Wilfred Owen, War Poet

Summary

Summary of "Wilfred Owen, War Poet" Episode on Stuff You Missed in History Class

Released on July 2, 2025 by iHeartPodcasts

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Introduction

In the July 2, 2025 episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class, hosts Holly Fry and Tracy V. Wilson delve into the life and legacy of Wilfred Owen, one of World War I's most poignant and influential English poets. The episode not only explores Owen's literary contributions but also paints a vivid picture of his personal struggles, military service, and the profound impact of his work on subsequent generations.

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Early Life and Education

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen was born on March 18, 1893, in Oswestry, Shropshire, England. Raised as the eldest of four siblings, Owen grew up in a household that valued both English and Welsh heritage. Despite early financial setbacks following his grandfather Edward Shaw's debt-induced demise, Owen's mother, Harriet Susan Shaw Owen, instilled in him a strong sense of ambition and discipline.

From a young age, Owen exhibited a profound interest in literature and the natural sciences. He co-founded the Astronomical, Geological and Botanical Society with his cousins, showcasing his diverse intellectual pursuits. His academic journey led him to the Birkenhead Institute and later the Shrewsbury Technical School, from which he graduated in 1911.

Notable Quote:
Tracy V. Wilson reflects on Owen's early aspirations, stating, "He thought that he might become a poet or an artist, but his mother was really adamant that whatever he did to distinguish himself needed to come along with a steady income." [05:58]

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Pre-War Years and Time in France

Owen's early adulthood was marked by his struggle to balance artistic ambitions with practical necessities. After failing to secure a scholarship at London University, he pursued correspondence courses while seeking employment. His stint as a lay assistant for the Vicar of Dunstan revealed his deep connection to his devoutly religious mother and his eventual disillusionment with the Anglican Church's inability to address societal issues.

In pursuit of his literary dreams, Owen moved to France, where he taught English at the Berlitz School in Bordeaux and tutored the Leger family's daughter, Nanette. It was here that Owen met Laurent Talliard, a published poet whose influence deepened Owen's literary sensibilities and introduced him to French literary giants like Gustave Flaubert.

Notable Quote:
Holly Fry highlights Owen's literary transformation, saying, "Owen wrote to his mother that Talliard received him like a lover..." [13:07]

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Enlistment and Military Service

With the onset of World War I in 1914, Owen's perspectives shifted dramatically. Initially hesitant to join the military, his eventual enlistment in October 1915 marked the beginning of a harrowing journey. Commissioned as a lieutenant in the Manchester Regiment, Owen's early letters from the front were deceptively optimistic, masking the grim realities of trench warfare.

By January 1917, Owen had endured severe gas attacks, which he immortalized in his poem "Dulce et Decorum Est." His experiences in the trenches exposed him to the brutalities of war, fostering a deep-seated anti-war sentiment that would define his poetry.

Notable Quote:
Holly Fry recounts Owen's harrowing experiences, stating, "I have suffered seventh hell. I have not been at the front, I have been in front of it." [24:26]

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Shell Shock and Recovery at Craig Lockhart

In March and April 1917, Owen sustained grave injuries during the Battle of the Somme, leading to multiple concussions and encounters with death. These traumatic experiences culminated in symptoms of shell shock, a term later synonymous with what we now understand as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Admitted to Craig Lockhart Hydropathic in Edinburgh, Owen met fellow poet Siegfried Sassoon, whose outspoken anti-war stance influenced Owen's own views. Together, they collaborated on refining Owen's poetry, emphasizing a stark realism that contrasted with the prevailing romanticized depictions of war.

Notable Quote:
Tracy V. Wilson emphasizes the therapeutic environment, noting, "Patients were expected to engage with the world around them through activity and useful work." [28:32]

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Return to the Front and Untimely Death

Despite concerns from friends, family, and fellow soldiers like Sassoon, Owen returned to active duty in July 1918. His leadership on the front lines was exemplary, earning him the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. Tragically, on November 4, 1918, Owen was killed by a German sniper while attempting to cross the Sabra Canal near Péronne, France—a mere week before the Armistice that ended the war.

Notable Quote:
Holly Fry poignantly relates Owen's final moments to his poetry: "That hearkened back to Owen's best known poem, Dulce et Decorum est, which he probably drafted at Craig Lockhart." [42:08]

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Literary Legacy and Posthumous Recognition

Only five of Owen's poems were published during his lifetime, with his lasting impact realized through posthumous collections curated by Siegfried Sassoon and other literary figures. His work, characterized by vivid imagery and harrowing depictions of war, resonated deeply during the anti-Vietnam War movement of the 1960s, cementing his status as a pivotal war poet.

