Sample questions on the poetry of Wilfred Owen

‘Above all I am concerned with poetry. My subject is War, and the pity of war. The poetry is in the pity.’ How far do you agree that Owen was true to this statement?

In your answer you should either refer to two or three poems in detail or range more widely through his poems.
In his preface to the war poetry anthology Up the Line to Death, the WW1 poet Edmund Blunden describes the war poets as ‘Those who were horrified by schematic death into a new poetry’. How far do you agree with the idea that Wilfred Owen created a completely new style of writing to deal with the horror?

In your answer you should either refer to two or three poems in detail or range more widely through his poems.
‘Above all, these poems are preoccupied with loss.’ To what extent do you agree with this view of Wilfred Owen’s poems?

In your answer you should either refer to two or three poems in detail or range more widely through his poems.
W. B. Yates dismissed Owen’s poetry as ‘all blood, dirt and sucked sugar stick.’ How far do you agree that Owen’s poetry is too preoccupied with unpleasant details and exaggerated emotions?

In your answer you should either refer to two or three poems in detail or range more widely through his poems.
The last complete poem in the collection of The War Poems of Wilfred Owen (ed Jon Stallworthy) is Spring Offensive. How far do you agree that Spring Offensive makes an appropriate conclusion to this collection?
Jon Stallworthy, the editor of The War Poems of Wilfred Owen, writes of Owen’s need “to bear witness to ‘man’s inhumanity to man’”. How far do you agree that ‘man’s inhumanity to man’ is the central focus of Owen’s poems?

In your answer you should either refer to two or three poems in detail or range more widely through his poems.
Owen wrote Miners after reading newspaper articles of a colliery disaster in Staffordshire. To what extent do you agree that Miners is out of place in a collection of war poems?
How far do you agree that Owen’s most important theme is the camaraderie between the men fighting at the front?

In your answer you should either refer to two or three poems in detail or range more widely through his poems.
How far do you agree that Strange Meeting is the most important of all Owen’s poems?
Remind yourself of The Sentry by Wilfred Owen. How far do you agree that this poem is typical of Owen’s poetry in its presentation of relationships between officers and men on the Western Front?
Owen sent a copy of Dulce et Decorum Est to his mother with the note ‘here is a gas poem I done yesterday’. How far do you agree with the view that this poem is too harsh to be considered one of his best poems?
Remind yourself of Anthem for Doomed Youth. It has been described as one of Owen’s best known and most highly acclaimed poems. How far do you agree that this poem stands out above the rest of Owen’s poetry?
Remind yourself of Exposure. Written in September 1918, Exposure has been described as one of Owen’s most brilliant and mature poems. How far do you agree that Exposure is one of the most outstanding of Owen’s poem?
W.B. Yeats said, ‘Passive suffering was not a theme for poetry’. How far do you agree that the best of Owen’s poems are those which are about action?

In your answer you should either refer to two or three poems in detail or range more widely through his poems.
Dylan Thomas described Wilfred Owen as being: ‘a poet of all times, all places and all wars. There is only one war, that of man against man.’ How far do you agree that the poems of Wilfred Owen are about that ‘one war: that of man against man’?
Owen said ‘All a poet can do today is warn. The true poet must be truthful.’ How far do you agree that this is what Owen achieves in his poetry?

In your answer you should either refer to two or three poems in detail or range more widely through his poems
Owen claimed that his poetry was not about heroes. How far do you agree that his poetry deals with ordinary men in desperate situations?

In your answers you should either refer to two or three poems in detail or range more widely through his poems.
Paul Norgate said, ‘Owen’s poems are ‘full of echoes’. What do you understand this to mean and how far do you agree? What is added to the poetry by these allusions?
Disabled was to be the title of Owen’s entire collection of war poems. To what extent do you agree that this would have been an effective title and why?
Owen’s poems have been said to be scornful of women. How far do you agree with this statement?

In your answer you should either refer to two or three poems in detail or range more widely through his poems.

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Wilfred Owen, selected poems Contents

Sample questions on the poetry of Wilfred Owen

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