Wilfred Owen
Red lips are not so red
As the stained stones kissed by the English dead.
Kindness of wooed and wooer
Seems shame to their love pure.
O Love, your eyes lose lure
When I behold eyes blinded in my stead!
Your slender attitude
Trembles not exquisite like limbs knife-skewed,
Rolling and rolling there
Where God seems not to care;
Till the fierce love they bear
Cramps them in death’s extreme decrepitude.
Your voice sings not so soft,-
Though even as wind murmuring through raftered loft,-
Your dear voice is not dear,
Gentle, and evening clear,
As theirs whom none now hear,
Now earth has stopped their piteous mouths that coughed.
Heart, you were never hot
Nor large, nor full like hearts made great with shot;
And though your hand be pale,
Paler are all which trail
Your cross through flame and hail:
Weep, you may weep, for you may touch them not.
© by owner. provided at no charge for educational purposes
Analysis (AI Assisted)
This poem starkly contrasts romantic notions of love with the brutal realities of war. The speaker opens with a critique of traditional beauty, using the metaphor of “red lips” and “wooed and wooer” to emphasize the superficiality of conventional affection. In comparison, the “stones kissed by the English dead” serve as a grim reminder of the true cost of love and sacrifice, where the deaths of soldiers overshadow the fleeting charm of love’s typical imagery.
The poem’s depiction of love is further complicated by its focus on the physical and emotional toll of war. The imagery of “limbs knife-skewed” and “eyes blinded” offers a direct confrontation with the body’s suffering, showing that love’s gentler, more romantic expressions pale in comparison to the brutality faced by those who sacrifice everything. The speaker seems to mourn the loss of a more idealized love, one untouched by war’s cruelty, and instead, draws attention to the raw, painful devotion of soldiers whose love takes the form of sacrifice and death.
The repetition of contrasts between the “slender attitude” of the lover and the “extreme decrepitude” of the soldier further underscores the disconnection between the romantic and the real. Where love in its typical form might inspire tenderness, the love demonstrated by the soldiers is one marked by violence and suffering. The soldiers’ love, though it may be “fierce,” is bound by “death’s extreme decrepitude,” leaving their bodies contorted and broken. This transformation, from youthful passion to decaying corpses, emphasizes the poem’s focus on the ways in which war distorts even the most fundamental human experiences.
The stanza comparing the voice of the lover to the “pitiable mouths that coughed” captures the final, devastating shift in the poem. The contrast between the lover’s soft, gentle voice and the agony of those who can no longer speak symbolizes the deepening disillusionment with conventional notions of love. The love of the dead soldiers is not one that can be heard, felt, or even touched. It is raw, silent, and permanent—an overwhelming contrast to the fleeting affections of the living.
Finally, the speaker’s invocation to “weep, you may weep, for you may touch them not” is a powerful acknowledgment of the gap between the idealized love of the living and the unending, unromantic sacrifice of the dead. In this final line, the poet seems to suggest that while we may mourn the loss of beauty and innocence, we can never fully grasp the depth of the sacrifice these soldiers made.
Overall, this poem serves as both an indictment of romanticized notions of love and a meditation on the true nature of devotion and sacrifice in the context of war. The love of the soldiers, embodied in their suffering and death, is portrayed as pure and unwavering, yet unreachable for those who have not shared in their fate. The poem challenges conventional ideas of beauty and affection, instead offering a somber, brutal vision of love as bound to the harsh realities of war.