Home > World War I > Wilfred Owen Biography

March 18, 1893
Oswestry, Shropshire, England
November 4, 1918
Sambre Canal, France

Soldier and poet

Some of the most powerful descriptions of war were written during World War I by the so-called war poets, mostly British soldiers in their twenties who wrote while fighting in France. Wilfred Owen is one of the most important war poets. He wrote eloquently about his service as an officer during the Battle of the Somme, which forced him to wrestle with the conflicts he saw between his duty as a soldier and his deep religious and pacifist beliefs. (Pacifists object to war as a means of settling disputes.) Owen strongly criticized the tragedy of war in his writings, but he fulfilled his military duty out of loyalty to his fellow soldiers. Helping lead his men across a canal in northern France exactly a week before the end of World War I, Owen was killed.

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