 Hello and welcome to a summary of all you need to know about the poem disabled by Wilfred Owen. Now I'll read and explain the meaning related to this poem as well as important language devices and contextual factors that you need to understand when it comes to Wilfred Owen himself. So let's get started. Now I'll read the first three stanzas and then start pointing out interesting literary techniques that you need to highlight and emphasise when writing about this poem. He sat in a wheelchair waiting for dark and shivered in his ghastly suit of grey legless sewn shorted elbow. Through the park voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn, voices of play and pleasures after day till gathering sleep had mothered them from him. About this time town used to swing so gay when glow lamb spotted in the light-breed trees and girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim in the old times before he threw away his knees. Now he'll never feel again how slim girls' waist are or how warm their subtle hands, all of them touch him like some queer disease. There was an artist silly for his face for it was younger than his youth last year. Now he's old, his back will never brace, he's lost his colour very far from here, poured it down shell holes till the veins ran dry and half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race and leap of purple spurted from his thigh. Now in this verse, these first three verses we are introduced to this anonymous war veteran. Now the title already is quite interesting, it's a metonym and it really replaces the wholeness of his identity. Now contestry, do you remember that Wilfred Owen is a soldier poet so he served in the First World War and unfortunately also lost his life. However before he lost his life in the First World War he actually got massively injured and also suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and a lot of his poetry was written whilst he was recovering whilst he was convalescing in hospital. So it's interesting this title because perhaps this could also reflect Wilfred Owen's own feelings once he was convalescing, once he was recovering and how he was treated by the society that he was in. Now the opening pronoun he shows us that this soldier is anonymous and in many ways this could be Wilfred Owen's way of universalising the experience of many other war veterans, how they are treated and how they're really forgotten about by society, the same society that they essentially risked their lives and lost everything for. Furthermore there's a sense of stasis and passivity when we learn that he sat in a world chair, this war veteran perhaps is quite old now, he's now sitting in this world chair and he's essentially been forgotten by the rest of the world after he sacrificed everything in war to serve his country. Furthermore the caesura really slows down the pace of this first stanza, it shows that everything is very slow for this aging veteran. Moreover there's a semantic field of darkness that's used here, dark and gray and what this shows is that this soldier or rather this war veteran's existence is quite nihilistic, there's nothing that he's looking forward to, there's almost no reason to him still living. Moreover the simile like a hymn shows that the voices that he can hear, it's almost like a sad song for him, it's mourning him, it's mourning his lost youth when he used his youth at the war but also his lost older years when he's now isolated in this old veteran shelter. Now the sibilance soon short shows how and it emphasizes how he's disabled, he's lost some of his limbs. Furthermore it's really interesting to look at the enjambament that's used in this verse and it shows how the voices are almost wafting through, it runs into the next line almost like these voices are wafting through and piercing his quiet existence. Furthermore the repetition of voices suggests that he only this anonymous veteran can hear this, maybe these are voices in his head, he's remembering this distant past. Furthermore the alliteration, play and pleasures show that he is excluded from this happiness, he's excluded from this social interaction and all he can do is watch from afar but also what this could be part of the voices that are ringing in his head, he's reflecting and reminiscing on the happiness he used to have. Moreover sleep is personified as mothering them from him and this shows that sleep is a very comforting escape for him, it's only in sleep that he can find respite, he can remember the good days when he was young and he used to be treated quite kindly by society. Now in the second verse there's a temporal focus this time and of course this is emphasized with alliteration and now we go back to the past and how the town used to be really happy and we're told through the intensifier so to show how positive his past used to be when he was young and of course do you remember that the word gay in this context means happy. Also the description of the light blue trees which are budding shows his carefree youth, this is a metaphor for his carefree youth and the alliteration girls glanced highlights the promise of youth when girls used to look at him and when he felt like a man. Now the antithetical terms old times versus now this shows the contrast in the temporal shift so he's thinking about the old times the good old times however we then fast forward in line 11 to the present and how in the present he feels terrible he will never again feel this positive feeling and he never will be seen as this masculine young man by the girls. Also there's this interesting term he threw away his knees and this shows that his decision to enlist was perhaps quite careless his decision to go and serve in the first world war he didn't even think about it he didn't understand massive consequences that would be associated with him serving in war. Moreover the term knees is cynic dope and of course this represents his whole body he's essentially become disabled. Furthermore there's a semantic field of body parts related to the girls, waist and hands and it shows how he misses being able to move in an agile way but also he misses the intimacy from women. Also the simile like some queer disease shows how he's now ostracised by society as a disabled war veteran. Moreover the comparative adjective younger focuses on his vitality as a young person and there's this oxymoron youth versus old which flashes forward to his aged body versus how young and agile he used to be as a young man. Furthermore the metaphor pulled it down in shell holes shows that he gave his youth up his life up to the war he almost took his life in a bottle and poured it down and really just sacrificed but he doesn't have anything to show for this