The+Send-Off

== =‘The Send-off’= =Wilfred Owen=

Wilfred Owen’s poem, “The Send-Off” was written at Ripon where there was a huge army camp.

The troops in the poem have just come from a sending-off ceremony of cheering crowds, bells, drums, and flowers given by strangers; the troops are now being packed into trains for an unknown destination.

From the beginning of the poem the atmosphere is sinister: the lanes are “darkening” and claustrophobic, the crowds have gone and the troops are watched only by the “dull” and uninspiring faces of a porter and lowly tramp.

The flowers pinned on the chests of the soldiers in celebration become, for the speaker of the poem, the funeral flowers garlanding the soldiers for the slaughter that awaits them in war. The departure of the soldiers for war is secret, “like wrongs hushed up”; the cheering celebration of the hours before becomes a smoke screen for the harsh solemnity of war.

THINKING POINTS

 * 1) Owen’s choice of words adds to the effect of the imagery. What is the effect of the oxymoron “grimly gay”?
 * 2) Why does he use a rhetorical question in stanza 7?
 * 3) Owen uses quite an unusual structure in the poem. Three-line stanzas are followed by two-line stanzas and the rhymes connect the stanzas. He also uses a combination of long and short lines. Look closely at the structure. What kind of mood and feeling does it give to the poem?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
For an annotated version of this poem, click here: To view the original draft of this poem, click here:


 * Useful Quotations & Explanations:**

-**"...And lined the train with faces grimly gay."** Saying the soldiers want to act brave though they know they're going to DIE! (Oxymoron, implying Sadly, Happy)