Despite initial mixed critical reception—William Butler Yeats notably dismissed Owen's focus on passive suffering—Owen's poetry has endured as a profound statement against the horrors of war. Benjamin Britten's adaptation of Owen's poems in his War Requiem further amplified his voice for generations to come.

Notable Quote:
Tracy V. Wilson highlights Sassoon's tribute, saying, "He was a man of absolute integrity of mind... These poems survive him as his true and splendid testament." [30:44]

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Personal Struggles and Family Legacy

Owen's personal life, particularly his relationships with men, has been a subject of historical scrutiny. His close association with figures like Robert Baldwin Ross and Siegfried Sassoon suggests deep emotional bonds, though definitive evidence of romantic relationships remains elusive. Posthumously, Owen's family sought to shape his legacy, sometimes obscuring aspects of his personal life to maintain a particular public image.

Notable Quote:
Tracy V. Wilson reflects on family influence, noting, "Harold also made a concerted effort to dismiss the idea that Wilfred had relationships with other men." [48:37]

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Conclusion

Wilfred Owen's life, though tragically short, left an indelible mark on literature and the collective memory of war's futility. Through Holly Fry and Tracy V. Wilson's meticulous exploration, listeners gain a comprehensive understanding of Owen's journey from a hopeful poet to a voice of anti-war eloquence, whose words continue to echo the anguish and humanity of soldiers past and present.

Notable Quote:
Holly Fry concludes with a reflection on Owen's enduring legacy, stating, "His work spoke to this loss and grief and to the humanity of the soldiers in the trenches." [45:03]

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

1. Tracy V. Wilson: "He thought that he might become a poet or an artist, but his mother was really adamant that whatever he did to distinguish himself needed to come along with a steady income." [05:58]

2. Holly Fry: "I have suffered seventh hell. I have not been at the front, I have been in front of it." [24:26]

3. Tracy V. Wilson: "Patients were expected to engage with the world around them through activity and useful work." [28:32]

4. Holly Fry: "That hearkened back to Owen's best known poem, Dulce et Decorum est, which he probably drafted at Craig Lockhart." [42:08]

5. Tracy V. Wilson: "He was a man of absolute integrity of mind... These poems survive him as his true and splendid testament." [30:44]

6. Tracy V. Wilson: "Harold also made a concerted effort to dismiss the idea that Wilfred had relationships with other men." [48:37]

7. Holly Fry: "His work spoke to this loss and grief and to the humanity of the soldiers in the trenches." [45:03]

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This detailed exploration offers a comprehensive look into Wilfred Owen's life, his transformative experiences during World War I, and the enduring power of his poetry. For those seeking to understand the man behind the verses, this episode serves as both an educational resource and a heartfelt homage to a poet whose words continue to resonate through the annals of history.

Transcript

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Enrique Santos]

In 2012, 16 year old Brian Herrera was gunned down in broad daylight on his way to do homework. No suspects, no witnesses, no justice.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I would ask my husband, do you.

[Holly Fry]

Want me to stop? He was like, no, keep fighting.

[Enrique Santos]

After nearly a decade, a breakthrough changed everything. This is Cold Case Files Miami. Stories of families who never stopped fighting. Listen to Cold Case Files Miami on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So what happened at Chappaquiddick? Well, it really depends on who you talk to.

[Enrique Santos]

There are many versions of what happened in 1969 when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond and.

[Holly Fry]

Left a woman behind to drown.

[Enrique Santos]

Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control. Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Listen to United States of Kennedy on.

[Holly Fry]

The iHeartRadio Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

[Enrique Santos]

OpenAI is a financial abomination, a thing that should not be an aberration, a symbol of rot at the heart of Silicon Valley. And I'm going to tell you why on my show, Better Offline, the rudest show in the tech industry where we're breaking down why OpenAI, along with other AI companies, are dead set on lying to your boss that they can take your job. I'm also going to be talking with the greatest minds in the industry about all the other ways the rich and powerful are ruining the computer. Listen to Better offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts. Wherever you happen to get your podcasts, are there any pictures of you online? Then you could already be in a massive police database without even knowing it. Clearview scrapes together images from Facebook, from LinkedIn, from Venmo accounts. I'm Dexter Thomas, host of Kill Switch, a podcast about how living in the future is affecting us right now. Police, they are trusting this software with this magical ability to lead them to the right suspect. In this episode, we dive into how CO are using AI and facial recognition and sometimes getting it wrong and putting innocent people behind bars. So if your accuser is this algorithm, but you're not even being told that it was used, let alone given any of the details about how it works. Listen to Kill Switch on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Holly Fry]

Welcome to Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartrad.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. Before we start today's episode, we're going to Morocco.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah. In November.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In November. Yes. November 4th through 15th, 2025. There are still some spots available. I think they are all spots for people traveling as a pair, whether that is a couple or friends or some other option that involves two people. Siblings.

