Poem ~ Owen: Teacher to Soldier - Sunday 21 - Tuesday 30 November 1915

Impression sketch of a smiling Private Wilfred Owen - by Jamie. see an original at: http://www.standpointmag.co.uk/node/5483/full

i

By the river Garonne, of South West

France, Bordeaux had seen itself

As the temporary sister of Paris -

In an invasion threat of the capital.

With issue abated, matters turned

Back to ordinary status - with seat

Of Government back in Paris, some

Normality returned to Bordeaux.

One British resident to experience

That excitement, settled back into

A routine as English tutor - yet matters

For Mr W. Owen altered with spring.

While settled within his pre-war post,

Issues of war, and an idea to fight,

Were never far from his mind's eye -

Everywhere talk, papers and soldiers.

ii

Idling plans continued in thoughts

Of his own situation - and somehow

What he might do for the war's fight;

Those about tried to dissuade ideas.

With a six week plan set to take him

Back to Britain and London’s heart -

A pivotal centre of the war machine,

Owen suppressed such excitement.

Yet countered by sensibility, a need

To earn money, he promised to return

Within the summer months to carry

On his duty as professor of elocution.

From Bordeaux, a slow journey took

Wilfred first to Paris, where he met

With Tailhade - poet and friend -

To take in Parisian sights and scenes.

iii

Yet doubtless to see movements

Of endless soldiers, both English

And French nations pass, always

Onwards to some fighting frontiers.

This intensity of sights for Wilfred

Owen increased on reaching Calais,

With its boundless military nature

Of troop ships, in and out of harbour.

Likely self conscious of his civilian

Attire, Owen probably brooded,

Within the encircling men of his age,

Who filled all boats and London trains.

Owen's Arrival in a British capital,

Would bring an alternative scene

Of previous visits - in atmosphere

In London's life of wartime fixation.

iV

Papers daily added with fresh

News - to include May-times

Sinking of the Lusitania; while

Nothing dulled his enjoyment.

Taking his task as trader to perfume

Fair - Kitchener posters all around,

Questioned his reason or excuse,

Why Owen was not yet in khaki.

Thrilled but  briefly tired of London

Bustle, the son made his return

To Shreswbuy's Mahim - to allow

A temporary escape to poetry.

In whirl of satisfied travel a poet

Paused again in London, where

A hotel note sparked a thought, to

Invite gentlemen to Artists Rifles.

V

Owen speculated over ambitions,

To see London slums in Victorian

Hangovers - to ponder on desires

For success as a possible poet.

Still remaining without decision

To join the tutor, as promised made

The Sunday return trip to Paris;

With mixed emotions after London.

New stories came of campaigns

In Gallipoli prompting Owen's vow;

If war had no sight of improvement

To take to an autumn enlistment.

Home communications reached him

Of a relative in khaki - to prompt

A premonition of grandchildren, 

Who would ask what he had done.

Vi

Aged 21 with almost a year of war,

A summer illness of June crept

Hold of Owen, to prompt his fitness

Vow - a need of a soldier's regime.

A mother's distant concerns could

Not deter a son of independence -

To give her unwillingness to provide           

His requests of regiment's address.

His decision was to write anyway

To Artists Rifles, posted to a vague

London Address - duly a reply

Came to advise of lengthy training.

Although aspirations may have

Been to take a commission, Owen

Had no means - so then initially

He would start as ordinary Tommy.

Romantic notions were never far

From such a poet's head - maybe

An alternative route could allow him

To join the Italian Cavalry instead.

Vii

From his letter's honesty, Susan

Owen advised how her son might

Find more satisfaction in a position

Of safety, within a war office post.

With brief encounter of a sailor

Whose familiar accent of home,

Prompted Owen to ask passage -

In war such ideas were impossible.

Self-guilt grew in civilian clothes -

In summers depth came more plans,

For routes to take him homewards;

Concerns of friends advised him no.

Summer of 1915 then on the wane

And Owen had completed promise

To teach his students - now his plan

Took over, to make a London return.

Viii

Shrewsbury and autumn's falling

Dead leaves, acting as a reality

Of what he should be his destiny;

Led him to London’s Bloomsbury.

On a pause of steps in the shade

Of Artists Rifle Headquarters, two

Masks looked bleakly down on him

While Wilfred Owen stepped inside.

