Insensibility by Wilfred Owen

  

                                      I 

Happy are men who yet before they are killed 

Can let their veins run cold. 

Whom no compassion fleers 

Or makes their feet 

Sore on the alleys cobbled with their brothers. 

The front line withers. 

But they are troops who fade, not flowers, 

For poets’ tearful fooling: 

Men, gaps for filling: 

Losses, who might have fought 

Longer; but no one bothers. 

                                     II 

And some cease feeling 

Even themselves or for themselves. 

Dullness best solves 

The tease and doubt of shelling, 

And Chance’s strange arithmetic 

Comes simpler than the reckoning of their shilling. 

They keep no check on armies’ decimation. 

                                     III 

Happy are these who lose imagination: 

They have enough to carry with ammunition. 

Their spirit drags no pack. 

Their old wounds, save with cold, can not more ache. 

Having seen all things red, 

Their eyes are rid 

Of the hurt of the colour of blood for ever. 

And terror’s first constriction over, 

Their hearts remain small-drawn. 

Their senses in some scorching cautery of battle 

Now long since ironed, 

Can laugh among the dying, unconcerned. 

                                     IV 

Happy the soldier home, with not a notion 

How somewhere, every dawn, some men attack, 

And many sighs are drained. 

Happy the lad whose mind was never trained: 

His days are worth forgetting more than not. 

He sings along the march 

Which we march taciturn, because of dusk, 

The long, forlorn, relentless trend 

From larger day to huger night. 

                                     V 

We wise, who with a thought besmirch 

Blood over all our soul, 

How should we see our task 

But through his blunt and lashless eyes? 

Alive, he is not vital overmuch; 

Dying, not mortal overmuch; 

Nor sad, nor proud, 

Nor curious at all. 

He cannot tell 

Old men’s placidity from his. 

                                     VI 

But cursed are dullards whom no cannon stuns, 

That they should be as stones. 

Wretched are they, and mean 

With paucity that never was simplicity. 

By choice they made themselves immune 

To pity and whatever moans in man 

Before the last sea and the hapless stars; 

Whatever mourns when many leave these shores; 

Whatever shares 

The eternal reciprocity of tears.

Insensibility is based on the theme of War. It is written by the Wilfred Owen, one of the most important war poets of 20th century who influenced the poet of Georgian period. In his poems we are shocked by a mode of cynicism, satire and realism. He had been to war field and he has also witnessed the terror and horrors of warfare. He belongs to the group of poets namely-Kipling, Freeman, Kardy and others. Wilfred Owen enjoys an important position among the war poets because he conveys the sense that the act of war is futile. He also arouses or pity created by the devastation of war on a large scale. Unfortunately the poet himself was killed in action. He was highly influenced by Sasson. According to Wilfred Owen  in the preface to his collection he writes- “I am not concerned with poetry. My subject is war and the pity of war.The poetry is in the pity.”

Thus we find Wilfred Owen has witnessed the panoramic view of war from a very close angle and it has rightly affected his mind and has aroused a sense of pity in his mind. Therefore his poetry is a Gospel against war. According to Edward Albert- “Never has the pity of war more deeply left or more powerfully shown”

The poem Insensibility begins with a note of  bitter realisation of  war. The poet feels that those men are happy and lucky who can cool down there warm blood before their death. The poet says-

“ Happy are men yet before they are killed

Can let their veins run cold”

 The poet wants to convey the situation before the death of the soldiers. The soldiers face the grin battle of life and death. They are completely devoid of passion. The poet is reminded of  the actions going on the battle field. Some of the soldiers fall down to the bullets of the enemy camp. Those who are rough and tough they fight bravely.  The  soldiers were not delicate things like the petals of flowers. The poet puts a question, if the soldier can live longer and fight longer and finally he also gives the answer who cares for such brave soldiers or martyrs. The poet says- “ They keep no check on army is decimation” In the third stanza of the poem, the poet admires those who loose their imagination in the passage of time because person without imagination can fight in the war with courage.

The poet says that there is a lack of sensitivity and imaginative  power to assess and visualise the demerits of  war but those who are without imagination, there spirits do not pull them back. Therefore they flight bravely and courageously. The pinches of war are hardly perceived by them not only the eyes of such insensitive and unimaginative fighters are hurt by the site of blood shedding from the wounded soldiers. They come across a number of dying soldiers and still they have the stamina to laugh because they remain least concerned. According to the poet such soldier as - “Can laugh among the dying unconcerned”

The people who are termed insensible are actually worldly unimaginative and insensitive. They are also unresponsive towards the miseries and sufferings of the war. When the soldier is unaware of the attacking, when he is at home he remains more happy at home than in the battlefield. Those kinds also remains happy whose minds are not trained along the military lines. While marching on the roads the young kids sing song but while marching towards the battlefield the soldiers become a lot and conscious.

The poet also justifies the job of a soldier, his nature of work can not be viewed word from the eyes of an innocent and carefree young boy. A soldier is like any other mortal but still he is completely different because he dies earlier than his death. He does not die for himself, he dies for his country and the people of the country. That is why dignity and honor is attached even with his death.

The concluding stanza expresses the poet’s anguish that there are person with lusty and insensitive soul who want to gain more and more power and more and more position. These persons are really insensible in their understanding. They are selfish by nature, they do not like to cooperate with others. They become pitiless. The poet further says that none should moan over their death because of their insensibility. They are doomed to be lost in obscurity.

 The poet in his poem Insensibility not only describes about war and the faith of  soldier but also about the people who are insensitive and least concerned with the war. This poem is a great satire on insensible people who do not love their country and their countrymen. The poet shows a good command of rhythm and thus his poem becomes highly musical.