Search results
People also ask
What is 'Strange Meeting' by Wilfred Owen about?
What is 'Strange Meeting' a poem about?
Who wrote 'Strange Meeting'?
What is Owen's message in 'Strange Meeting'?
“Strange Meeting” was written by the British poet Wilfred Owen. A soldier in the First World War, Owen wrote “Strange Meeting” sometime during 1918 while serving on the Western Front (though the poem was not published until 1919, after Owen had been killed in battle).
- Download
(aside) She speaks. O, speak again, bright angel! For thou...
- Dulce Et Decorum Est
Like most of Owen's work, it was written between August 1917...
- Download
- Summary
- Analysis, Stanza by Stanza
- Historical Background
Written in the summer of 1918 by Wilfred Owen, ‘Strange Meeting‘ was titled after a quote by Percy Bysshe Shelley from his work ‘The Revolt of Islam‘. In it, a soldier escapes from a battle, only to find that he has escaped into hell and that the enemy that he has killed is welcoming him into hell. Discover more Wilfred Owen poems.
Stanza One
Even at the start of ‘Strange Meeting,’ the poem references war; for Owen, the natural habitat, the natural instincts, of a soldier is war. The start is relatively benign; there is nothing strange about escaping battle down a tunnel (in the First World War, there was a British plot to try and tunnel into German territory, hence the recurring imageryof holes and tunnels).
Stanza Two
The dead, ever prevalent in Owen’s work, crop up in the second stanza of ‘Strange Meeting‘. The words ‘encumbered sleepers’ implies a relatively peaceful passing, however as soon as the soldier passes by them, he awakens one of the sleepers. The use of ‘sleepers’ is also heavily ironicon Owen’s part, given that it is something peaceful, yet however, the peacefulness of the image implied by ‘sleepers’ is undercut in the third stanza.
Stanza Three
It is worth noting that this is perhaps one of the most bloodless poems that Owen wrote. He eschews the in-depth look towards brutalities that most Owen poems usually claim – omitting the description of the injuries, instead, for what was lost. Although the first two lines lend an idea – though there is no gore, the person speaking is terrified – the presence of war is still felt. It is also worth noting that ‘Strange Meeting‘ is one of the most silent that Wilfred Owen wrote; his onomatopoei...
‘Strange Meeting‘ was written in 1918 and stands in the forefront of Owen’s achievements; the quote, ‘I am the enemy you killed, my friend’ is to be found carved on Owen’s memorial in Shrewsbury, and Siegfried Sassoon called it Owen’s ‘pass into immortality’. It is made up of 44 lines in iambic pentameter divided into four stanzasof irregular lengt...
- Female
- Poetry Analyst
Nov 9, 2017 · In summary, ‘Strange Meeting’ is narrated by a soldier who dies in battle and finds himself in Hell. There he meets a man whom he identifies as a ‘strange friend’. With a thousand fears that vision’s face was grained; Yet no blood reached there from the upper ground, And no guns thumped, or down the flues made moan.
Buy Study Guide. Wilfred Owen: Poems Summary and Analysis of "Strange Meeting" Summary. The speaker escapes from battle and proceeds down a long tunnel through ancient granite formations. Along his way he hears the groan of sleepers, either dead or too full of thoughts to get up.
- Wilfred Owen
May 19, 2024 · Wilfred Owen’s poem “Strange Meeting” starts with the speaker escaping from the battle field and entering into a deep (profound), dark (dull) tunnel which was created (scooped) or cut (groined) through the granite bedrock long ago by some massive (titanic) wars in the past.
Sep 6, 2023 · Wilfred Owen’s war poem, “Strange Meeting”, explores the destructive consequences of war and the futility of violent conflict. With vivid imagery and powerful...
Nov 2, 2023 · 'Strange Meeting' Summary. 'Strange Meeting' is a poem about reconciliation. Two soldiers meet up in an imagined Hell, the first having killed the second in battle. Their moving dialogue is one of the most poignant in modern war poetry. Wilfred Owen fought and died in WW1, being fatally wounded just a week before the war ended in May 1918.
