INSENSIBILITY

The main British offensive in 1917 was at Ypres against the Passchendaele Ridge. Unusually heavy rain fell. Stretcher bearers, like these Canadians on 14
November, struggled to bring back the wounded.
British troops at Serre, France, 1917
British soldiers (from the Royal Warwickshire Regiment) and German soldiers (from the 134th Saxon Regiment) together. Photograph taken December 26,
1914 by Second Lieutenant Cyril Drummond
1.
unconsciousness.

2.
lack of awareness or concern;
indifference
Task
• In groups of 1 – 2, you will be given a stanza to analyse.

Consider:
• Summary
• Theme
• Mood
• Poetic Devices and their Effect (on audience and on the text)

• Present your findings to the class

• News Bulletin
– Weather = Tone/mood
– News Reader = Major Themes/Summary
– Sports = Techniques used/Effect

• Or Annotate using whiteboard markers

Make notes on your sheet based on other presentations.

 I
Happy are men who yet before they are killed
Can let their veins run cold.
Whom no compassion fleers
Or makes their feet
Sore on the alleys cobbled with their brothers.
The front line withers.
But they are troops who fade, not flowers,
For poets’ tearful fooling:
Men, gaps for filling:
Losses, who might have fought
Longer; but no one bothers.

Biblical Reference:
Beatitudes – describe ideal
disciple and his rewards. All begin
with “Blessed are…”
Intertextuality
Juxtaposition:
“Happy… killed… veins run cold”
Effect:
desensitised men are better
soldiers
Metaphor: These men are not
considered men, but rather, are
numbers. They can be made up of
anyone, as the word ‘gap’
suggests. “Gaps” also suggests the
never ending nature of war.
I
_Happy are men who yet before they are killed
Can let their _veins run cold.
Whom no compassion fleers
Or makes their feet
Sore on the alleys cobbled with their brothers.
The front line withers.
But they are troops who fade, not flowers,
For poets’ tearful fooling:
Men, gaps for filling:
Losses, who might have fought
Longer; but no one bothers.
Soldiers losing their humanity.
Couplet: Describes the basic
human feeling has been taken
from the soldiers
Metaphor/Imagery: Created
through the death of many – like
cobblestones on a walking path.
Bones of their fellow soldiers.
Metaphor: Soldiers are dying
Highlights the common person’s
ignorance of the war experience.
BEATITUDES:
Beatitudes outline the

values needed to be a good

follower of God. Notice that

they are subverted in

Owen's poem, replaced with

heartlessness and lack of

human compassion. This

creates much of the poem's

irony.
 I: Analysis
LACK OF COMPASSION
In the first stanza Owen begins by saying that soldiers are happier
when they can desensitize themselves to the war. Compassion is useless,
and they certainly should not be looked at as rife with poetry or
sentiment. The soldiers are barely men, in fact – just "gaps for filling"
and the numbers that make up the losses. No one really cares about
them. This belief, beautifully articulated by Owen, that the young
soldiers are replaceable and less than human is present in the work of
all of the great WWI poets. Of course, Owen's poetry seeks to refute
those truths and to give dignity and worth to the young men so brutally
ignored; he does "bother" with them
 II

And some cease feeling

Even themselves or for themselves.
Dullness best solves
The tease and doubt of shelling,
And Chance’s strange arithmetic
Comes simpler than the reckoning of their shilling.
They keep no check on armies’ decimation.

The dulling of their senses,
has minimised their worry
for possible death. Process
of dealing with the constant
possibility of death.
Being mocked by death
Calculating their pay. Going
to war for the “King’s
Shilling” – euphemism for
signing up.
Comes simpler than the reckoning of their shilling.
They keep no check on armies’ decimation.
II
And some cease feeling
Even themselves or for themselves.
Dullness best solves
The tease and doubt of shelling,
And Chance’s strange arithmetic
Loss of humanity; numb
Half-Rhyme
They no longer have feeling,
i.e. the continued notion of
losing compassion.
Therefore, they have
transitioned from human
beings to killing machines.
Capitalised; Proper Noun –
shows importance of chance
in the war process.
Personified as a person who
controls their destiny –
“God.” Further reference to
the beatitudes earlier, war
process is symbolised
through religion.
It is far simpler to not count
the death of other soldiers.
They have become
dehumanised and
desensitised to death.
 II: Analysis
LACK OF FEAR/SELF-CONCERN

In the second stanza he continues, saying that the young men

do not care about themselves or about others anymore. They have
dulled their senses and do not try to make heads or tails of their
situation. It is easier to take things as they come, and they barely even
pay attention to the course of the war. One of the common themes
voiced in the recollections of WWI is just how utterly irrational it all
seemed, and "Insensibility" gives voice to that assertion.
 III

Happy are these who lose imagination:

They have enough to carry with ammunition.
Their spirit drags no pack.
Their old wounds, save with cold, can not more ache.
Having seen all things red,
Their eyes are rid
Of the hurt of the colour of blood for ever.
And terror’s first constriction over,
Their hearts remain small-drawn.
Their senses in some scorching cautery of battle
Now long since ironed,
Can laugh among the dying, unconcerned.

