A tragic harp: Ritual, irony and myth in the war poetry of Wilfred Owen

Abstract

Wilfred Owen stands out as one of the foremost poets writing on the theme of war and the pity of war. This article examines Owen’s innovative use of Romantic, biblical, and Classical language in conjunction with specific literary and rhetorical devices as a way of developing irony in his work. Also central to the poet’s stylistic approach was his deliberate collapse of conventional literary modes of expression, which included the traditional sonnet form. The enquiry which follows examines how Owen’s use of antiquated language and literary patterning — which the poet relied on to undercut established ritual and myth and their associated symbolism — served to juxtapose the classically ‘heroic’ with the sacrificial ‘heroes’ he had encountered on the battlefields of Europe. To assist him in this the poet — somewhat paradoxically — relied on a mythopoeic approach that mirrored later Modernist attempts to address issues of personal nobility amidst the perceived dissolution of society. Close stylistic analysis contributes to an understanding of the intricate ironic patterning in Owen’s war poetry, which defamiliarizes, yet also heightens, a reader’s intuitive response to the poet’s work.