[Holly Fry]

Right.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Parent and child.

[Holly Fry]

Right. Or if you're adventurous, you could share with a stranger and our friends at Defined Destinations would work that out for you.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yes, yes. I know they were getting in touch with some of the folks that were booked as individuals to see if they might be open to that. Some of our prior trips, we've had some more flexibility in terms of being able to add rooms of different types, but this time the hotel spaces are more predetermined and fixed.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, it's a little more. It's a little less flexible, A little more limited.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

But also perhaps the most fun ever.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah. We're also both incredibly excited about it. We're going to be staying in nice hotels and also one night of desert glamping. The desert glamping accommodations, also incredibly nice. Breakfast is included every day. Also lots of dinners and a number of lunches included. And we will have professional guides the whole time showing us the sights, telling us all about what we're seeing and experiencing. And this also has some fun activities that are very unlike activities we have done on our previous trips, including, number one, a sunset camel ride, a wine tasting, and there's a tile making and crafts workshop and a Moroccan cooking class. My spouse is extremely excited about that one. He loves to cook and already knows some Moroccan dishes and is very excited to learn more. So if this sounds fun to you, it sure does sound fun to me. You can go to defined destinations.com and if you click on the Tours button in the menu, that's the one called A Taste of Morocco. And again, that is from November 4th through 15th, 2025. More information@Defined Destinations.com and now we'll get to today's episode. It's been a while since we have talked about a poet on the show, especially a poet whose work is in the public domain. So we can read as much of it as we want as part of the episode. And I really do love to talk about poets. This one is Wilfred Owen and is considered to be one of the most important English language poets of World War I. His work was also seen as part of a shift in how a lot of British poets were writing about war. Also, his life almost seems like it was intentionally written to be as tear Jerking as possible. Like if you were writing a movie about a World War I soldier poet and you wanted it to be really sad, that would be Wilfred Owen.

[Holly Fry]

So Wilfred Edward Salter Owen was born on March 18, 1893 in Oswestry, Shropshire in western England. This is on the border with Wales and before the 1530s it was part of England at some points and Wales at others. Various street names and other place names there reflect both English and Welsh influences. And a lot of families in the area, including Wilfred Owens family, have both English and Welsh ancestry.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Wilfred was the oldest of four siblings. The others were Harold, Colin and Mary. Their father, Thomas, known as Tom, was a railroad station master and had previously been a seaman. Their mother, Harriet Susan Shaw Owen, went by Susan and was devoutly religious. When Wilfred was born, they were living at Plass Wilmot, which is a villa that belonged to Susan's father, Edward Sh the oldest part of the villa had been built around 1829 and it had been added onto over the years, including a stable, a coach house, a wash house, a servant's cottage and a kitchen. And the grounds also had a garden and a pond.

[Holly Fry]

The Shaws had been financially comfortable, or at least they had seemed to be financially comfortable. But when Wilfred was four, Edward died and the family learned that he he had actually been in serious debt. They had to auction off PLOS Wilmot along with all of its furniture and effects to pay off those debts. And then the family moved to Birkenhead, across the River Mersey from Liverpool.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Wilfred surely noticed the change in his family's circumstances, but since he was only 4, he probably did not fully understand all of it. But his mother really struggled with it, especially since some of her family had already thought that her marriage to Wilfred's father had been a step down. She had very high ambitions for Wilfred from the time that he was born and this loss of income and status probably played a part in how really insistent she was that he make something of himself.

[Holly Fry]

Wilfred was a thoughtful, sensitive boy and he was interested in literature and poetry from an early age. He liked other subjects as well, including botany, geology and archaeology. He and his cousins Vera and Leslie Gunston started their own three person Astronomical, Geological and Botanical Society. In 1900, Wilfred started attending a boys school called the Birkenhead Institute, where he developed a reputation for being a very serious student. When the family moved to Shrewsbury, which some people also say Shrewsbury, he transferred to Shrewsbury Technical School and he graduated from there in 1911.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Boy did I try to figure out if there is a pronunciation People like Best and I found many of each of them in recorded examples. Wilfred wanted to continue his education and he passed the matriculation exam at London University. He did not do well enough to earn a scholarship though, and his family didn't have the money to pay for it. Without one, he took correspondence classes while trying to find work to support himself. He thought that he might become a poet or an artist, but his mother was really adamant that whatever he did to distinguish himself needed to come along with a steady income.