A keen, willing Doctor passed him

As fit, while Owen gave happily

Provided his word of willingness;

As the fight for Loos had begun.

With long shrugged off hesitancy, his

Joining up could only provide relief

To take vow of voluntary service -
That soon would become compulsory.

iX

For a man and poet, prepared

To give himself to a voluntary vow,

Was more a true romantic notion

Than hesitating, only to be pushed.

Arriving at that point Owen set

On a four year path in duty to king

To shrug off unglamorous ideas,

As a man working in munitions.

Previous paths had been diverse

Such as journalism, civil service,

The ministry or even a scientist

Or interpreter; he became a tutor.

Other potential careers had even

Included business traveller or

Consular role,  no prior thoughts

Had seen him in role of a soldier.

Neither man nor Doctor registered

Any omens, wherein his previous

Medical had not been signed off -

Owen stripped again, to be found fit.

At 5 foot 5, a height that had once

Been unacceptable Owen was taken

On, having a fit heart with 6/6 vision,

He stood with a chest of 36 1/2 inches.

X

The deed was finally completed, when

On Thursday 21 October 1915, saw

Three men to step forward to swear

Allegiance, to serve home and abroad.

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen stood

Before an officer, Captain Bloomfied,

To read out the oath and give a virgin

Bible, a considered and loving kiss.

Romance takes many forms - equal

To poets of old who might describe

Notions of duty, man's honour, pride

Or passion to die for one's country.

At moments when in life bold steps

Take a different unforeseen path,

Excitement might rule ignorance -

A man emerged; Private Owen 4756.

by Jamie Mann.

Hibberd, D., 2002. Wilfred Owen – A New Biography. London. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Ch 9, Ch 10.

Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 20 November 2015). 

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Poem ~ Owen and Perseus - Sunday , 7 March 1915

Wilfred Owen - detail by Jamie

In Bordeaux, the city of South West

France, arrived the French capital -

To swell from September 1914,

By fifty thousand people - An exiled

Government escaping the German

Advance on Paris, as smart Parisians

Made occupation of the city streets.

Amid them, returned one English man,

Wilfred Owen - from close of a summer

Spent in the Gailleste valley – with his

Summer’s post complete, the teacher

Had two options - find freelance work

Or return home to an England at war.

Matters changed rapidly by a second

Month of war – Owen's hope to take

Courses ended, with universities

Acquisition for military needs  - then

A path took new direction as Owen's

Shifted from Ledgers to Lem's family.

Given two weeks grace in household

Of the Lems, Owen had the chance

To sort and lengthen his French stay.

With Paris coming to Bordeaux

Unfolding days could bring excitement

Even offer the chance of new contacts.

Reminders of war were all about - one

Result being the offer of private tuition

To the nephew of a Senior General.

With employment secured, Owen in

Employ of a donkey cart, conveyed

Ownership of his three trunks to a new

Home as he settled into another venture.

Mid October found this professor

Of elocution seated before a Louis XV

Bureau - beside a large window to let

In plentiful light – days of teaching

Led him out to homes pupils - this

Occupation occupied a poet's mind.

From a past summer's experiences -

Of Bagneres teaching vacation -

Owen had woken to self-awareness.

From pupil Mmes open suggestions

And Tailhade's poetry of attentions

Working to stir his romantic obsession.

Romanticism had invaded the young

Teacher’s mind, in underlying desire

Of decadence and Romantic Agony -

To bubble below the surface – then

November news came of Tailhade

Suddenly shouldering a rifle prompting

Thought how he might enlist to fight.

Owen's letters toyed with ideas of how

If England were truly threatened, that

He would have no hesitation to join.

With autumn's end Paris was freed

Of danger – but any return to England

Held risks of German infested seas –

Yet another pupil prompted his stay.

Assigned with pupils to teach and guide,

The de la Touche boys proved worthy -

As he told his mother that on his return

His future would be discussed with her -

Or a recruiting sergeant. Meanwhile

Further lodgings beckoned in bargain -

Free lodging exchanged for supervision.

Now led Wilfred Owen to Rue Desfourniel.

His time now planned out for four months -

Owen, at home with the boys, would take

Them shooting in woods – the still air

Echoed with training sounds of artillery

Or the flight of a plane above them.

