wilfred owen

Inspection by Wilfred Owen Owen’s war poetry has blood as a recurring and ambiguous symbol of sacrifice: of the sacrifice demanded of and offered up by the fighting soldier and also of Christ’s sacrifice for man’s redemption. Blood, sacrifice, guilt are at the heart of INSPECTION. Owen wrote it in August/September 1917 at Craiglockhart and later listed it under "inhumanity in War". Sassoon’s influence is strong (read the latter’s STAND-TO, …

…that once flung into the maelstrom of war he would have retained his faith intact, yet I do believe that he was still able to hold on to certain truths which God’s church on earth (Field Marshal God as he accused the Church of seeing Him) appeared largely to have forgotten. INSPECTION leaves both private soldier and officer in rueful mood. It may have left its poet with more cause for ruefulness than either.