Thank you for introducing me to this powerful
poem.
Wilfred Owen was one of the most important poets to
write about World War I. "Strange Meeting," like many of his poems, expresses a very
negative attitude about the horrors and futility of
war.
The poet describes his descent down a "profound dull
tunnel." He soon discovers that this "sullen hall" is actually Hell. Although the
place is certainly not pleasant, it seems better than the battlefield from where the
poet has recently come. He remarks to a man that he meets in
Hell,
"Strange friend...here is no cause to
mourn."
The man agrees that there is no cause to
mourn--except for "the undone years," meaning all that he could have accomplished if he
had not been killed in battle.
For by my glee might many men have
laughed,
And of my weeping something had been left,
Which must die
now.
He regrets that he must
"miss the march" of the world.
In the last stanza, the man
reveals a shocking secret: he is the enemy whom the poet killed in
battle:
I am
the enemy you killed, my friend.
I knew you in this dark: for so you
frowned
Yesterday through me as you jabbed and
killed.
Although the poet
killed him, the man seems willing to forgive;he says, "Let us sleep now." He seems to
realize that the war was an absurd form of madness for which no individual can be
blamed.
The poem's four stanzas are written in lines of 10
syllables each. Although the lines do not rhyme, Owens uses an interesting kind of
semi-rhyme: he often pairs words that share several consonant and vowel sounds. Some
examples:
hall, Hell
grained,
ground
moan, mourn
years,
yours
wild, world
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