With the new year of 1915, he might

Make plenty of money - he confessed

At the cost of his soul – others thought

Him aimless - still Owen kept his secrets.

Owen had felt, after experiences of religion,

That an only course for him was as poet -

Being 'the fullest, largest, liveable life.'

In reaction to his neglect of this subject

Set him to work an idea of a long poem,

In the story of Perseus - A hero born

Of a mother's confinement, a tale to take

Long allegorical walks in dark woods -

There, a desire of Perseus reflected war.

Its Completion though remained a dream.

With self reflection, perhaps for Owen

Such an epic could only be about poetry,

Sexuality and unavoidably war's subject.

An unwritten script populated with cures,

Formed decadent ideas, classical statues

And Greek love - all stayed a fragment.

The project remained in the poet's mind

But as a resource for future compositions

And underlying imagery - the Perseus epic

By Owen, fragmented by surviving family.

Possibly deciphering likely undertones

Of blurred beasts in a war poet's book.

Hibberd, D., 2002. Wilfred Owen – A New Biography. London. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Ch 9.

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Poem ~ Spy Stories - Saturday, 9 January 1915

A Catholic French Priest - in role of teacher

At Walmer - informs his family at Chambery,

Of his encounter with a German spy –

At Deal, Naval Hospital, Kent, the priest

Made a visit, to wounded Belgian soldiers.

Among these men he met a sergeant -

An intelligent and expert draughtsman -

On leaving the Hospital as a convalescent

The sergeant took a transfer to Folkestone,

Where he met the priest once again.

The sergeant lay under cloud of depression,

Telling how his children Wife and Father

Had been shot by Germans - the tragedy,

This, he stated, came from a friend at Liege –

The man, being in an agitated state, vowed

He would kill any German he encountered.

A week later, again at the Naval Hospital,

The priest spoke to a nurse who asked

If he recalled how he had taken an interest

In the wounded Belgian man - whose

Profession had been a draughtsman.

The nurse informed him how the man had

Been taken to Calais, three days previously.

At the port the Sergeant was then proved

To be a fraud, when he faced the actual

Belgium soldier - whose true identity,

History, papers and name, he had taken.

Being proved a spy he was promptly shot.

Another spy tale came from Bordeaux -

Willy Sattler was German but spoke good

Fluent French – in Paris he frequented

The war office and when the government

Moved to Bordeaux, he followed.

While precautions had been made to curb

Any possible deeds of spies - Willy Slater

Gained entry into where Ministry of War -

Then based in Faculty Of Letters - caught,

It turned out that Willy Sattler was in fact

A NCO in 79^th German Infantry Regiment.

Court-martialled, he was sentenced to death.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1915. Enterprising Spies – Caught and Shot. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 9 Jan. P.10. Col 7. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11331132/Daily-Telegraph-January-9-1915.html [Accessed: 9 January 2015].

Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 9 January 2015). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11331132/Daily-Telegraph-January-9-1915.html

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Poem ~ Wilfred Owen, Professor of Elocution - Sunday, 25 October 1914

 Wilfred Owen

Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Owen#mediaviewer/File:Wilfred_Owen_plate_from_Poems_(1920).jpg [Accessed on: 15 November 2014]


A professor of elocution, a young British man

Of twenty one, was invited as a tutor of English.

His client, being a Parisian lady, Mme Leger,

Was to spend the month of August in 1914,

In the foothills of the Pyrenees - near the town

Of Bagneres de Bigorre - The young Professor

Wilfred Owen, had originated from Shropshire.

Arriving at the station Of Bagneres de Bigorre,

Mr Owen, alongside a well-travelled trunk of green,

To be met by a Donkey cart, Mr Leger and his child.

A shy Nenette, giving the young man a slow smile.

A journey led to the villa of a mile from the town.

The Donkey cart carrying their visitor along a narrow

Valley, to where a miniature baroque mansion,

And white balustrades, nestled amid mountain trees.

A daily routine quickly became the norm for Mr Owen.

In order to earn his keep – he gave after breakfast

Madam Leger her two hours of conversational practice

The purpose of lessons to prepare for a Canadian trip,

In order for her to converse more easily with customers.

The lady’s interest of her teacher ran much deeper

Than just learning English – In the depth of fascination,

Mme Ledger eagerly told the professor that he should,

Behave to her, and the house, exactly as his wished.