sacrifice. Also the litteration half his and hot emphasises how he really has lost these years and to some degree probably really regrets it because nobody is really rewarding him for his efforts. So let's carry on. One time he liked to blood smear down his leg after the matches carry shoulder high. It was after football when he drunk a peg he thought he'd better join he wonders why. Someone had said he'd look a god in kilts that's why and maybe two to please his meg aye that was it to please the giddy jelts he'd asked to join he didn't have to beg. Smiling there wrote his lie age 19 years Germans he scarcely thought of all their guilt and ostracised did not move him and no fears of fear came yet. He thought of jewelled hilts for daggers and played socks of smart salutes and care of arms and leave and pay arrears espirid decor and hints for young recruits and soon he was drafted out with drums and chairs. Some cheered him home but not as crowds cheered gole only a solemn man who brought him fruits thanked him and that inquired about his soul. Now these three verses emphasise the contrast between how when he was quite young he enlisted for this war almost as a joke and almost as a way to prove his masculinity but then when he came back from the war the really not that many people he even waited on him these crowds that he thought would come he'd come back to and the chair for his sacrifice actually he only found one man who gave him fruits as a way of a thank you. Now in this verse he mentions blood smear so in other words Owen mentions blood smear and this seems like a badge of honour so he's reflecting on how when he was young he would you know be very very agile he'd also play in some dangerous sports which would cause some kind of pain however this was a way to show his prowess. Also when he refers to after the matches carry shoulder how this is a specific snapshot memory and it shows post-match celebration of course this is when he was young he really misses this. Also the repetition of the third person pronoun he, he'd and he shows it's really ambiguous here whether he's joining the match or signing up for war and the caesura functions as a volta as he feels really regretful about enlisting for war. Also we get a colloquial sense of his uh voice so when he says I and this is a term that we usually hear a lot of Scottish people say so when they're saying yes they instead say I and now we see and hear his voice. Also he talks about the reasons and really the superficial reasons that enlisted for war so to please the giddy jills and really we learned that he enlisted to gain respect from his peers he really didn't think about it and think about the massive consequences of serving in war. Furthermore we learned that it was really easy for him to enlist in the war he didn't have to beg a lot of young working class men contextually speaking in the first world war and of course also in the second world war signed up for war but after the war they weren't given adequate treatment they weren't treated and reintegrated back into society and a lot of them suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and they were ostracized. Also the president continuous verb here highlights the authorities who enlisted him so they say smiling the root his lie they knew that he was underage he was too young for war but they still accepted him. Also there's a mention of Germans and Austria and these proper nouns refer to the enemy countries but he didn't really know about this he just enlisted didn't realize what he was getting himself into. Furthermore the adverb scarcely shows he didn't realize the gravity of his actions and what he would lose. Moreover the capitalization of this abstract noun fear highlights he didn't really fear mortality or death this is of course what comes with the youth and agility you don't necessarily think that you're going to grow old. Furthermore the mention of jibbled hiltz shows the bejeweled handles of swords and this showed that a law of conscription the glamour that he thought would come with being a soldier. Furthermore when he mentions fedagas and plaid socks of smart salutes care of arms and leave and pay arrears the syndetine hair shows that he took a superficial interest in participating in war he didn't actually care about saving his country but actually if that came with it then that would be fine. Moreover the collective noun crowds shows that some people didn't actually appreciate his sacrifice i didn't wait for him when he came back from war to even thank him just very few people including this man who brought him fruits. Moreover of course there's this anonymous solemn man this is the only person who really thanked him when he came back. So let's look at the final verse now he'll spend a few sick years in institutes and do what things the rules consider wise and take whatever pity they may dull tonight he noticed how the women's eyes passed from him to the strong men that were whole how cold and later to that why don't they come and put him into bed why don't they come now of course this final verse is really really sad it shows just how nihilistic how negative his life has turned out so again there's this temporal shift to his present he's now a sick old man he no longer has any of the positives that youth brought him furthermore the adjective shows his hopeless stasis he isn't moving he's just literally waiting around for death furthermore the repetition of this conjunction and shows how monotonous and repetitive his life is and when he notices how women's eyes pass from him to the strong men that were whole he this shows this focus on their eyes symbolizes their desire and this of course did not desire him any longer furthermore the idea of the strong men being whole contrasts as a title which is the metonym that this the idea of disability and of course this shows that this man realizes that he's really half the person used to be as a result of being disabled but of course this is the wrong attitude to take and especially the wrong way for society to treat him he's actually more of a man because he risked his life in war however society doesn't see it this way furthermore this exclamatory sentence how cold and later it is it shows just how old he's become and he's now even very used to a certain pattern of life furthermore the final rhetorical questions put him into bed why don't they come emphasizes just how isolated he is and this makes us feel pathos for him so that's all if you found this video useful do make sure you visit our website which is www.firstreadtutors.com there you will find lots of useful revision materials for this poem and indeed other poems in the international GCSE anthology thank you so much for listening