[Holly Fry]

As we said, Wilfred's mother was devoutly religious and he was very, very close to her. This may have been one of the reasons why he started thinking about pursuing some kind of religious vocation. He started working as a lay assistant for the Vicar of Dunstan, which is west of London outside of Reading. This was an unpaid position and Owen was working in exchange for room and board, and that work included attending all of the church services, of which there were many, and working with the people of the parish. He also took some botany classes at University College Reading. And he was fond of the romantic poets like John Keats and Percy Shelley, and his first poems were largely derivative of their work.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

By 1913 it had become clear to Owen that a life in the Anglican Church was not for him. He was passionate about poetry in a way that he wasn't about religion. But he had also become disillusioned with the Church. One reason was that he thought the church was not meeting its obligations to the poor. He was working with people who were sick and living in poverty and just desperately needed help. While the vicar had a pretty comfortable life in the vicarage, Owen also developed some kind of respiratory condition, possibly related to living and working in damp, moldy spaces.

[Holly Fry]

He left his position with the vicar and after he recovered from his respiratory illness, Owen went to France. For about a year he taught English at Berlitz School in Bordeaux and then he started working for the Leger family, tutoring their daughter Nanette and helping Madame Leger practice her English ahead of a planned trip to Canada. Owen was also essentially Nanette's playmate, since she didn't really have anyone else to play with. Owen lived with the Leger's and shared most of their meals, but he was not otherwise paid.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

World War I started not long after Owen met the Leger's, but the area where they were staying was kind of remote. It was close to the border with Spain. News traveled slowly there and while they did see newspaper reports about things like the assassinations of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, a lot of this Reporting was more like propaganda than a really accurate account of what was going on. So it wasn't immediately clear to them just how things were escalating in other parts of Europe.

[Holly Fry]

In August of 1914, the Legays introduced Owen to a friend of theirs, poet, essayist and translator Laurent Talliard. This was probably the first time Owen had met a published poet in person. Tallade gave lectures in the nearby town of Banier de Bijour, which Owen attended. One of the subjects that naturally came up was the war.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Talliad had written at least two pacifist essays, but during one of these lectures he framed French soldiers as fighting to defend the treasure of the French language as well as the reason and intellect of French poets and philosophers like Voltaire and Montesquieu. He also described listening to the work of French poets in the French language as an act of patriotism. Owen would later share a similar sentiment in a letter to his mother saying, quote, do you know what would hold me together on a battlefield? The sense that I was perpetuating the language in which Keats and the rest of them wrote.

[Holly Fry]

The Leger's knew about Owen's aspirations as a poet and they invited Taliad to stay with them at the villa. He was there off and on for several weeks. Owen wrote to his mother that Talliard received him like a lover and some of his other descriptions of the poet also have this tone that could be read as erotic. We don't have the full content of these letters, though parts of them were heavily redacted, probably by Wilfred's brother Harold, who censored many of Wilfred's letter before they could be published or placed in archives.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

It is clear that Taliad had an influence on Owen beyond their shared sentiments about the war and language and poetry. Taliad introduced Owen to the work of French poets and writers, including Gustave Flaubert. Talliad's own work was influenced by poets like Mallarme and Baudelaire, and Owen tried to translate some of that work into English.

[Holly Fry]

In September of 1914, as Madame Leger was preparing to leave for Canada, Owen and the Leger went to Bordeaux. This is when Owen started to realize just how serious the situation with the war was. As German forces had advanced, the French government had retreated from Paris and Bordeaux was temporarily acting as the capital. The university where Owen had planned to take some courses had been closed and it was taken over by the War Ministry. The Berlitz School where he had planned to resume teaching had closed as well. Madame Leger left for Canada in October and that put an end to Owen's job with the family and at that point he went to stay with other friends.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Owen kept working on his poetry and trying to support himself through tutoring. He became increasingly conflicted about the war and whether he should go back home and enlist, although at the same time he was concerned about whether the trip across the Channel would be more dangerous than just staying in France. He also had a series of illnesses, including one that might have been measles.

[Holly Fry]

Owen returned to the UK in May of 1915 not to join the military, but to represent a perfumer that he had been working for at a trade fair being held in London. He returned to France the following month. A lot of people had expected World War I to be over pretty quickly, and he didn't want to go through the drudgery of training only for the war to be over by the time he was done. He finally decided that if the Dardanelles Strait was still held by the Ottoman Empire In September of 1915, he would return home and enlist. We talked about this strait and its strategic importance in our episode on the Gallipoli Campaign, which was the Allied effort to take control of the strait and occupy the Ottoman capital of Constantinople. That episode came out on November 30, 2015.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The Dardanelles Strait was not opened by that September. The Gallipoli campaign was a failure for the Allies and it ended in a series of nighttime evacuations that started in December of 1915. By that point Wilfred Owen had gone back to England and joined the army, and we will get to that after a sponsor break.

