Wilfred Owen

In Our Time: Culture

BBC

History

4.6 • 978 Ratings

🗓️ 24 November 2022

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the celebrated British poet of World War One. Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) had published only a handful of poems when he was killed a week before the end of the war, but in later decades he became seen as the essential British war poet. His works such as Anthem for Doomed Youth, Strange Meeting and Dulce et Decorum Est went on to be inseparable from the memory of the war and its futility. However, while Owen is best known for his poetry of the trenches, his letters offer a more nuanced insight into him such as his pride in being an officer in charge of others and in being a soldier who fought alongside his comrades.

With

Jane Potter Reader in The School of Arts at Oxford Brookes University

Fran Brearton Professor of Modern Poetry at Queen’s University Belfast

And

Guy Cuthbertson Professor of British Literature and Culture at Liverpool Hope University

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Transcript

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0:48.6	enjoy the programs.
0:49.6	Hello, Wilfred Owen, the Great War Poet, was killed on the 4th of November,
0:55.0	18, seven days before the armistice. He was 25.
1:00.0	By then he'd only published five poems, but in later decades he became seen as the British War poet,
1:06.5	his anthem for doomed youth, strange meeting,
1:09.5	Dulchia Ed decorumest, among those that became inseparable from our memory of the First World War.
1:15.9	And while he's best known for his poetry of the trenches and the futility of war, his letters
1:19.9	show a more complex side, someone who took pride in his status as an officer and in being a soldier.
1:25.6	We need to discuss Wilpanoanaa, Jane Potter, reader in the School of Arts at Oxford Brooks University.
1:31.8	Fran Breton, Professor of Modern Poetretriety at
	...

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