Emotional Baggage:
They have enough to carry with ammunition.
Their old wounds, save with cold, can not more
Symbolism: Red = Blood =
Bloodshed in war. Seeing
this, has dehumanised the
soldiers
Personification: War is
personified as suffocating
them to take their humanity
– to transition from men to
“soldiers”
Their senses in some scorching cautery of battle
Battlefield is surrounded by
death. They no longer spare
sadness for the dead, but
choose to be immune to
sadness and pain, in order
to survive, or remain sane
III
Happy are these who lose _imagination:
Their spirit drags no pack.
ache.better soldier
Having seen all things red,
Their eyes are rid
Of the hurt of the colour of blood for ever.
And terror’s first constriction over,
Their hearts remain small-drawn.
Now long since ironed,
Can laugh among the dying, unconcerned.
Religious Symbolism/
Intertextuality: Reference to
the Beatitudes
Losing Imagination:
Connotated with losing hope.
Half-Rhyme: Ammunition
replaces imagination – making
them more suitable for war – a
The sight of blood no longer
bothers them. Become
immune to the things that
would have previously
bothered them.
Infers the preceding
statement about losing
imagination, or hope. War
has taken this from them.
Refers to the treatment of
Gangrene, and the heat
sealing of wounds. Also
posits the idea that they
lose “feeling” (literal and
figuratively) as the battle
has sealed them from their
senses.
 III: Analysis
LACK OF IMAGINATION AND PASSION
In the third stanza Owen claims that these soldiers are better off
without an imagination; no doubt it is simply too painful to consider life
at home, or the possibilities for a normal life after the war. All of these
emotions are simply extraneous and unnecessary; there is no point to
colors like red, for they have "seen all things red", and they no longer feel
anything like fear. Used in "Greater Love" to symbolize romance, here
red can only mean blood. In one of the most disturbing images, the
soldiers "laugh among the dying, unconcerned". There is no point in
wasting one's tears on the dead, as they are too many to count.
 IV
Happy the soldier home, with not a notion
How somewhere, every dawn, some men
attack,
And many sighs are drained.
Happy the lad whose mind was never trained:
His days are worth forgetting more than not.
He sings along the march
Which we march taciturn, because of dusk,
The long, forlorn, relentless trend
From larger day to huger night.
Symbolic; of a new
beginning. Like dawn, war
is cyclic in nature. Never-
ending.
Previously; “Happy the
men,” – change to “lad.” Pre-
war they were boys. War
forced them to grow up and
harden into men with no
feelings.
Additionally references
underage enlistments in the
war.
Contrast to the soldier who
has not been sent out yet,
the soldiers fighting no
longer feel like singing, they
are ‘forlorn’ – without hope.
Dusk: end of the day;
symbolises ending or death.
Again, shows the cyclic
nature of war. Like each day
– it is continuous and
unending.
IV
Happy the soldier home, with not a notion
How somewhere, every dawn, some men attack,
And many sighs are drained.
Happy the lad whose mind was never trained:
His days are worth forgetting more than not.
He sings along the march
Which we march taciturn, because of dusk,
The long, forlorn, relentless trend
From larger day to huger night.
Beatitudes Reference
(Repetitive Notion):
The soldier who has not yet
seen the war is still at
home, ignorant of the
horrors of war
Symbolises Death: could
represent a sigh of content
as they are now free from
the horrors of war. It is
ambiguous whether these
soldiers are better off dead
or not.
The “lad” has not yet
endured the depravity of
human existence. He still
has memories, feelings and
a future.
Couplet: Singing is
considered joyous, Owen
shows how unaware of the
reality of war. His ignorance
= youthful/innocent
Tautology: War is bigger
than Owen can accurately
describe. “Huger” is an
incorrect superlative –
supports the notion that the
war is larger than can be
understood and
comprehended
 IV: Analysis

