‘Stunned by their life’s explosion . . .’
Item
Title
‘Stunned by their life’s explosion . . .’
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Creator
Owen, Wilfred (1893-1918)
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Abstract
Stunned by their life's explosion into love
Some men stay deaf and dizzy ever after,
And blindly through the press they grope or shove,
Nor heed they more of sorrowing or laughter.
And others, having fixed their hope above,
Chastened and maimed by bitter chastity,
Grow to forget spring flowers, and why the dove
Makes music with her fellow, endlessly.
Ah! pity these were told not that their thirsts
Are slaked nor by priest's wine nor lust's outbursts,
But Poesy. They, knowing Verse to be
God's soothest answer to all passion's plea,
And loving beauties writ and wrought of art,
Might yet have kept a whole and splendid heart.
Revised either at Craiglockhart in October-November 1917, or at Scarborough between November 1917 and January 1918, having been drafted some time earlier" (Stallworthy, vol. 1 p. 119)
Some men stay deaf and dizzy ever after,
And blindly through the press they grope or shove,
Nor heed they more of sorrowing or laughter.
And others, having fixed their hope above,
Chastened and maimed by bitter chastity,
Grow to forget spring flowers, and why the dove
Makes music with her fellow, endlessly.
Ah! pity these were told not that their thirsts
Are slaked nor by priest's wine nor lust's outbursts,
But Poesy. They, knowing Verse to be
God's soothest answer to all passion's plea,
And loving beauties writ and wrought of art,
Might yet have kept a whole and splendid heart.
Revised either at Craiglockhart in October-November 1917, or at Scarborough between November 1917 and January 1918, having been drafted some time earlier" (Stallworthy, vol. 1 p. 119)
Date
1917
Source
The Complete Poems and Fragments of Wilfred Owen edited by Jon Stallworthy first published by Chatto & Windus, 1983, (#115, CPF vol. 1, p. 119, vol. 2, p. p. 273)
OEF 275
Media: English Faculty Library, University of Oxford
OEF 275
Media: English Faculty Library, University of Oxford
Identifier
WOOUEFf276r
