67+ Wilfred Owen Quotes On War, Brave And Poignant

Wilfred Owen was an English soldier who served in World War I. He is best known for his war poetry which was greatly influenced by his experiences in the war. His poems are some of the most powerful and moving pieces of literature to come out of the war. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Wilfred Owen on war, brave, poignant.

Top 10 Wilfred Owen Quotes

1. Ambition may be defined as the willingness to receive any number of hits on the nose.
2. All theological lore is becoming distasteful to me.
3. The old Lie:Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.
4. No-man's land under snow is like the face of the moon: chaotic, crater ridden, uninhabitable, awful, the abode of madness.
5. Above all I am not concerned with Poetry. My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.
6. And by his smile, I knew that sullen hall, By his dead smile I knew we stood in Hell.
7. What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
8. I, too, saw God through mud - The mud that cracked on cheeks when wretches smiled. War brought more glory to their eyes than blood, And gave their laughs more glee than shakes a child.
9. Was it for this the clay grew tall? O what made fatuous sunbeams toil To break earth's sleep at all?
10. All I ask is to be held above the barren wastes of want.

Wilfred Owen Short Quotes

• Sweet and fitting it is to die for the fatherland.
• Whatever mourns when many leave these shores: Whatever shares The eternal reciprocity of tears.
• Red lips are not so red as the stained stones kissed by the English dead.
• Those who, like the beasts, have no such Hope, pass their old age shrouded with an inward gloom.
• These men are worth your tears. You are not worth their merriment.
• Was it for this the clay grew tall?
• She is elegant rather than belle.
• Escape? There is one unwatched way: your eyes. O Beauty! Keep me good that secret gate.
• Be bullied, be outraged, be killed, but do not kill.
• So secretly, like wrongs hushed-up, they went.

Wilfred Owen Quotes About War

I am not concerned with Poetry. My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity. Yet these elegies are to this generation in no sense conciliatory. They may be to the next. All a poet can do today is warn. That is why the true Poets must be truthful. — Wilfred Owen

Happy are men who yet before they are killed Can let their veins run cold. — Wilfred Owen

Walking abroad, one is the admiration of all little boys, and meets an approving glance from every eye of elderly. — Wilfred Owen

Then, when much blood had clogged their chariot-wheels I would go up and wash them from sweet wells, Even with truths that lie too deep for taint. I would have poured my spirit without stint But not through wounds; not on the cess of war. — Wilfred Owen

And some cease feeling Even themselves or for themselves. Dullness best solves The tease and doubt of shelling — Wilfred Owen

Heart, you were never hot Nor large, nor full like hearts made great with shot — Wilfred Owen

Flying is the only active profession I would ever continue with enthusiasm after the War. — Wilfred Owen

It seemed that out of battle I escaped Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped Through granites which titanic wars had groined. — Wilfred Owen

The war effects me less than it ought. I can do no service to anybody by agitating for news or making dole over the slaughter. — Wilfred Owen

I, too, saw God through mud — Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen Quotes About Poet

A Poem does not grow by jerks. As trees in Spring produce a new ring of tissue, so does every poet put forth a fresh outlay of stuff at the same season. — Wilfred Owen

All the poet can do today is warn. That is why true Poets must be truthful. — Wilfred Owen

I was a boy when I first realized that the fullest life liveable was a Poet's. — Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen Quotes About Life

Strange friend,' I said,'here is no cause to mourn.' 'None,'said the other,'save the undone years, The hopelessness.Whatever hope is yours Was my life also; I went hunting wild After the wildest beauty in the world. — Wilfred Owen

I don't ask myself, is the life congenial to me? But, am I fitted for, am I called to, the Ministry? — Wilfred Owen

The Young Soldier It is not death Without hereafter To one in dearth Of life and its laughter, Nor the sweet murder Dealt slow and even Unto the martyr Smiling at heaven: It is the smile Faint as a (waning) myth, Faint, and exceeding small On a boy's murdered mouth. — Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen Quotes About Reading

I am only conscious of any satisfaction in Scientific Reading or thinking when it rounds off into a poetical generality and vagueness. — Wilfred Owen

After all my years of playing soldiers, and then of reading History, I have almost a mania to be in the East, to see fighting, and to serve. — Wilfred Owen

Numbers of the old people cannot read. Those who can seldom do. — Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen Famous Quotes And Sayings

This book is not about heroes. English poetry is not yet fit to speak of them. Nor is it about deeds, or lands, nor anything about glory, honour, might, majesty, dominion, or power, except War. Above all I am not concerned with Poetry. My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity. — Wilfred Owen

The universal pervasion of ugliness, hideous landscapes, vile noises, foul language...everything. Unnatural, broken, blasted; the distortion of the dead, whose unburiable bodies sit outside the dug outs all day, all night, the most execrable sights on earth. In poetry we call them the most glorious. — Wilfred Owen

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory. The old lie: It is sweet and fitting that you should die for your country. — Wilfred Owen

The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall; Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds. — Wilfred Owen

The marvel is that we did not all die of cold. As a matter of fact, only one of my party actually froze to death before he could be got back, but I am not able to tell how many have ended up in hospital. We were marooned in a frozen desert. There was not a sign of life on the horizon and a thousand signs of death. — Wilfred Owen

As bronze may be much beautified by lying in the dark damp soil, so men who fade in dust of warfare fade fairer, and sorrow blooms their soul. — Wilfred Owen

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. — Wilfred Owen

The English say, Yours Truly, and mean it. The Italians say, I kiss your feet, and mean, I kick your head. — Wilfred Owen

The centuries will burn rich loads With which we groaned, Whose warmth shall lull their dreaming lids, While songs are crooned: But they will not dream of us poor lads, Left in the ground. — Wilfred Owen

Courage was mine, and I had mystery, Wisdom was mine, and I had mastery: To miss the march of this retreating world Into vain citadels that are not walled. — Wilfred Owen

Dead men may envy living mites in cheese, Or good germs even. Microbes have their joys, And subdivide, and never come to death. — Wilfred Owen

For by my glee might many men have laughed, And of my weeping may something have been left, Which must die now. — Wilfred Owen

Soldiers may grow a soul when turned to fronds, But here the thing's best left at home with friends. — Wilfred Owen

Do you know what would hold me together on a battlefield? The sense that I was perpetuating the language in which Keats and the rest of them wrote! — Wilfred Owen

My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity. — Wilfred Owen

I thought of all that worked dark pits Of war, and died Digging the rock where Death reputes Peace lies indeed. — Wilfred Owen

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?- Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattleCan patter out their hasty orisons.No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, - The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires.What candles may be held to speed them all?Not in The hands of boys but in their eyesShall shine The holy glimmers of goodbyes. The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds. — Wilfred Owen

Those who have no hope pass their old age shrouded with an inward gloom. — Wilfred Owen

If I have got to be a soldier, I must be a good one, anything else is unthinkable. — Wilfred Owen

When I begin to eliminate from the list all those professions which are impossible from a financial point of view and then those which I feel disinclined to - it leaves nothing. — Wilfred Owen

The old happiness is unreturning. Boy's griefs are not so grievous as youth's yearning. Boys have no sadness sadder than our hope. — Wilfred Owen

I tried to peg out soldierly,--no use! One dies of war like any old disease. — Wilfred Owen

Never fear: Thank Home, and Poetry, and the Force behind both. — Wilfred Owen

I have perceived much beauty In the hoarse oaths that kept our courage straight; Heard music in the silentness of duty; Found peace where shell-storms spouted reddest spate. — Wilfred Owen

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. — Wilfred Owen

I find purer philosophy in a Poem than in a Conclusion of Geometry, a chemical analysis, or a physical law. — Wilfred Owen

My soul's a little grief, grappling your chest, To climb your throat on sobs; easily chased On other sighs and wiped by fresher winds. — Wilfred Owen

Children are not meant to be studied, but enjoyed. Only by studying to be pleased do we understand them. — Wilfred Owen

Life Lessons by Wilfred Owen

1. Wilfred Owen's life teaches us the importance of standing up for what we believe in, no matter the cost. He was a soldier who was deeply affected by the horrors of war, and his poetry is a powerful reminder of the human cost of conflict.
2. Wilfred Owen's life also shows us the power of the written word to convey emotion and to inspire others. He was a passionate advocate for peace and his poetry is a testament to the power of art to bring about change.
3. Finally, Wilfred Owen's life teaches us the importance of resilience and perseverance. Despite the horrors of war and the physical and emotional pain he endured, he never gave up his fight for peace and justice.