Sonnet
On seeing a piece of our heavy
artillery brought into action
by Wilfred Owen
Be slowly lifted up, thou long black arm,
Great gun towering toward Heaven, about to curse;
Spoken Sway steep against them, and for years rehearse
Huge imprecations like a blasting charm!
curses
Reach at that arrogance which needs thy harm,
And beat it down before its sins grow worse;
Pay out
Spend our resentment, cannon, yea, disburse
Our gold in shapes of flame, our breaths in storm.
Curse
Yet, for men’s sakes whom thy vast malison
Must wither innocent of enmity,
Be not withdrawn, dark arm, thy spoilure done,
Safe to the bosom of our prosperity.
But when thy spell be cast complete and whole,
May God curse thee, and cut thee from our soul!
Explanation?
Octet
Sestet
Owen expresses a typical pro-war
view - war against Germany is just
and necessary and that God is on the
side of the allies.
In contrast to the octet, Owen
expresses the horror of war and that
God will judge those responsible for
the war.
Context?
- Written in July 1917
Significance?
Written at Craiglockhart (June – November 1917) after Wilfred Owen came
under the influence of Sigfried Sassoon
Themes?
• Aggression of war
• Pity of war seen by the vulnerability of men in the face of weapons of
destruction
• Nationalism + the monetary cost of war
• God will judge those responsible for the war
Significance of the title?
Owen was greatly influenced by the poetry of John Keats. One of Keats’
sonnets was entitled: On Seeing the Elgin Marbles, which Owen may have used
ironically as the pattern for On Seeing a Piece of Our Heavy Artillery. Keats’
sonnet celebrates the Greek sculptures, a creative and cultural depiction of an
ancient conflict. Owen’s sonnet exposes the destructive nature of war.
Personification of ‘great gun’?
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•
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Referred to as ‘thou’, ‘thy’, ‘thee’
Why?
Human voice
1. Draws attention to the symbolism of the ‘great
gun’ by giving it human properties.
‘Curse’, ‘Imprecations’
Human actions
‘Rehearse’, ‘Spend’
Human will
‘Reach’, ‘Beat’
Symbolism of ‘great gun’:
- War
- Militaristic, aggressive spirit that fuelled the war
2. The First World War is the first example of
mechanisation of war, to expose the fact that
machines are quite inhuman.
Form?
Sonnet
Petrarchan
- A way of romanticising the war
- Personification of the ‘great gun’
- After the octet containing a strong
supports this idea
pro-war argument, ‘Yet’ marks and
emphasizes a clear volta
- Sestet responds to the octet with an
opposite anti-war view, made clear
in the rhyming couplet
Structure?
• Rhyme scheme
- abbaabba cded ff
- Regular rhyming pattern in the octet unsettled by the final pararhyme of
‘harm’ and ‘storm’
- Change in rhyming pattern after the volta emphasizes the change of message
- Rhyming couplet introduces final idea
Structure?
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•
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Rhythm
Pentameter
Disrupted in line 2 of the octet to emphasize ‘curse’
Meter
Mixture of starting off iambs and trochees
Trochees give emphasis to the imperatives
Alliteration?
• ‘Great gun’
- Repeated ‘g’ sounds give weight to
• Sibilance
- ‘sins’, ‘worse’, ‘spend’, ‘resentment’,
• ‘Sway sweep’
- Repeated ‘s’ sounds emphasize the
•
-
the weapon
swinging out motion of the cannon
when about to attack
‘disburse’, ‘breaths’, ‘storms’
Angry hissing sound
Plosive
‘cast complete’, ‘curse’, ‘cut’
Adds to the finality of God’s action
Language?
• Spiritual/ Biblical
- ‘Heaven’, ‘curse’, ‘sins’, ‘God’, ‘soul’
- ‘Thou’, ‘thy’, ‘thee’
Why?
Lends authority
- Octet: Supports the idea that God
is on the side of the allies
- Sestet: Supports the ultimate idea
that God will judge those
responsible for the war
Language?
•
-
Archaic language
Why?
‘Malison’, ‘spoilure’
Gives the ‘great gun’ an air of
‘Thou’, ‘thy’, ‘thee’, ‘yea’
‘Be not withdrawn’
dignity and importance
Metaphors?
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‘towering towards Heaven’
The gun strives to reach heaven, to become God-like
‘rehearse’
Artillery fire sounds out year after year as if practicing to become perfect
‘imprecations [like a blasting charm]’
simile
Artillery creates noises of war but war itself blasts at life, causing death and
destruction
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•
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‘spend’
Pun on ‘spent’ (ammunition)
In the sense of spending money
• ‘our breath in storms’
- The gun also ‘spends’ the life of
men in war
‘gold in shapes of flame’
• ‘thy vast malison’
• ‘when thy spell be cast’
- The death and destruction caused
Britain’s gold reserves spent on
buying armaments which would go
up in flame
• ‘cut thee from our soul’
- Humankind to be free of such
‘disburse’
Also spending money
by the gun
weapons of war
Military tone?
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•
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Aggressive use of the ‘great gun’
Imperative language
Use of imperative verbs in alternate odd lines of the octet
Giving of orders to the ‘great gun’
‘Be … lifted up’, ‘Sway’, ‘Reach’, ‘Spend’
Irony?
- The octet supports a pro-war view yet it is clear from the sestet that Owen’s
view is the opposite
- In the octet, Owen orders the ‘great gun’ to strike out at the enemy yet in
the sestet, it is clear that Owen does not agree with the morality of those
orders
References?
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http://www.wilfredowen.org.uk/poetry/sonnet
http://crossref-it.info/textguide/wilfred-owen-selected-poems/36/2636
http://crossref-it.info/textguide/wilfred-owen-selected-poems/36/2637
http://crossref-it.info/textguide/wilfred-owen-selected-poems/36/2638
THE END