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Learn More. “Strange Meeting” was written by the British poet Wilfred Owen. A soldier in the First World War, Owen wrote “Strange Meeting” sometime during 1918 while serving on the Western Front (though the poem was not published until 1919, after Owen had been killed in battle). The poem's speaker, who is also a solider, has descended ...
Discussion of themes and motifs in Wilfred Owen's Strange Meeting. eNotes critical analyses help you gain a deeper understanding of Strange Meeting so you can excel on your essay or test.
Nov 9, 2017 · ‘Strange Meeting’ is one of Wilfred Owen’s greatest poems. After ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ and ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ it is one of his most popular and widely studied and analysed. Siegfried Sassoon called ‘Strange Meeting’ Owen’s passport to immortality; it’s certainly true that it’s poems like this that helped to make Owen the definitive English poet of the First ...
- Summary
- Structure and Form
- Analysis, Stanza by Stanza
- Historical Background
‘Strange Meeting‘ describes a soldier who escapes from battle and finds himself in a hellish, underground tunnel where he encounters the ghost of an enemy soldier he killed. The enemy soldier speaks about the futility of war and the shared humanity of all soldiers, ultimately revealing their potential for friendship despite the conflict. Written in...
‘Strange Meeting‘ is composed of four stanzas of varying lengths. This irregular structure reflects the chaotic and fragmented nature of war. The poem’s free form and inconsistent stanza lengths emphasize the disjointed experiences and the surreal, dreamlike encounter in the afterlife. The poem is written in iambic pentameter, with five poetic feet...
Stanza One
Even at the start of ‘Strange Meeting,’ the poem references war; for Owen, the natural habitat, the natural instincts, of a soldier is war. The start is relatively benign; there is nothing strange about escaping battle down a tunnel (in the First World War, there was a British plot to try and tunnel into German territory, hence the recurring imageryof holes and tunnels).
Stanza Two
The dead, ever prevalent in Owen’s work, crop up in the second stanza of ‘Strange Meeting‘. The words ‘encumbered sleepers’ implies a relatively peaceful passing, however as soon as the soldier passes by them, he awakens one of the sleepers. The use of ‘sleepers’ is also heavily ironicon Owen’s part, given that it is something peaceful, yet however, the peacefulness of the image implied by ‘sleepers’ is undercut in the third stanza.
Stanza Three
It is worth noting that this is perhaps one of the most bloodless poems that Owen wrote. He eschews the in-depth look towards brutalities that most Owen poems usually claim – omitting the description of the injuries, instead, for what was lost. Although the first two lines lend an idea – though there is no gore, the person speaking is terrified – the presence of war is still felt. It is also worth noting that ‘Strange Meeting‘ is one of the most silent that Wilfred Owen wrote; his onomatopoei...
‘Strange Meeting‘ was written in 1918 and stands in the forefront of Owen’s achievements; the quote, ‘I am the enemy you killed, my friend’ is to be found carved on Owen’s memorial in Shrewsbury, and Siegfried Sassooncalled it Owen’s ‘pass into immortality’.
- Female
- Poetry Analyst
May 19, 2024 · Strange Meeting – Themes War and its Futility. One of the central themes of Owen’s poem “Strange Meeting” is the senselessness and futility of war. Owen vividly portrays the devastating consequences of conflict, depicting a surreal afterlife where soldiers continue to suffer from mental trauma and lament their experiences in war.
- Jayanta Kumar Maity
Strange Meeting (poem) " Strange Meeting " is a poem by Wilfred Owen. It deals with the atrocities of World War I. The poem was written sometime in 1918 and was published in 1919 after Owen's death. The poem is narrated by a soldier who goes to the underworld to escape the hell of the battlefield and there he meets the enemy soldier he killed ...
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Nov 2, 2023 · Photo by Ryan Hoffman on Unsplash. 'Strange Meeting' Summary. 'Strange Meeting' is a poem about reconciliation. Two soldiers meet up in an imagined Hell, the first having killed the second in battle. Their moving dialogue is one of the most poignant in modern war poetry. Wilfred Owen fought and died in WW1, being fatally wounded just a week ...
