Wilfred Owen Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC ( 18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918 ) was an English poet and soldier , one of the leading poets of the First World War . His shocking , realistic war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was heavily influenced by his friend and mentor Siegfried Sassoon , and stood in stark contrast both to the public perception of war at the time and to the confidently patriotic verse written by earlier war poets such as Rupert Brooke . Among his best - known works – most of which were published posthumously – are " Dulce et Decorum Est " , " Insensibility " , " Anthem for Doomed Youth " , " Futility " and " Strange Meeting " . Early life . Wilfred Owen was born at Plas Wilmot , a house in Weston Lane , near Oswestry in Shropshire , on 18 March 1893 , of mixed English and Welsh ancestry . He was the eldest of four children , his siblings being Harold , Colin , and Mary Millard Owen . At that time , his parents , Thomas and Harriet Susan ( née Shaw ) Owen , lived in a comfortable house owned by his grandfather , Edward Shaw but , after the latter ' s death in January 1897 , and the house ' s sale in March , the family lodged in back streets of Birkenhead while Thomas temporarily worked in the town with the railway company employing him . In April the latter transferred to Shrewsbury , where the family lived with Thomas ' parents in Canon Street . In 1898 , Thomas transferred to Birkenhead again when he became stationmaster at Woodside station and the family lived with him , at three successive homes in the Tranmere district , before moving back to Shrewsbury in 1907 . Wilfred was educated at the Birkenhead Institute and at Shrewsbury Technical School ( later known as the Wakeman School ) . He discovered his poetic vocation in 1903 or 1904 during a holiday spent in Cheshire . Owen was raised as an Anglican of the evangelical school , and in his youth was a devout believer , in part due to his strong relationship with his mother , which was to last throughout his life . His early influences included the Bible and the " big six " of romantic poetry , particularly John Keats . Owen ' s last two years of formal education saw him as a pupil - teacher at the Wyle Cop school in Shrewsbury . In 1911 , he passed the matriculation exam for the University of London , but not with the first - class honours needed for a scholarship , which in his family ' s circumstances was the only way he could have afforded to attend . In return for free lodging , and some tuition for the entrance exam ( this has been questioned ) Owen worked as lay assistant to the Vicar of Dunsden near Reading . During this time he attended classes at University College , Reading ( now the University of Reading ) , in botany and later , at the urging of the head of the English Department , took free lessons in Old English . His time spent at Dunsden parish led him to disillusionment with the Church , both in its ceremony and its failure to provide aid for those in need . From 1913 , he worked as a private tutor teaching English and French at the Berlitz School of Languages in Bordeaux , France , and later with a family . There he met the older French poet Laurent Tailhade , with whom he later corresponded in French . When war broke out , he did not rush to enlist - and even considered the French army - but eventually returned to England . War service . On 21 October 1915 , he enlisted in the Artists ' Rifles Officers ' Training Corps . For the next seven months , he trained at Hare Hall Camp in Essex . On 4 June 1916 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant ( on probation ) in the Manchester Regiment . Initially , he held his troops in contempt for their loutish behaviour , and in a letter to his mother described his company as " expressionless lumps " . However , his imaginative existence was to be changed dramatically by a number of traumatic experiences . He fell into a shell hole and suffered concussion ; he was blown high into the air by a trench mortar , and spent several days lying out on an embankment in Savy Wood amongst ( or so he thought ) the remains of a fellow officer . Soon afterwards , Owen was diagnosed as suffering from neurasthenia or shell shock and sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh for treatment . It was while recuperating at Craiglockhart that he met fellow poet Siegfried Sassoon , an encounter that was to transform Owen ' s life . Whilst at Craiglockhart , he made friends in Edinburgh ' s artistic and literary circles , and did some teaching at the Tynecastle High School , in a poor area of the city . In November he was discharged from Craiglockhart , judged fit for