The Free Press
NewslettersSign InSubscribe

Share this post

The Free Press
The Free Press
Things Worth Remembering: Plunging Past This World’s Verge
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
Things Worth Remembering: Plunging Past This World’s Verge
“Gassed” by John Singer Sargent.
Wilfred Owen forged indelible images of the Great War and the men like him who died in its trenches.
By Douglas Murray
11.05.23 — Culture and Ideas
119
436

Share this post

The Free Press
The Free Press
Things Worth Remembering: Plunging Past This World’s Verge
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More

Welcome back to Douglas Murray’s Sunday column, Things Worth Remembering, where he presents passages from great poets he has committed to memory—and explains why you should, too. To listen to Douglas read the most stirring lines from Wilfred Owen’s “Spring Offensive,” click below:

1×
0:00
-1:52
Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade.

If there is a single person known as the poet of the First World War, it is Wilfred Owen. The war was, as he wrote in the preface to the book of poems he never lived to see published, “my subject.” 

As his early poetry and letters demonstrate, Owen was infinitely sensitive to the smallest things. He had that “negative capability” admired by Keats to look at a situation and absorb it. If he could have been a Romantic poet, he would have been. He even wrote a poem called “How Do I Love Thee,” like Elizabeth Barrett Browning. But Owen was a romantic who was sent to the trenches.

Maintaining The Free Press is Expensive!
To support independent journalism, and unlock all of our investigative stories and provocative commentary about the world as it actually is, subscribe below.
Already have an account?
Sign In
Douglas Murray
Douglas Murray is the best-selling author of seven books, and is a regular contributor at the New York Post, National Review, and other publications. His work as a reporter has taken him to Iraq, North Korea, northern Nigeria, and Ukraine. Born in London, he now lives in New York.
Tags:
Culture
Comments
Join the conversation
Share your thoughts and connect with other readers by becoming a paid subscriber!
Already a paid subscriber? Sign in

No posts

For Free People.
LatestSearchAboutCareersShopPodcastsVideoEvents
©2025 The Free Press. All Rights Reserved.Powered by Substack.
Privacy∙Terms∙Collection notice

Share

Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More