in contrast to the stark reality after war where he is overlooked by women he's incredibly lonely and incredibly dependent on others notice also there is rhyming every other line so it's fairly regular and but also rhyming overlaps in two stanzas at times so just to give you I just highlighted a few to show you so you've got dry thigh and then shoulder hi recruits fruits so you might argue that Wilfred Owen almost puts a thread through the poem to show how everything kind of links and has I think this is my interpretation has a consequence and so to give you an example of that I would probably focus on this one so this is the long list of all the things that he's looking forward to and it's ends with hints for young recruits and the repercussion of that is he comes home and all he does get are fruits from this man so I think it's quite an interesting link here to indicate well this was the start reality these are all the things he really wanted and that's what he gets in return and also notice one of the words here doesn't with any of the other words and that's the how warm the subtle hands are of the girl all the girls I should say and so that's quite interesting that that doesn't have a word it rhymes with further emphasizing you might argue and that he will never feel that again hence why that rhyme does not come up again and that's everything