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Collected Letters
Poems of Wilfred Owen, edited by his friend Siegfried Sassoon, was published in 1920. Edmund Blunden's more comprehensive edition of 1931, with its long critical and biographical preface, spread more widely the realization that here was the most important poet of the Great War. Collected Poems, edited by C. Day Lewis, was published in 1963 (and was borne forward on the surge of the new interest springing from Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, a setting of twelve of the poems, including 'Strange Meeting' and 'Anthem for Doomed Youth'). It securely established Owen's place among the great poets.
Harold Owen's remarkable and moving autobiographical trilogy has prepared the way for the present Collected Letters. From Journey from Obscurity we learned of the poet's devotion to his mother; now we can see evidence of this. To her he addressed over five hundred and fifty of the six hundred and seventy-three letters here published. She preserved them all, from his first letter in 1898, when he was five, to his last, written four days before his death. To her, indeed, he unfolded his autobiography, the volume now presented to the reader as one of the most complete of such records in our literature. These vivid letters flood Owen's short life with light. They show the way in which he reached his memorable maturity as man and poet; and they illuminate the poems themselves.
Harold Owen's remarkable and moving autobiographical trilogy has prepared the way for the present Collected Letters. From Journey from Obscurity we learned of the poet's devotion to his mother; now we can see evidence of this. To her he addressed over five hundred and fifty of the six hundred and seventy-three letters here published. She preserved them all, from his first letter in 1898, when he was five, to his last, written four days before his death. To her, indeed, he unfolded his autobiography, the volume now presented to the reader as one of the most complete of such records in our literature. These vivid letters flood Owen's short life with light. They show the way in which he reached his memorable maturity as man and poet; and they illuminate the poems themselves.
- GenresHistory
629 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1967
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About the author
Wilfred Owen
190 books238 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the goodreads data base.
Wilfred Owen was a defining voice of British poetry during the First World War, renowned for his stark portrayals of trench warfare and gas attacks. Deeply influenced by Siegfried Sassoon, whom he met while recovering from shell shock, Owen’s work departed from the patriotic war verse of the time, instead conveying the brutal reality of combat and the suffering of soldiers. Among his best-known poems are Dulce et Decorum est, Anthem for Doomed Youth, and Strange Meeting—many of which were published only after his death.
Born in 1893 in Shropshire, Owen developed an early passion for poetry and religion, both of which would shape his artistic and moral worldview. He worked as a teacher and spent time in France before enlisting in the British Army in 1915. After a traumatic experience at the front, he was treated for shell shock at Craiglockhart War Hospital, where Sassoon’s mentorship helped refine his poetic voice.
Owen returned to active service in 1918, determined to bear witness to the horrors of war. He was killed in action just one week before the Armistice. Though only a few of his poems were published during his lifetime, his posthumous collections cemented his legacy as one of the greatest war poets in English literature. His work continues to be studied for its powerful combination of romantic lyricism and brutal realism, as well as its complex engagement with themes of faith, duty, and identity.
Wilfred Owen was a defining voice of British poetry during the First World War, renowned for his stark portrayals of trench warfare and gas attacks. Deeply influenced by Siegfried Sassoon, whom he met while recovering from shell shock, Owen’s work departed from the patriotic war verse of the time, instead conveying the brutal reality of combat and the suffering of soldiers. Among his best-known poems are Dulce et Decorum est, Anthem for Doomed Youth, and Strange Meeting—many of which were published only after his death.
Born in 1893 in Shropshire, Owen developed an early passion for poetry and religion, both of which would shape his artistic and moral worldview. He worked as a teacher and spent time in France before enlisting in the British Army in 1915. After a traumatic experience at the front, he was treated for shell shock at Craiglockhart War Hospital, where Sassoon’s mentorship helped refine his poetic voice.
