The poem
My soul looked down from a vague height with Death, As unremembering how I rose or why, And saw a sad land, weak with sweats of dearth, Gray, cratered like the moon with hollow woe, And fitted with great pocks and scabs of plaques.
Across its beard, that horror of harsh wire, There moved thin caterpillars, slowly uncoiled. It seemed they pushed themselves to be as plugs Of ditches, where they writhed and shrivelled, killed.
By them had slimy paths been trailed and scraped Round myriad warts that might be little hills.
From gloom's last dregs these long-strung creatures crept, And vanished out of dawn down hidden holes.
(And smell came up from those foul openings As out of mouths, or deep wounds deepening.)
On dithering feet upgathered, more and more, Brown strings towards strings of gray, with bristling spines, All migrants from green fields, intent on mire.
Those that were gray, of more abundant spawns, Ramped on the rest and ate them and were eaten.
I saw their bitten backs curve, loop, and straighten, I watched those agonies curl, lift, and flatten.
Whereat, in terror what that sight might mean, I reeled and shivered earthward like a feather.
And Death fell with me, like a deepening moan. And He, picking a manner of worm, which half had hid Its bruises in the earth, but crawled no further, Showed me its feet, the feet of many men, And the fresh-severed head of it, my head.
Personally i think wilfred owen is a genius. All of his poetry is moving and has a great impact on my view about war. 'The Show' is one of my favourites! there is a lot of vivid imagery and he uses a lot on objectification which is quite cool. :)
i agree with you, however my favorite is 'Disabled' ... what is the definition of objectification ?
United Kingdom
i was wondering what the structure of this poem is. Would you call it a sonnet? if not what is it?
Also whats the poems form?
The form is the type of poem it is ie Sonnet, Aubade, Blank Verse
The structure is the way the poem is constructed and is incorporated into the conventions of a particular form eg. Haiku poems and their strict rules on structure regarding syllables.
This isn't a Sonnet, at least in the traditional sense, because none of the lines rhyme with each other.
And do you mean personification instead of objectification? Owen uses personification to make the landscape come alive and take on human qualities, so that it eventually becomes a representation of the damage that the War has done to humanity.