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Strange Meeting Text & Analysis

The poem "Strange Meeting" by Wilfred Owen describes a strange encounter between a soldier and the enemy combatant he killed. The soldier escapes from the hell of the battlefield by descending into a long tunnel where he comes across other groaning sleepers. Among them is the enemy soldier he recognizes from "yesterday" on the battlefield. In a dream-like setting that represents hell, the two soldiers have a dialogue where they lament the loss of life and potential caused by the war, but ultimately come to reconciliation and forgiveness, finding common humanity despite being enemies. The poem conveys a message of pity for the horrors of war and hope for overcoming hatred through reconciliation.

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محمد ناصر عليوي
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1K views

Strange Meeting Text & Analysis

The poem "Strange Meeting" by Wilfred Owen describes a strange encounter between a soldier and the enemy combatant he killed. The soldier escapes from the hell of the battlefield by descending into a long tunnel where he comes across other groaning sleepers. Among them is the enemy soldier he recognizes from "yesterday" on the battlefield. In a dream-like setting that represents hell, the two soldiers have a dialogue where they lament the loss of life and potential caused by the war, but ultimately come to reconciliation and forgiveness, finding common humanity despite being enemies. The poem conveys a message of pity for the horrors of war and hope for overcoming hatred through reconciliation.

Uploaded by

محمد ناصر عليوي
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Strange Meeting

BY WILFRED OWEN

It seemed that out of battle I escaped 


Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped 
Through granites which titanic wars had groined. 
Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned, 
Too fast in thought or death to be bestirred. 
Then, as I probed them, one sprang up, and stared 
With piteous recognition in fixed eyes, 
Lifting distressful hands, as if to bless. 
And by his smile, I knew that sullen hall,— 
By his dead smile I knew we stood in Hell. 

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. 
“Strange friend,” I said, “here is no cause to mourn.” 
“None,” said that other, “save the undone years, 
The hopelessness. Whatever hope is yours, 
Was my life also; I went hunting wild 
After the wildest beauty in the world, 
Which lies not calm in eyes, or braided hair, 
But mocks the steady running of the hour, 
And if it grieves, grieves richlier than here. 
For by my glee might many men have laughed, 
And of my weeping something had been left, 
Which must die now. I mean the truth untold, 
The pity of war, the pity war distilled. 
Now men will go content with what we spoiled. 
Or, discontent, boil bloody, and be spilled. 
They will be swift with swiftness of the tigress. 
None will break ranks, though nations trek from progress. 
Courage was mine, and I had mystery; 
Wisdom was mine, and I had mastery: 
To miss the march of this retreating world 
Into vain citadels that are not walled. 
Then, when much blood had clogged their chariot-wheels, 
I would go up and wash them from sweet wells, 
Even with truths that lie too deep for taint. 
I would have poured my spirit without stint 
But not through wounds; not on the cess of war. 
Foreheads of men have bled where no wounds were. 

“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. 
I parried; but my hands were loath and cold. 
Let us sleep now. . . .”
"Strange Meeting", by Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)

Strange Meeting" is one of Wilfred Owen's most famous, and most "
mysterious poems. It was published posthumously (after his death) in
1919. T.S. Eliot referred to "Strange Meeting" as a "technical
achievement of great originality" and " one of the most moving pieces of
".verse inspired by the war

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. As he looks at them one leaps
up; the soldier has recognized him and moves his hands as if to bless him.
Because of the soldier's "dead smile" the speaker knows that he is in Hell.

On the face of the "vision" the speaker sees a thousand fears, but the
blood, guns, or moans of above did not reach into their subterranean
retreat. The speaker tells the soldier that there is no reason to mourn, and
he replies that there is – it is the "undone years" and "hopelessness". The
soldier says his hope is the same as the speaker's; he also tells him he
once went hunting for beauty in the world, but that beauty made a
mockery of time. He knows the truth of what he did, which is "the pity of
war, the pity war distilled", but now he can never share it.

The soldier/vision continues, saying men will go on with what is left to


them, or they will die as well. They will not break their ranks even though
"nations trek from progress". He used to have courage and wisdom. He
would wash the blood from the wheels of chariots. He wanted to pour his
spirit out, but not in war.

Finally, he says to the speaker that "I am the enemy you killed, my
friend," and that he knew him in the dark. It was yesterday that the
speaker "jabbed and killed" him, and now it is time to sleep.
The Theme
"Strange Meeting" deals with the atrocities of World War I. The poem is
narrated by a soldier who goes to the underworld to escape the hell of the
battlefield and there he meets the enemy soldier he killed the day before.
"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.
Owen disliked the gentle, sentimental poetry that gave a distorted view of
the war by glorifying it. He wrote many poems depicting the horror and
helplessness of war; he wanted to capture the pity of war.
The majority of the poem is a dialogue between the two soldiers, set in a
dream-like environment that is in fact, Hell. Enemies in war, the two
become reconciliated in the end.
Owen's poem contains a message of love and forgiveness. It was written at a
time when hate and loathing were at their height, when a war on an
unimaginable scale took the lives of millions of young men and women.
The Significance of Rhyme
The poem is renowned for its technical innovation, particularly the
pararhyme. A pararhyme is a slant or partial rhyme in which the words have
similar consonants before and after unlike vowels – escaped and scooped,
groaned and grained, hair and hour. Almost all of the end lines in this poem
are pararhyme; the last line is a notable exception. This rhyme scheme adds
to the melancholy and bleak atmosphere of the poem. Pararhyme or double
consonance is a particular feature of the poetry of Wilfred Owen and also
occurs throughout "Strange Meeting" – the whole poem is written in
pararhyming couplets. For example: "And by his smile I knew that
sullen hall, / By his dead smile I knew we stood in Hell." The pararhyme
here links key words and ideas, without detracting from the meaning and
solemnity of the poem, as a full rhyme sometimes does. However, the
failure of two similar words to rhyme and the obvious omission of a full
rhyme create a sense of discomfort and incompleteness. It is a discordant
note that matches well to the disturbing mood of the poem.
The Significance of Title
The title of the poem is taken directly from Shelley's The Revolt of Islam.
In The Revolt of Islam, Laon tells his soldiers not to avenge themselves on
the enemy who has massacred their camp but to ask them to throw down
their arms and embrace their shared humanity. The two sides gather together
in the "strange meeting". The previous two enemies (British and German)
meet to tell each other about their suffering and their lost youth. They
sympathize with each other; thus, they are no longer enemies, when they are
outside the battlefield. It is war that makes people brutal and savage.
"Strange Meeting" is a call for reconciliation; a call to throw down arms and
embrace the shared humanity, exactly as Laon, in The Revolt of Islam, has
told his soldiers.

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