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

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[Enrique Santos]

In 2012, 16 year old Brian Herrera was gunned down in broad daylight on his way to do homework. No suspects, no witnesses, no justice.

[Holly Fry]

The call was horrible. I replay it over my head all the time.

[Enrique Santos]

For years, Brian's family kept asking questions, while a culture of silence kept the case cold.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Snitches get stitches.

[Holly Fry]

Everybody knows it.

[Enrique Santos]

Still, they refused to give up.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I would ask my husband, do you.

[Holly Fry]

Want me just let this go? He was like, no, keep fighting.

[Enrique Santos]

I told her I would never give up on this case. And then, after a decade of waiting, a breakthrough.

[Holly Fry]

We received a phone call that was.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Bittersweet because it's a call that we've.

[Holly Fry]

Been waiting for for a very long time.

[Enrique Santos]

I'm Enrique Santos. This is Cold Case Files Miami, a podcast about justice, persistence, and the families who never stopped fighting. Listen to Cold Case Files Miami as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So what happened to Chappaquiddick?

[Holly Fry]

Well, it really depends on who you talk to.

[Enrique Santos]

There are many versions of what happened in 1969 when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond and.

[Holly Fry]

Left a woman behind to drown.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

There's a famous headline, I think, in the New York Daily News, it's Teddy Escapes, Blonde Drowns. And in a strange way, right, that sort of tells you the story really became about Ted's political future, Ted's political hopes.

[Holly Fry]

Will Ted become President?

[Enrique Santos]

Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And he's not the only Kennedy to survive. A scandal.

[Enrique Santos]

The Kennedys have lived through disgrace, affairs, violence, you name it. So is there a curse? Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Listen to United States of Kennedy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. At the very beginning of World War I, the UK had been somewhat divided on the question of whether to become actively involved in the war. Opinions shifted through July and early August of 1914, with Britain declaring war on Germany. On August 4th of that year, after Germany's declarations of war against Russia and France, Britain called for volunteers to increase the size of its military. And initially, that response had been really enthusiastic. But a year later, there was no end to the war in sight, and enlistment numbers had really plummeted. Britain would eventually have to conscript soldiers to make up for immense losses due to illnesses, injuries and death. But in the meantime, men who had not enlisted were facing enormous pressure to do so and criticism for having not done it already. This was really everywhere. It was in newspapers and recruitment posters and other government propaganda, in conversations with friends and family, and even sometimes just comments from random passersby.

[Holly Fry]

If Wilfred Owen had returned to England and tried to enlist shortly after the start of the war, he probably would have been rejected. He was just a little over 5ft 5 inches tall, and in September of 1914, authorities had raised the minimum height limit to 5 foot 6 to help deal with the surge of prospective recruits. The height minimum had later been lowered again and it was 5 foot 2 by the time he arrived at the London headquarters of the artists rifles on October 20, 1915, for a physical, and he was sworn in the next day.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The Artist's Rifles had been founded by art student Edward Starling in 1859. As that name suggests, it was originally a volunteer regiment for artists. By this point, it had evolved into an officer training regiment. When Owen had been in London for that trade fair, he had seen an announcement saying that gentlemen returning from abroad could earn a commission through the Artist's Rifles, subject to their age and their fitness.

[Holly Fry]

After finishing his officer training, Owen was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Manchester Regiment, and not long after that he was deployed to France. His initial letters home sound optimistic and almost cheerful about being there, although not so much about the enlisted men he was supposed to be leading. As we mentioned earlier, he was a sensitive person. He was thoughtful and bookish. And while his family hadn't had the money to send him to university, he still had more education than most British men his age. He described his men with terms like hard headed, loudish and ugly. But he was also confident that he could trust them in combat. And he seems to have earned their respect in part by being a very good shot.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Owen wrote numerous letters to his mother and to other people, but especially to his mother while he was in the army. And they had worked out some codes ahead of time so that he could get around the censors who were reviewing all the mail. For example, in letters that he wrote himself, he would use the word mistletoe, and then specific letters from the following words would spell out his location. They also agreed on a use for pre printed British army field service postcards. These had spaces for the soldier's name and the date of the last letter that soldier had received from the person they were writing. To those were the only things allowed to be written on the card. Everything else was communicated through crossing out the lines that were not applicable. So these cards were pretty optimistic in their framing. The first line was I am quite well. And while the next section was about being hospitalized, the options for how the soldier was doing in the hospital were either and am going on quite well or and hope to be discharged soon. Owen and his mother had agreed that if he was being sent to the front, he would send her one of these postcards to and he would have the line I am being sent down to the base struck out twice.

[Holly Fry]

The tone of Owen's letters changed very quickly once he got into the trenches and as his unit held advanced posts ahead of British lines. At one point he wrote to his mother, quote, I have suffered seventh hell. I have not been at the front, I have been in front of it. He wrote about the makeshift facilities, the cold, the wet and the mud which got into his sleeping bag. The and in the words of a letter From January of 1917, that holy of holies, my pajamas.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

On January 12th of 1917, Owen's men were hit with a gas attack, which he later memorialized in one of his best known poems, dolce et decora mist. Even before the gruesomeness of the gas, this poem describes the soldiers in the trenches as, quote, bent double like old beggars under sacks, knock kneed, coughing like hags. When the gas hits and somebody can't get his gas mask on in time. He's described as drowning as under a green sea. We will return to this poem later.

[Holly Fry]

In March of 1917, Owen was injured during the Battle of the Somme. He fell through a shell hole into a cellar and he got a concussion and he was trapped in that space for three days. Then in April, while his men were trying to hold a railroad line, he had a horrific experience in which he was blown off an embankment by a shell and he landed among the dismembered remains of another officer who had been his friend. Owen had to spend days sheltering there under a piece of corrugated iron.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

After this, Owen started showing signs of shell shock. This term was likely coined in 1915 by Charles Myers of the Royal Army Medical Corps. Some people today describe shell shock as post traumatic stress disorder. And while shell shock and PTSD are both responses to trauma, only some of the symptoms overlap. These include nightmares, flashbacks and intrusive thoughts. A lot of the other symptoms of shell shock seemed really physical, like being not able to stop shaking or being unable to speak or move or see or hear as well as confusion and delirium.

[Holly Fry]

Initially, many soldiers experiencing shell shock were accused of cowardice or malingering. Some were court martialed and even executed for cowardice or desertion. Even as more doctors became convinced that shell shock was a real condition that required treatment, there were still people who insisted that shell shock soldiers were just cowards. One theory about shell shock's cause was that it was connected to prolonged exposure to the incessant sounds of German shells. So By December of 1916, the British army had set up four specialized treatment centers well away from the sounds of battle. By 1917, these had been completely overwhelmed, and by the end of the war, about 80,000 British soldiers had been diagnosed with shell shock.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Owen was admitted to a series of hospitals starting in May of 1917, ultimately winding up at Craig Lockhart Hydropathic in Edinburgh, which had become Craig Lockhart War Hospital for neurasthenic officers. Dr. A.J. brock was one of four medical officers there, and he was treating his patients through what he called occupational therapy or ergotherapy or work cure. Brock wrote, quote, if the essential thing for the patient to do is to help himself, the essential thing for the doctor to do, indeed the only thing he can profitably do is to help him to help himself. Patients were expected to engage with the world around them through activity and useful work. Brock arranged for the patients to do things like teach or work on nearby farms during their convalescence.

[Holly Fry]

One of Owen's jobs was editing the hospital magazine, the Hydra. The magazine itself was also a form of treatment. When patients found themselves without anything to do, they were encouraged to write something, including writing about their war experiences. This also had the effect of allowing patients to process what had happened to them through writing. While many other hospitals treating shell shock were advising patients not to think about it and to focus on pleasant things instead.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

While Owen was at Craig Lockhart, another patient arrived, and that was poet and writer Siegfried Sassoon. Sassoon did not have shell shock. He had been declared mentally unfit to serve after writing a statement, a pretty strong statement against the war, which was dated June 15, 1917. That statement began, quote, I am making this statement as an act of willful defiance of military authority because I believe that the war is being deliberately prolonged and by those who have the power to end it. Sassoon wrote that he believed that the war had started as one of defense and liberation, but had become one of aggression and conquest. This statement really caused a furor, including being read before the House of Commons and printed in the London Times and of Course, Sassoon being sent to the hospital.

[Holly Fry]

Owen had written some similar sentiments to his mother in a letter that April in which he expressed bitterness, quote, towards those in England who might relieve us and will not. And he also admired Sassoon greatly. Sassoon was about seven years older than Owen, and he was already a published poet. During his military service, Sassoon's writing had become grittier and more realistic and had pushed back on the idea of military service as heroic and romanticized. While at Craig Lockhart, Owen and Sassoon worked on poems together. There are handwritten drafts surviving today, in which you can see Owen's original words, along with Sassoon's edits and suggestions, which often made Owen's language more direct and forceful.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

One of the poems that evolved through Sassoon's feedback is another of Owen's most well known, and that's Anthem for Doomed Youth, which was published posthumously in 1920. What Passing Bells for those who die as cattle. Only the monstrous anger of the guns, only the stuttering rifles rapid rattle can patter out their hasty orisons. No mockeries now for them, no prayers, nor bells, nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, the shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells and bugles, calling for them from sad shires. What candles may be held to speed them all. Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes, the pallor of girls, brows shall be their pall, their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, and each slow dusk a drawing down of blinds.

[Holly Fry]

Tracy mentioned at the top of the show that Owen's work also was part of a shift in how British poets were writing about war. You can compare Anthem for Doomed Youth to Rupert Brooks, the Soldier, which is a lot more patriotic and romanticized. Brooke had joined the Navy at the start of the war, and he died of sepsis on April 23, 1915, while on the way to the Dardanelles Strait in preparation for the Gallipoli campaign. The Soldier was published posthumously, and it reads, if I should die, think only this of me, that there's some corner of a foreign field that is forever England. There shall be in that rich earth a richer dust concealed, A dust whom England bore shaped, made aware, gave once her flowers to love, her ways to roam. A body of England's breathing English air washed by the rivers blessed by sons of home. And think this heart all evil shed away A pulse in the eternal mind no less gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given her sights and sounds, dreams happy as her day and laughter learnt of friends and gentleness in hearts at peace under an English heaven.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

It is also very pro England in a way that Wilfred Owen's poems really were not. Wilfred Owen did recover during his time at Craig Lockhart and we'll talk about his return to the front after another sponsor break.

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[Enrique Santos]

In 2012, 16 year old Brian Herrera was gunned down in broad daylight on his way to do homework. No suspects, no witnesses, no justice.

[Holly Fry]

The call was horrible. I replayed over my head all the time.

[Enrique Santos]

For years, Brian's family kept asking questions while a culture of silence kept the case cold.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Snitches get stitches.

[Holly Fry]

Everybody knows it.

[Enrique Santos]

Still, they refused to give up.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I would ask my husband, do you.

[Holly Fry]

Want me just let this go? He was like, no, keep fighting.

[Enrique Santos]

I told her I would never give up on this case. And then, after a decade of waiting, a breakthrough.

[Holly Fry]

We received a phone call that was.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Bittersweet because it's a call that we've.

[Holly Fry]

Been waiting for for a very long time.

[Enrique Santos]

Enrique I'm Enrique Santos. This is Cold Case Files Miami, a podcast about justice, persistence, and the families who never stopped fighting. Listen to Cold Case Files Miami as part of the My Cultura Podcast Network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So what happened to Chappaquiddick? Well, it really depends on who you talk to.

[Enrique Santos]

There are many versions of what happened in 1969 when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond and.

[Holly Fry]

Left a woman behind to drown.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

There's a famous headline, I think, in the New York Daily News. It's Teddy Escapes Blonde Drowns.

[Holly Fry]

And in a strange way, right, that.

[Dexter Thomas]

Sort of tells you the story really.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Became about ted's political future, Ted's political hopes.

[Holly Fry]

Will Ted become President?

[Enrique Santos]

Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And he's not the only Kennedy to survive a scandal.

[Enrique Santos]

The Kennedys have lived through disgrace, affairs, violence, you name it. So is there a curse? Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Listen to United States of Kennedy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Enrique Santos]

Don't miss the youe vs you podcast. Join Lex Borrero every week as he sits down with some of the biggest names in entertainment to talk about the real stuff, the struggles, the doubts, and the breakthroughs that made them who they are. They go deep covering childhood trauma, family overcoming loss, and the moments that shape their journey. These honest conversations are meant to take the cape off our heroes with the hope that their humanity inspires you to become a better you and therefore set you free to live the life of your dreams. Here's a sneak peek.

[Holly Fry]

I'm trained to go compete. I'm trained to go harder. But sometimes that mentality stops you from.

[Enrique Santos]

Stopping and smelling the flowers in your own garden. Is it wrong to want more?

[Tracy V. Wilson]

We migrated. Our family migrated here.

[Holly Fry]

I'm like second generation.

[Enrique Santos]

Listen to you versus you as part of my Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

By October of 1917, Wilfred Owen had recovered enough to be approved to return to light duty. He remained in England, and while he was on leave in London, he met journalist and art gallery owner Robert Baldwin Ross, known as Robbie. Ross was as openly gay as it was possible to be in Britain in the early 20th century, at which point homosexuality was a crime and very heavily stigmatized. According to some reports, Ross was the first man Oscar Wilde ever had a sexual experience with, and Wilde was of course sentenced to two years of hard labor for gross indecency for homosexual conduct. In 1895, Ross became one of Owen's mentors and later his literary executor, and also introduced him to other poets and writers, including Arnold Bennett and H.G. wells.

