FULL POEM - SCROLL DOWN FOR LINE-BY-LINE ANALYSIS

He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,

And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey,
Legless, sewn short at elbow. Through the park
Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn,
Voices of play and pleasure after day,
Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him.
About this time Town used to swing so gay
When glow-lamps budded in the light-blue trees
And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim,
—In the old times, before he threw away his knees.
Now he will never feel again how slim
Girls’ waists are, or how warm their subtle hands,
All of them touch him like some queer disease.
There was an artist silly for his face,
For it was younger than his youth, last year.
Now he is old; his back will never brace;
He’s lost his colour very far from here,
Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry,
And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race, And leap of purple spurted from his
thigh.
One time he liked a blood smear down his leg,
After the matches carried shoulder-high.
It was after football, when he’d drunk a peg,
He thought he’d better join. He wonders why . . .
Someone had said he’d look a god in kilts.
That’s why; and maybe, too, to please his Meg,
Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jilts,
He asked to join. He didn’t have to beg;
Smiling they wrote his lie; aged nineteen years.
Germans he scarcely thought of; and no fears
Of Fear came yet. He thought of jewelled hilts
For daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes;
And care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears;
Esprit de corps; and hints for young recruits.
And soon, he was drafted out with drums and cheers.
Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal.
Only a solemn man who brought him fruits
Thanked him; and then inquired about his soul.
Now, he will spend a few sick years in Institutes,
And do what things the rules consider wise,
And take whatever pity they may dole.
To-night he noticed how the women’s eyes
Passed from him to the strong men that were whole.
How cold and late it is! Why don’t they come
And put him into bed? Why don’t they come?

SUMMARY/ANALYSIS
The poem ‘Disabled’ distressingly portrays the physical and psychological trauma
suffered by a young man enlisted to fight for Britain in World War One. Wilfred
Owen highlights the extent of this trauma by comparing the man’s post-war life of
misery to his jubilant youth, in conjunction with literary techniques including
juxtapositions and dark, depressing metaphors.
LINE-BY-LINE ANALYSIS
STANZA 1
He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,
The dark is a metaphor for death, Owen describes this man’s life as so useless and futile
that death seems like a relief among the monotony of life.

And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey,

Shivered adds a sense of vulnerability and weakness to the man. Ghastly suit of grey is a
dark, menacing use of imagery. The colour grey is very often used as imagery for death
in literature.

Legless, sewn short at elbow. Through the park

Sewn short at the elbow takes us vividly back to the aftermath of the man’s injury and
portrays a cumbersome ambulance service on the front line of World War I, as “sewn”
doesn’t sound very professional or meticulous.

Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn,

The boys’ voices remind him of what he’s lost. The word hymn adds religious
connotations, Owen’s way of bringing into question the existence of God amongst the
pain and anguish of war.
Voices of play and pleasure after day,
The repetition of the ‘pl’ sound in play and pleasure adds a sense of rhythm, showing the
man engaging in a sense of nostalgia for a second. The caesura at the end of the line
represents a pause in his thoughts and brings him back down to earth.
Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him
Sleep here is personified either as giving the man relief and ‘mothering’ him from his
torment or taking away the pleasure he finds in nostalgia in a cruel juxtaposition.
STANZA 2
About this time Town used to swing so gay
The capitalisation of ‘Town’ suggests that the phenomenon of naive conscription and
men returning physically and mentally disfigured was widespread in war-time Britain.

When glow-lamps budded in the light-blue trees

‘Budded’ creates an image of flowers, synonymous with new life. This is a metaphor for
the youthfulness of the men before they went to war. Light-blue is a soft, peaceful image
that juxtaposes the use of grey in the previous stanza.

And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim,

The alliteration of girls glanced emphasises the excitement of flirtation that the man
used to experience, making his current state even more harrowing.
—In the old times, before he threw away his knees.
Owen implies that the man was in some way responsible for his injuries. ‘Threw away’
sounds careless, which Owen links to his carelessness and naivety when enlisting.

Now he will never feel again how slim

His former lovers, who may have motivated him to enlist, have rejected him.

Girls’ waists are, or how warm their subtle hands,

The warmth of their hands implies life which contrasts the man ‘shivering in his ghastly
suit of grey’ and shows the humanity he’s lost.

All of them touch him like some queer disease.

Women don’t respect his service like he thought they would but instead treat him like
an unnatural, inhumane ‘queer disease’.
STANZA 3
There was an artist silly for his face,
Implies that the man used to be very attractive. The word ‘silly’ suggests a general
absurdity during this time, an atmosphere which motivated him to enlist.

For it was younger than his youth, last year.

Now he is old; his back will never brace;
‘Now’ acts as a temporal marker taking the reader back to the present and definitively
putting an end to his former happier life. Owen is comparing the redundancy that war
has led his life to become to old age.

He’s lost his colour very far from here,

The colour that he has lost is a metaphor for the life that has been drained from him.
The imagery of colour also relates to the artist that painted him in his youth, and now
his colour is gone she is no longer “silly for his face”.

Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry,

Shell-holes paints a vivid picture of the battlefield, plunging us into the action for the
first time.

And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race,

War has taken his life and vitality away from him

And leap of purple spurted from his thigh.

The colour purple signifies energy and vigour, the verb spurted adds a sense of reaching
a climax. Purple has connotations with royalty and this use of imagery could be mocking
the romanticism of war and the notion of ‘doing it for your country’.

One time he liked a bloodsmear down his leg,

The sight of blood was a trophy and a symbol of masculinity, but the injuries he’s
suffered are far from a trophy, instead something to be ashamed of.

After the matches carried shoulder-high.

