Wilfred Owen

Today I would like to talk about Wilfred Owen's preface to his book of war poems. The first line states "This book is not about heroes. English poetry is not yet fit to speak of them". In this line Owen's is stating that the world is not ready for what the war is all about. "Nor is it about deeds, or lands, nor anything about glory, honour, might,/ majesty dominion or power, except War" (lines 2,3). Poetry has nothing to do with all of this. Owens is not "concerned with poetry", bust instead the pity of war, "The poetry is in the pity". Many War poets were a cause of all the pity that came along with War. He says that poetry is used to warn. If the poetry is not about war but the pity of war than I would say that is a pretty fair warning. Owens was trying to take a different route with his poetry. Many of the War poets talked about the casualties, the pain, the chaos and much more. He instead wanted to warn his generation about something they were not ready for.