The influence of his mother is never far away in Owen\u2019s work. Likewise, his interest in religion is often just below the surface. Anthem for Doomed Youth describes a funeral held on the battlefield rather than in a church, opening with the line: \u201cWhat passing-bells for these who die as cattle?\/ \u2014 Only the monstrous anger of the guns.\u201d Another poem, At a Calvary near the Ancre, a tributary of the Somme, links the sacrifice on the battlefield with the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross and other New Testament references:<\/p>\n
The scribes on all the people shove
\nAnd bawl allegiance to the state,
\nBut they who love the greater love
\nLay down their life; they do not hate.<\/p>\n
Wilfred was brought up in Birkenhead and Shrewsbury, the family moving around with Thomas\u2019s dispiriting work as a clerk and later a station master with a railway company. He was educated at Birkenhead Institute and Shrewsbury Technical School. As a boy he enjoyed swimming in mountain pools, reading Oscar Wilde and wearing a favourite green suit. Before joining the army he had floppy hair.<\/p>\n
Already he was writing poetry, taking inspiration from the work of John Keats, whose house at Teignmouth he visited in 1911 while on holiday with an aunt and uncle in nearby Torquay. He marked the occasion with a sonnet. According to Stallworthy, \u201cOwen warmed to the sensuality and musicality of the older poet, and Keats\u2019s physicality (heightened by his study of anatomy and experience of illness) accorded with his apprentice\u2019s own precocious awareness of the human body.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a> (subscription required).<\/p>\n A belated obit for Wilfred Owen https:\/\/t.co\/15pKgCJaXN<\/a><\/p>\n — Nigel Farndale (@nigelfarndale) November 10, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n