| Wilfred Owen, most often remembered as a soldier poet of World War I, transitioned over the course of his poetic career from a Romantically-inspired young poet to an early Modernist. Initially influenced by poets like Keats and Shelley, Owen experimented with French Decadence in the style of Laurent Tailhade before joining the army in 1915. With his military experience, several factors converged to bring about the emergence of Modernist characteristics in Owen's war poetry: the acquisition of a more disciplined form of language through his military training, shocking battlefield subject matter which was encouraged in Owen's poems by fellow war poet Siegfried Sassoon, and a personal reaction by Owen against the aggressive propaganda campaign in England that was glorifying the war. The resultant poetry features a number of Modernist characteristics, including a sense of loss and despair, harsh and graphic imagery, and terse, direct language speaking about new, unpoetic subjects. |