Owen returned to active service in 1918, determined to bear witness to the horrors of war. He was killed in action just one week before the Armistice. Though only a few of his poems were published during his lifetime, his posthumous collections cemented his legacy as one of the greatest war poets in English literature. His work continues to be studied for its powerful combination of romantic lyricism and brutal realism, as well as its complex engagement with themes of faith, duty, and identity.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 16, 2025
It took me 8 months but I finally finished Wilfred Owen's Collected Letters. Owen was surprisingly funny, loved his family fiercely, was just starting to find himself as a poet in the last years of the war, and he was so full of life that was cut short when he was killed a week before the WWI armistice in 1918. His letters, starting from when he was a kid and ending a week before his death, read as a diary and autobiography and the closer I got to the end, the more upsetting it was to read, knowing he'd never get to see the end of the war.
I have many thoughts on this book and I'll be writing a full review at a later date.
I have many thoughts on this book and I'll be writing a full review at a later date.
January 6, 2024
I found this collection most interesting not as a chart of The Development of a Poet (most of Wilfred Owen's pre-WW1 poetic output bears no resemblance at all to the poems for which he is famous nowadays but is pretty generic of its era) but as a vivid evocation of the world and mindset of pre-war England and France, coming from someone who was an entertaining correspondent and a vivid observer. (I had had no idea that Owen was actually teaching in France when the war broke out, and remained there for a long time in an odd limbo between the mass-conscripted French male population and the masses of Englishmen who were busy flinging themselves into war on the other side of the Channel while he looked rather detachedly on!)
In the final section of the book, after he eventually finishes his training after volunteering- enthusiastically in his turn - for the army, and being posted to France after many months' delay, he does give a description of the increasingly horrific conditions of the war, with a frankness which seems quite surprising given that letters home were censored (save that as the officer he was the one doing the censoring). But this is only a short portion, followed by his repatriation to England and amazed self-rediscovery as an Acknowledged Poet moving in literary circles. If you are looking for trench horrors in this book, they do exist, but they don't dominate it. The theme that does dominate is his complete devotion to his mother,Susan Owen, who is the recipient of most of the surviving letters and who appears to have served as confidante and overwhelming emotional outlet.
On his eventual return to the trenches after another prolonged period of convalescence and inactive posting in England, he can see that the war is coming to an end and is not particularly worried about future prospects for the men for whom he is responsible; what he cannot foresee, of course, is his own almost casual end in a minor action only a week before the Armistice was signed. But given that this is someone who is famous as a War Poet, I was struck by how much of this book does not fit in with the expected trajectory of his story. You get a very vivid idea of him as a personality, as the ardent fanboy of Keats and amateur of Roman remains who drifts into teaching English as a foreign language more or less out of academic failure. But the coming of war doesn't disrupt his life or destroy its promise. It pretty much provides it with a focus and a purpose that it lacked.
In the final section of the book, after he eventually finishes his training after volunteering- enthusiastically in his turn - for the army, and being posted to France after many months' delay, he does give a description of the increasingly horrific conditions of the war, with a frankness which seems quite surprising given that letters home were censored (save that as the officer he was the one doing the censoring). But this is only a short portion, followed by his repatriation to England and amazed self-rediscovery as an Acknowledged Poet moving in literary circles. If you are looking for trench horrors in this book, they do exist, but they don't dominate it. The theme that does dominate is his complete devotion to his mother,Susan Owen, who is the recipient of most of the surviving letters and who appears to have served as confidante and overwhelming emotional outlet.
On his eventual return to the trenches after another prolonged period of convalescence and inactive posting in England, he can see that the war is coming to an end and is not particularly worried about future prospects for the men for whom he is responsible; what he cannot foresee, of course, is his own almost casual end in a minor action only a week before the Armistice was signed. But given that this is someone who is famous as a War Poet, I was struck by how much of this book does not fit in with the expected trajectory of his story. You get a very vivid idea of him as a personality, as the ardent fanboy of Keats and amateur of Roman remains who drifts into teaching English as a foreign language more or less out of academic failure. But the coming of war doesn't disrupt his life or destroy its promise. It pretty much provides it with a focus and a purpose that it lacked.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews