tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2499661274163551793.post1500889149501758595..comments2024-01-02T15:12:14.699+00:00Comments on War Poetry: Wilfred Owen: 'Futility'Tim Kendallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17917270014209480898noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2499661274163551793.post-62045608688355501882013-12-12T20:43:33.940+00:002013-12-12T20:43:33.940+00:00"For any victims of AQA's conflict cluste..."For any victims of AQA's conflict cluster..." This could not be more true; THANK YOUAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2499661274163551793.post-43801548858018570662012-08-11T10:02:21.304+01:002012-08-11T10:02:21.304+01:00‘Futility’ was a very significant poem for me (and...‘Futility’ was a very significant poem for me (and to a certain extent ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’). We, as many secondary pupils will have done, studied the War Poets during our 1st Year at the Academy. Up until then all I knew of poetry were babbling brooks, blokes sitting in fields looking at daffodils or wandering down to the sea as if it was something to get all worked up about; I lived a few minutes’ walk away from the ocean and so I really couldn't see anything special about ‘Sea Fever’ at all. Poetry seemed so far removed from my daily existence. But Owen didn’t talk about pretty things and that was quite the wakeup call for me and my juvenilia contains several poems where his influence is apparent. The real eye-opener for me personally was Larkin’s ‘Mr. Bleaney’ which we studied in 4th Year and I never looked back after reading that one. How could something so unpoetic be poetry? Clearly poetry had to be something else and I wanted to know what. But Owen marked my first step along that path—I’ve been writing poetry for forty years—and I’ve never forgotten him. <br /><br>Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.com