In the fourth stanza the soldier who returns home is happy because
he does not have to know more about the battles, and the soldier who
never learned the value of emotion or feeling in the first place is happy
as well. Suddenly, in the middle of this stanza, Owen switches to first
person, using "we" to depict him and his fellow soldiers marching along
solemnly and interminably. He speaks not of universal truth, but his
own specifically as well. The days and nights meld into one long
darkness and soldiers have little to alleviate their boredom and despair.
 V
We wise, who with a thought besmirch
Blood over all our soul,
How should we see our task
But through his blunt and lashless eyes?
Alive, he is not vital overmuch;
Dying, not mortal overmuch;
Nor sad, nor proud,
Nor curious at all.
He cannot tell
Old men’s placidity from his.
“Wise” are those who see
war for what it really is.
Reference to other poets,
who write about their
experiences.
His life is not considered
important when he is alive;
and in death , he is not
remembered for his sacrifice
and is replaceable with
another soldier. Links to the
gaps mentioned earlier
Not sad, because he has lost
feeling.
Not proud, as he assumed
he would be when he
enlisted.
The idea of pride and
heroism is what made a
number of men sign up.
There is, however, no pride
in the things they have done
or seen.
V Their Soul: Which only
We wise, who with a thought besmirch
Blood over all our soul,
How should we see our task
But through his blunt and lashless eyes?
Alive, he is not vital overmuch;
Dying, not mortal overmuch;
Nor sad, nor proud,
Nor curious at all.
He cannot tell
Old men’s placidity from his.
shows in their work – has
the blood of all the dead
soldiers over it. They speak
for those who had no voices.
Relaying the war experience
to everyone and consider
themselves responsible for
this.
Soldier referenced is not
named: highlights a shared
war experience.
Rhetorical Question: shows
he is seeing war through the
eyes of the dead soldier.
Being empathetic.
The way an old man
would die, with an
expressionless face, so
has the soldier, the war
has robbed him of his
youth and forced him to
die an untimely death
 V: Analysis
In the fifth stanza, the most complicated thus far, Owen seems
to be contrasting people like himself, the "wise", the poets, who are not
yet insensible to what is going on, with the soldiers who are not "sad, nor
proud, / Nor curious at all". The question seems to be how a poet can be a
poet and a soldier. If he becomes insensible to the war, how can he use
his voice for a higher purpose? If he stays sensible, how can he
psychologically deal with the sheer horror of it all?
 VI
But cursed are dullards whom no cannon stuns,
That they should be as stones.
Wretched are they, and mean
With paucity that never was simplicity.
By choice they made themselves immune
To pity and whatever moans in man
Before the last sea and the hapless stars;
Whatever mourns when many leave these shores;
Whatever shares
The eternal reciprocity of tears.

Juxtaposition: to the so
called happy soldier –
switched from the earlier
“happy are”
Simile: show they are
unfeeling
Cursed and worthless –
they have been used and
drained by those in charge
and are now left with
nothing of their previous
selves.
They are not deserving of
the pity of others, they are
no longer empathetic to the
pain of others.
Last Sea: reference to last
stretch before death.
The stars are helpless in
helping them back. Stars
are how people track their
movements at sea, the stars
will no longer be helpful to
these men.
Allusion: to Greek
Mythology whether the final
journey of the dead occurs
over sea.
Even if the soldiers return,
they are dead inside.
VI
But cursed are dullards whom no cannon stuns,
That they should be as stones.
Wretched are they, and mean
With paucity that never was simplicity.
By choice they made themselves immune
To pity and whatever moans in man
Before the last sea and the hapless stars;
Whatever mourns when many leave these shores;
Whatever shares
The eternal reciprocity of tears.
Reference back to dullness,
dumbness, or being numb to
war
Cannon Stunning:
references death – the most
unfortunate soldier is a
numb man, whom death has
not taken. It is also a
reference to those
responsible for the war,
political leaders, who are
cold and unfeeling to the
death around them.
Sarcastic Tone: those who
wage war do not see the
effect the war has had on
soldiers. The soldiers made
themselves the way they are
– emotionless and unfeeling.
Unable to understand the
experiences of fellow
soldiers, due to being
dehumanised and
desensitised to feelings
within others. Experiences
are therefore, not ‘shared.’
The repetition of “whatever”
reinforces their confusion
about their experiences.
Soldiers are ironically
unable to understand in
others due to their lack of
feelings. Now, immune to
tears and feelings. However,
they will continue to suffer
alone, for eternity.
Highlighting the cyclic and
unending nature of war.
 VI: Analysis
In the last stanza Owen shifts his perspective a bit, saying
that the insensible "dullards" are cursed and wretched. The
happiness that the soldiers-turned-ciphers experience has been
purchased at a high price, for they no longer have any
understanding of humanity. Owen does not outright condemn
these soldiers, understanding why they suppress their feelings as
they do, but he feels a profound sadness at this lack of pity.
Concise writing activity: Worksheet
Investigating imagery and symbolism in
Insensibility

The imagery of Insensibility is harsh. Copy out the

three most brutal images in the poem
– How might you use these quotations in an
essay?
– Find comparable images from other Owen
poems