light regimental duties . He spent a contented and fruitful winter in Scarborough , and in March 1918 was posted to the Northern Command Depot at Ripon . While in Ripon he composed or revised a number of poems , including " " and " " . His 25th birthday was spent quietly at Ripon Cathedral , which is dedicated to his namesake , St . Wilfrid of Hexham . At the very end of August 1918 , Owen returned to the front line - perhaps imitating the example of his admired friend Sassoon . On 1 October 1918 Owen led units of the Second Manchesters to storm a number of enemy strong points near the village of Joncourt . However , only one week before the end of the war , whilst attempting to traverse the Sambre canal , he was shot and killed . The news of his death , on 4 November 1918 , arrived at his parents ' house in Shrewsbury on Armistice Day . For his courage and leadership in the Joncourt action , he was awarded the Military Cross , an award he had always sought in order to justify himself as a war poet , but the award was not gazetted until 15 February 1919 . The citation followed on 30 July 1919 : Poetry . Owen is regarded by historians as the leading poet of the First World War , known for his war poetry on the horrors of trench and gas warfare . He had been writing poetry for some years before the war , himself dating his poetic beginnings to a stay at Broxton by the Hill , when he was ten years old . The Romantic poets Keats and Shelley influenced much of Owen ' s early writing and poetry . His great friend , the poet Siegfried Sassoon , later had a profound effect on Owen ' s poetic voice , and Owen ' s most famous poems ( " Dulce et Decorum Est " and " Anthem for Doomed Youth " ) show direct results of Sassoon ' s influence . The novel " Regeneration " by Pat Barker shows this relationship closely . Manuscript copies of the poems survive , annotated in Sassoon ' s handwriting . Owen ' s poetry would eventually be more widely acclaimed than that of his mentor . While his use of pararhyme with heavy reliance on assonance was innovative , he was not the only poet at the time to use these particular techniques . He was , however , one of the first to experiment with it extensively . His poetry itself underwent significant changes in 1917 . As a part of his therapy at Craiglockhart , Owen ' s doctor , Arthur Brock , encouraged Owen to translate his experiences , specifically the experiences he relived in his dreams , into poetry . Sassoon , who was becoming influenced by Freudian psychoanalysis , aided him here , showing Owen through example what poetry could do . Sassoon ' s use of satire influenced Owen , who tried his hand at writing " in Sassoon ' s style " . Further , the content of Owen ' s verse was undeniably changed by his work with Sassoon . Sassoon ' s emphasis on realism and " writing from experience " was contrary to Owen ' s hitherto romantic - influenced style , as seen in his earlier sonnets . Owen was to take both Sassoon ' s gritty realism and his own romantic notions and create a poetic synthesis that was both potent and sympathetic , as summarised by his famous phrase " the pity of war " . In this way , Owen ' s poetry is quite distinctive , and he is , by many , considered a greater poet than Sassoon . Nonetheless , Sassoon contributed to Owen ' s popularity by his strong promotion of his poetry , both before and after Owen ' s death , and his editing was instrumental in the making of Owen as a poet . Thousands of poems were published during the war , but very few of them had the benefit of such strong patronage , and it is as a result of Sassoon ' s influence , as well as support from Edith Sitwell and the preparation of a new and fuller edition of the poems in 1931 by Edmund Blunden that ensured his popularity , coupled with a revival of interest in his poetry in the 1960s which plucked him out of a relatively exclusive readership into the public eye . Though he had plans for a volume of verse , for which he had written a " Preface " , he never saw his own work published apart from those poems he included in " The Hydra " , the magazine he edited at Craiglockhart War Hospital , and " Miners " , which was published in " The Nation " . There were many other influences on Owen ' s poetry , including his mother . His letters to her provide an insight into Owen ' s life at the front , and the development of his philosophy regarding the war . Graphic details of the horror Owen witnessed were never spared . Owen ' s experiences with religion also heavily influenced his poetry , notably in poems such as " Anthem for Doomed Youth " , in which the ceremony of a funeral is re - enacted not in a church , but on the battlefield itself , and " At a Calvary near the Ancre " , which comments on the Crucifixion of Christ . Owen ' s experiences in war led him further to challenge his religious beliefs , claiming in his poem " Exposure " that " love of God seems dying " . Literary output . Only five of Owen ' s poems were published before his death , one in fragmentary form . His best known poems include " Anthem for Doomed Youth " , " Futility " , " Dulce Et Decorum Est " , " The Parable of the Old Men and the Young " and " Strange Meeting " . Owen ' s full unexpurgated opus is in the academic two - volume work " The Complete Poems and Fragments " ( 1994 ) by Jon Stallworthy . Many of his poems have never been published in popular form . In 1975 Mrs . Harold Owen , Wilfred ' s sister - in - law , donated all of the manuscripts , photographs and letters which her late husband had owned to the University of Oxford ' s English Faculty Library . As well as the personal artifacts this also includes all of Wilfred ' s personal library and an almost complete set of " The Hydra " – the magazine of Craiglockhart War Hospital . These can be accessed by any member of the public on application in advance to the English Faculty librarian . The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin holds a large collection of Wilfred Owen ' s family correspondence . Relationship with Sassoon . Owen held Siegfried Sassoon in an esteem not far from hero - worship , remarking to his mother that he was " not worthy to light [ Sassoon ' s ] pipe " . The relationship clearly had a profound impact on Owen , who wrote in his first letter to Sassoon after leaving Craiglockhart " You have fixed my life - however short " . Owen , writing that he took " an instinctive liking to him " , and recalled their time together " with affection . " On the evening of 3 November 1917 , they parted , Owen having been discharged from Craiglockhart . He was stationed on home - duty in Scarborough for several months , during which time he associated with members of the artistic circle into which Sassoon had introduced him , which included Robert Ross and Robert Graves . He also met H . G . Wells and Arnold Bennett , and it was during this period he developed the stylistic voice for which he is now recognised . Many of his early poems were penned while stationed at the Clarence Garden Hotel , now the Clifton Hotel in Scarborough ' s North Bay . A blue tourist plaque on the hotel marks its association with Owen . Robert Graves and Sacheverell Sitwell ( who also personally knew him ) stated that Owen was homosexual , and homoeroticism is a central element in much of Owen ' s poetry . Through Sassoon , Owen was introduced to a sophisticated homosexual literary circle which included Oscar Wilde ' s friend Robbie Ross , writer and poet Osbert Sitwell , and Scottish writer C . K . Scott - Moncrieff , the translator of Proust . This contact broadened Owen ' s outlook , and increased his confidence in incorporating homoerotic elements into his work . Historians have debated whether Owen had an affair with Scott - Moncrieff in May 1918 ; Scott - Moncrieff had dedicated various works to a " Mr W . O . " , but Owen never responded . The account of Owen ' s sexual development has been somewhat obscured because his brother , Harold Owen , removed what he considered discreditable passages in Owen ' s letters and diaries after the death of their mother . Owen also requested that his mother burn a sack of his personal papers in the event of his death , which she did . Andrew Motion wrote of Owen ' s relationship with Sassoon : " On the one hand , Sassoon ' s wealth , posh connections and aristocratic manner appealed to the snob in Owen : on the other , Sassoon ' s homosexuality admitted Owen to a style of living and thinking that he found naturally sympathetic . " Sassoon and Owen kept in touch through correspondence , and after Sassoon was shot in the head in July 1918 and sent back to England to recover , they met in August and spent what Sassoon described as " the whole of a hot cloudless afternoon together . " They never saw each other again . Around three weeks later , Owen wrote to bid Sassoon farewell , as he was on the way back to France , and they continued to communicate . After the Armistice , Sassoon waited in vain for word from Owen , only to be told of his death several months later . The loss grieved Sassoon greatly , and he was never " able to accept that disappearance philosophically . " Death . In July 1918 , Owen returned to active service in France , although he might have stayed on home - duty indefinitely . His decision was probably the result of Sassoon ' s being sent back to England , after being shot in the head in an apparent " friendly fire " incident , and put on sick - leave