Owen

Wilfred Owen

Soldier's Dream

I dreamed kind Jesus fouled the big-gun gears;
And caused a permanent stoppage in all bolts;
And buckled with a smile Mausers and Colts;
And rusted every bayonet with His tears.

And there were no more bombs, of ours or Theirs,
Not even an old flint-lock, not even a pikel.
But God was vexed, and gave all power to Michael;
And when I woke he'd seen to our repairs.

Manuscript Sources

http://www.uv.es/fores/PoesiaUK2005/1Owen,%20Wilfred/WarPoemsManuscripts.html#30

My work is about Wilfred Owen’s poem “Soldier’s dream”. As we can see in the tittle, the author in this poem talks about war, specifically the First World War, in wich the author was a soldier. The tittle suggest us the desire of the end of the war, only a soldier’s dream...but it’s the dream of all soldiers, and all the world too.

In the poem, we can see christian connotations: kind Jesus, God...Here, the author talks about a dream that the soldier of the poem, (who can be identified with the author) has, where kind Jesus appears and stops the war, with smiles and tears...

The author, doesn’t take part of any party, because he says that with kind Jesus, there aren’t more bombs of any party, he doesn’t talk about the enemy, which can mean that Owen thinks that the war is unjust, it doesn’t matter which is your country, or which isn’t your country, who has the reason because the war hasn’t got reasons, it can’t do justice...it’s useless.

In the poem, the author mentions Michael. The most probable is that he refers to the archangel Saint Michael, who is the militias’ leader in heaven, and maybe he is refering to him because he is talking about war and this archangel has the main rank and is who sends the devil to hell, hell as the war is for the soldiers. (Las Siervas de los Corazones Traspasados de Jesús y María.)

“God was vexed, and gave all the power to Michael” says Owen in his poem. This God, is the God of love, compassion...Saint Michael is a protective angel too. He protects Daniel of the lions when he was put to the test. God maybe gives the power to him to protect with his military knowledge.( Las Siervas de los Corazones Traspasados de Jesús y María[same page than the before])

He went to the war because he was in a hospital and saw the boys who were hurt and went back to England to enlist(Vicente Forés). He went to the war because he wanted, but it doesn’t mean that he really wants the war.

The poem has two stanzas, with four verses each one. All the poem is talking about the same theme: the soldier’s dream. The rhyme is a-b-b-a in the two stanzas.

The tone of the poem is melancholic, because he misses peace, his family, etc.

In conclusion, we can say that, the poem is a reflection of Owen’s feelings. The soldier who is dreaming can be the author perfectly, because he was a soldier too.

The war is horror, it separates families, friends, countries...God gives us the power of the election, we can elect what we want to do, but maybe He doesn’t think that we will use this power to hurt us, and there are our elections, were kind Jesus can’t do anything, because we are who have the power...to do good actions...or bad.

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BIBLIOGRAFÍA

Wilfred Owen

Vicente Forés

http://www.uv.es/fores/PoesiaUK2005/1Owen,%20Wilfred/Wilfred%20Owen

10/5/2004

Visited: 4/4/06

San Miguel Arcángel

Las Siervas de los Corazones Traspasados de Jesús y María.

http://www.corazones.org/santos/miguel_arcangel.htm

1999

Visited: 4/4/06

The War Poems & manuscripts

Vicente Forés

http://www.uv.es/fores/PoesiaUK2005/1Owen,%20Wilfred/WarPoemsManuscripts.html#30

2004

Visited: 4/4/06

Academic year 2005-06 (may 2006)

amoncan@alumni.uv.es