Having bought himself some gentlemanly items,

In Bordeaux such as a straw hat, a few bow ties

And a walking stick. Wilfred Owen now grew a little

Moustache, in processing his young man’s image.

Proud to have worked his way forward as a teacher

He wrote, confiding emotions, in words to his mother.

Of how in France to be feeling - experiencing, ‘his life

As a lived out book.’ Yet the letter was never sent.

After the morning sessions, Wilfred was free to do,

As he wished and he spent time in Bagneres,

or out climbing looking to the heights of the Pyrenees.

Soon he took up a secret habit of bathing – finding

A hidden pool fed by cool waters of the mountains.

Developing a tan, sitting beneath a Autumn sun –

With time spent sitting happily in the garden, smoking.

Owen’s idle moments, expanding into idle theories,

Of his designing an idealised fantasy of a country,

House – filled with people whom he might live -

Or invite, inspired him to compose a start of a poem.

September and a month, having passed since war

Had been declared, played upon the professor’s mind,

And of what might be the outcome of his own role

In the European war, as it was then being called.

Back in Bordeaux, Wilfred had looked to Spain’s

Neutrality - to think if that might be an option to go.

With noises from the North from Britain and France

Being stirred up into total war seemed a distance.

In the quiet area of Bagneres town, news carried

To them of war by the papers, yet isolation grew thin -

As this 21 year old Professor read of many German

Atrocities, to share within deep conversations on war.

In the drawing closer of France’s situation, the men

Of Bagneres began to be called up to the colours.

The towns mothers wept openly for departing sons.

then there came the talk of likely local German spies.

Anyone slightly alien to France seemed a suspect.

As a non-native, Wilfred had to be given a permit

Of police, in order to stay - further taking advice

Not to wear glasses, that made him look Germanic.

Owen looked more French without use of glasses,

As he read each day, of the cancerous spread of war.

Unlike Britain, army service was compulsory in France,

Prompting Wilfred to think he should do something -

So he imagined saving provinces at the Eastern Front.

August had long gone into September and the Legers

Return to Bordeaux was closing in - yet madam’s trip

Not until October, Owen was invited to stay with them,

With Mme’s idea for him to travel with her in the spring.

Canada would have seemed an adventure in spring

Of 1915, yet turns of events saw that door slowly close.

Owen learned of the visiting poet, Laurant Tailhade,

To Bagneres, to hold lectures upon the gift of writing.

Furthermore Tailhede was one of the Leger’s friends-

An encounter with a living poet would be monumental,

For the aspiring Wilfred Owen - from their introduction,

The poet was to influence Owen’s view, with exception

Of his pacifists’ views – the guidelines were to run deep.

Perhaps the conflict of pacifism, and desire of freedom

Fighting, embroiled some of the war poet’s oppositions.

An underlying need of experience, to be a man in war,

And as observer conveying suffering in his compositions.

Yet the fermentation continued in Bagneres, as Tailhade

Arrived on 27 August, for lunch at the holiday home.

The poet is likely to have seemed quite old to Wilfred,

formed from years of indulgence, drugs and absinthe.

Tailhade, being short of funds, was to stay at the villa.

Taking a great liking to the dark haired Englishman,

Laurant Tailhade poured over him, shown as he wrote

A Sonnet to Owen –flattered, Wilfred gave no response.

Admiration from a man of letters was yet to be treasured

A shared craft of literary gifts was to create a friendship.

Yet Owen knowing his own mind, kept it on a level plane

As he did with Mme ledger – a desire to write overriding all.

With October came changes like a ladder to the future

Days of August and September sun faded into October

And a return to Bordeaux – having played with the idea

Of returning home – with the ‘Affair Leger’ finally settled

The new capital of France where excitement brimmed.

To make use of his time in France, Owen talked to meet

People of interest, while seeking out a stable of pupils;

With Madam departure he moved from the Legers,

To the Lems household, to little more than an attic room.

Then another change found Wilfred a tutors place from

A wife of a senior General, for her nephew a Viscount.

Again a Donkey cart employed the move, of now three

Trunks, as he found himself in grander surroundings.

As October unfolded, it seemed that Owen had arrived.

Hibberd, D., 2002. Wilfred Owen – A New Biography. London. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Ch 8-9.

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