for the remaining duration of the war . Owen saw it as his duty to add his voice to that of Sassoon , that the horrific realities of the war might continue to be told . Sassoon was violently opposed to the idea of Owen returning to the trenches , threatening to " stab [ him ] in the leg " if he tried it . Aware of his attitude , Owen did not inform him of his action until he was once again in France . Owen was killed in action on 4 November 1918 during the crossing of the Sambre – Oise Canal , exactly one week ( almost to the hour ) before the signing of the Armistice and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant the day after his death . His mother received the telegram informing her of his death on Armistice Day , as the church bells were ringing out in celebration . He is buried at Ors Communal Cemetery . There are memorials to Wilfred Owen at Gailly , Ors , Oswestry , Birkenhead ( Central Library ) and Shrewsbury . On 11 November 1985 , Owen was one of the 16 Great War poets commemorated on a slate stone unveiled in Westminster Abbey ' s Poet ' s Corner . The inscription on the stone is taken from Owen ' s " Preface " to his poems : " My subject is War , and the pity of War . The Poetry is in the pity . " There is also a small museum dedicated to Owen and Sassoon at the Craiglockhart War Hospital , now a Napier University building . The forester ' s house in Ors where Owen spent his last night , Maison forestière de l ' Ermitage , has been transformed by Turner Prize nominee Simon Patterson into an art installation and permanent memorial to Owen and his poetry , which opened to the public on 1 October 2011 . Susan Owen ' s letter to Tagore marked , Shrewsbury , 1 August 1920 , reads : " I have been trying to find courage to write to you ever since I heard that you were in London ~ but the desire to tell you something is finding its way into this letter today . The letter may never reach you , for I do not know how to address it , tho ’ I feel sure your name upon the envelope will be sufficient . It is nearly two years ago , that my dear eldest son went out to the War for the last time and the day he said goodbye to me ~ we were looking together across the sun - glorified sea ~ looking towards France , with breaking hearts ~ when he , my poet son , said those wonderful words of yours ~ beginning at ‘ When I go from hence , let this be my parting word ’ ~ and when his pocket book came back to me ~ I found these words written in his dear writing ~ with your name beneath . " Depictions in popular culture . Pat Barker ' s 1991 historical novel " Regeneration " describes the meeting and relationship between Sassoon and Owen , acknowledging that , from Sassoon ' s perspective , the meeting had a profoundly significant effect on Owen . Owen ' s treatment with his own doctor , Arthur Brock , is also touched upon briefly . Owen ' s death is described in the third book of Barker ' s Regeneration trilogy , " The Ghost Road " . In the 1997 film he was played by Stuart Bunce . The play " Not About Heroes " by Stephen MacDonald also takes as its subject matter the friendship between Owen and Sassoon , and begins with their meeting at Craiglockhart during World War I . Owen was mentioned as a source of inspiration for one of the correspondents in the epistolary novel " The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society " by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows . Owen is the subject of the 2007 BBC docudrama " " , in which he is played by Samuel Barnett . His poetry has been reworked into various formats , such as The Ravishing Beauties ' recording of Owen ' s poem " Futility " in an April 1982 John Peel session . Benjamin Britten incorporated nine of Owen ' s poems into his " War Requiem " , opus 66 , along with words from the Latin Mass for the Dead ( " Missa pro Defunctis " ) . The " Requiem " was commissioned for the reconsecration of Coventry Cathedral , and first performed there on 30 May 1962 . A screen adaptation was made by Derek Jarman in 1988 , with the 1963 recording as the soundtrack . In 1982 , a song titled " Anthem for Doomed Youth " which was loosely based on the poem was recorded by the 10 , 000 Maniacs in Fredonia , New York . The recording appeared on their first EP release " Human Conflict Number Five " and later on the compilation " " . Also appearing on the Hope Chest album was the song " The Latin One " , a reference to the title of Owen ' s poem " Dulce et Decorum Est " on which the song is based . Also in 1982 , singer Virginia Astley set the poem " Futility " to music she had composed . In 2010 , local Wirral musician Dean Johnson created the musical " Bullets and Daffodils " , based on music set to Owen ' s poetry .