Summary for Strange Meeting by Wilfred Owen for BA English

 

Summary for Strange Meeting by Wilfred Owen

Strange Meeting is a poem written by the British poet, Wilfred Owen. The poem was written in the year 1918 and published in 1919 after Owen's death. This poem was written during the time of World war I.  In this Owen decries the horrors of war and its futility. In this poem the speaker is a solider who dies in war and enters the Hell. This poem is considered as one of “Owens Complex War Poem”.

In the first stanza of the poem the poet has escaped war and has plunged into a deep tunnel. Being killed in the war he is driven to the underworld. The poet is shocked to see many soldiers groaning and sleeping in hell. Among these soldiers the poet meets a “strange friend”. The strange man raises “with a thousand fears that visions face was grained”.

The poet tells the strange friend about their escape from war, bloodshed and gunshot as they are in the hell. But the stranger is not ready to agree with the poet. The stranger narrates his story to the poet. Before entering the hell, the speaker was a youngman with lots of dream, hope and vision. He was interested to explore the wildest beauty in the world. He did not carve for physical beauty instead he went in search of the beauty found in art and literature.

The Speaker grieves at the destroyed world which future generation might not bother to improve. He mourns at the sudden death caused by war. He desires to live a life on earth along with his friends and family. He is aware about the hidden truth of war, which is "the pity of war, the pity war distilled". He informs the poet about the futility of war.  He claims that through courage, valour and intelligence he has understood the plight of war.

At the end of the poem the speaker claims, "I am the enemy you killed, my friend”. The speaker is able to recognize the poet who stabbed him to death. He had tried hard to protect himself but his hands were unwilling and weak. The poem ends saying “Let us sleep now…’

Wilfred Owen was moved by the bloody scene and sufferings of World War I. Through this poem he brings out the horrors of war.