author
Wilfred Owen
1893–1918
A gifted young poet turned the mud, fear, and grief of World War I into some of the most unforgettable war poems in English. His work is celebrated for its compassion, sharp honesty, and refusal to romanticize combat.
1 Audiobook
Poems
by Wilfred Owen
About the author
Born in Oswestry, England, on March 18, 1893, he grew up in a religious family and developed an early love of poetry, especially the work of Keats. Before serving in the First World War, he worked as a teacher and spent time in France, experiences that helped shape both his language and his outlook.
His reputation rests largely on the poems he wrote after joining the army and witnessing the realities of trench warfare. While recovering from shell shock in 1917, he met fellow poet Siegfried Sassoon, whose encouragement helped him sharpen the direct, unsparing style that made poems like Anthem for Doomed Youth, Exposure, and Dulce et Decorum Est so powerful.
He returned to the front in 1918 and was killed in action in France on November 4, 1918, just one week before the Armistice. Only a small number of his poems were published during his lifetime, but after his death they helped define how later generations understood the human cost of war.