The extent to which he was celebrated after just a game is ironic as after the seriousness
of war he’s not celebrated but instead isolated and seen as a queer disease.

It was after football, when he’d drunk a peg,

The adrenaline, alcohol that made him enlist. It wasn’t a rational decision.

He thought he’d better join. He wonders why . . .

The short sentences show his impulsiveness and the fact he failed to think it through
fully. The ellipsis illustrates how he can’t find any sound reason with hindsight, other
than vanity, that motivated him to enlist.

Someone had said he’d look a god in kilts.

Paints a romanticised and naive view of the war in early-war Britain. It is this
misconception that leads to many young men signing up.
STANZA 4
That’s why; and maybe, too, to please his Meg,
Please his Meg describes how women of the time encouraged their husbands or
boyfriends to fight. The grammatical complexity and use of punctuation, add a tone of
turbulence which represent the man’s choking emotions.

Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jilts,

A ‘Jilt’ is a person, especially a woman, who capriciously (describes the women as
impulsive and unpredictable) rejects a lover. Giddy is almost mocking the women,
showing their ridiculousness.

He asked to join. He didn’t have to beg;

The authorities don’t ask questions, they don’t care who, the man’s youth is not a
barrier.

Smiling they wrote his lie; aged nineteen years.

The man was actually too young to enlist, the authorities were ‘smiling’ as they wrote
down his false age, almost sadistically as they know war won’t be what he’s imagined.
Owen paints an evil picture of these authorities, gleeful in ruining yet more youth and
innocence.

Germans he scarcely thought of; and no fears

Naivety, he’s thought more about kilts than the opposition and dangers of war.

Of Fear came yet. He thought of jewelled hilts

‘Fear’ is capitalised to personify the Germans.

For daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes;

The imagery of the idealised war shows how impressionable the man was in the face of
propaganda.

And care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears;

The repetition of the conjuncture ‘and’ is polysyndeton which forms this a synthetic list,
which shows his excitement for war and the extent of his naivety and corrupted
misconception.
Esprit de corps; and hints for young recruits.
French for ‘spirit of the body’, hints at another motivation for him to enlist, he thought it
would offer him the same sense of camaraderie he got from football matches.
And soon, he was drafted out with drums and cheers.
He was cheered out to war in a wave of excitement.
STANZA 5
Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal.
Contrasts with everyone cheering him off when he left and when he played football.
Fighting for his country has diminished the respect and attention he once received.

Only a solemn man who brought him fruits

A solemn man is tied to religion so could be a priest and is the only person there for him,
‘fruits’ could be linked to the fruits of the man’s labour and his sacrifice.

Thanked him; and then inquired about his soul.

Owen is reminding us that war hasn’t just shattered him physically but psychologically
too.

Now, he will spend a few sick years in Institutes,

A ‘few sick years’ is a very flippant use of language and illustrates the lack of meaning in
his life now.

And do what things the rules consider wise,

This is a reference to the unsympathetic nature of the system. Owen continues to slate
the system, it got him into this place and is not supportive of his current state.

And take whatever pity they may dole.

Dole describes the pity being shared out, hence, objectifies it and taking away the
emotion and empathy of it as a result.

To-night he noticed how the women’s eyes

Passed from him to the strong men that were whole.
Men that were ‘whole’ implies he has lost his masculinity due to his injuries. The women
now are revolted by him and look to the young men who ‘dodged the bullet’ of war.

How cold and late it is! Why don’t they come

Puts the reader inside the man’s head, making his desperation more poignant.

And put him into bed? Why don’t they come?

The repetition of rhetorical questions hints at an element of insanity and desperation in
the man. The rhetorical questions could also be seen as a euphemism for the man crying
out to die and be relieved from the torture of his life.
Ideas

The poem is written about a soldier who has been injured in the war. He is sat in a
wheelchair and he is in a lonely place. He considers his past and how he used to be good
looking and an artist. He lied about his age to enter the army. At the time, he thought it
would be glorious to be a soldier and he had not thought about the wider implications of
entering into military service. There is a sadness in the poem that they will not escape
the horror of the way and of his uncertain future. It is a hopelessness that represents the
generation, rather than simply the soldier identified.

Context

Wilfred Owen witnessed the horror of World War I and he was hurt on the battlefield.
The poem was written whilst he was recovering in hospital, in Edinburgh. He was
diagnosed with shell shock. It was in this hospital that he met one of the other famous
war poets, Siegfried Sassoon. Owen is just one of the many poets who recorded the
events on the frontline in poetic form. After writing the poem, he returned to the
battlefield. He died on 4th November 1918 and his parents discovered that their son
had been lost on Armistice Day.

Author’s Purpose

With Owen’s experience on the battlefield, he would have been extremely aware of the
consequences of physical injuries. Unlike modern day society, after World War 1, there
was no real care for those who had post-traumatic injuries. Owen wants to make it clear
with profound description how horrific and life-changing the consequences of war
could be. ‘Disabled’ is often described as one of the most disturbing poems that he
wrote.

STRUCTURE

The poem is clearly divided into two parts: before the war and after the war. There is
much mention of sport and ‘goal(s)’. This further emphasises the shattered dreams
of the soldier being described, as the title is clear in stating that the soldier is
‘disabled.’

Ending

The poem ends with an exclamation, followed by rhetorical questions, which contain
repetition:

‘How cold and late it is! Why don’t they come

And put him into bed? Why don’t they come?’

There is a sense of desperation in the voice of the narrator. The situation appears to be a
metaphor for the aftercare that society will provide to the soldier. The fact that the
nurses are not attending to the soldier is reflective of how nobody will further care and
look after the injured. He will be forgotten about.