[Holly Fry]

During his time at Craig Lockhart and the months that followed, Owen felt that he had been reborn as a poet. On New year's Eve of 1917, he wrote a letter to his mother that said in part quote, I am started, the tugs have left me. I feel the great swelling of the open sea taking my galleon.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In early 1918, Owen drafted a poem called Shadwell Stairs. This is a real set of stairs on the bank of the River Thames which lead down into the water. This is in a part of London's East End that Owen is known to have visited, and it also had a reputation as a cruising area for men who were seeking out other men, which is one interpretation for the poem which goes this way. I am the ghost of Shadwell Stair, along the wharves by the waterhouse and through the cavernous slaughterhouse, I am the shadow that walks there. Yet I have flesh both firm and cool and eyes tumultuous as the gems of moons and lamps in the full Thames. When dusk sails wavering down the pool shuddering the purple street arc burns where I watch always from the banks dolorously the shipping clanks and after me a strange tide turns. I walk till the stars of London wane and dawn creeps up the Shadwell Stair. But when the crowing sirens blare, I with another ghost am lain.

[Holly Fry]

In July of 1918, Wilfred Owen was declared fit for general service. Of course, a lot of people in his life did not want him to go back into combat. Some actually tried to find alternative assignments for him in England. Siegfried Sassoon, who had already returned to combat and then been sent back to England to recover from a head injury, even threatened to stab Owen in the leg to keep him from going back to the front. After Owen's experience with shell shock, his family especially worried about his mental state. But he dismissed this in a letter to his mother, which also spelled out his reasons for wanting to go back to the front. Quote, my nerves are in perfect order. I came out again in order to help these boys directly by leading them as well as an officer can, indirectly by watching their sufferings, that I may speak of them as well as a pleader can.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Owen was back at the front with his old battalion. By September of 1918, he had already described himself as reborn as a poet, and he also appeared changed as a soldier. He seemed to have numbed himself to the horrors of war, which is another thing he wrote about in his poetry. He had become intensely efficient and adept at command. He was later awarded the Military Cross for actions that took place on October 1st and 2nd, 1918. His citation for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty read, quote, on the company commander becoming a casualty, he assumed command and showed fine leadership and resisted a heavy counterattack. He personally manipulated a captured enemy MG from an isolated position and inflicted considerable losses on the enemy. Throughout he behaved most gallantly.

[Holly Fry]

On November 4, 1918, Owen's company was trying to place a temporary bridge across the Sabra Canal on the Western Front when they came under heavy fire from German machine gunners. Owen was killed at the age of 25. One week later, almost to the hour, Germany and the Allies signed an armistice that stopped the fighting. Owen's mother received word of his death on Armistice Day as church bells were ringing to mark the end of the war.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This hearkened back to Owen's best known poem, Dulce Decorum est, which he probably drafted at Craig Lockhart. It ends quote, if you could hear at every jolt the blood come gargling from the froth corrupted lungs obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud of vile incurable sores on innocent tongues. My friend, you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory the old lie Dulce et decorum estrada propatria mori. That line in Latin which Owen was framing as a lie, means, it is sweet and proper to die for one's country.

[Holly Fry]

Owen was buried at or cemetery in France. His mother had lines from his poem the end inscribed in his tombstone. Shall life renew these bodies of a truth all death will he annul, all tears assuage. In that poem, the last line ends with a question mark, but that's not part of the tombstone inscription, making it read like an answer rather than another question, or like a reassurance rather than doubt.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Only five of Owen's poems were published during his lifetime, three in the Nation and two anonymously in the Hydra at Craig Lockhart. But he had started pulling things together to publish a collection of his work before his return to the front. After Owen's death, Siegfried Sassoon worked with Edith Sitwell to publish this collection of 23 poems that came out in 1920. Edith's brother, Osbert Sitwell, was friends with Owen and with Sassoon, and she had also published some of Owen's poems in her annual anthology called wheels. In 1919, a preface, which Owen had.

[Holly Fry]

Drafted partially in verse, began, quote, this book is not about heroes. English poetry is not yet fit to speak of them, nor is it about deeds or lands, nor anything about glory, honor, dominion or power, except war. Above all, this book is not concerned with poetry. The subject of it is war and the pity of war. The poetry is in the pity, another part of that preface read, all the poet can do today is to warn. That is why the true poets must be truthful.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In his introduction to this collection, Sassoon described Owen this way. Quote, he was a man of absolute integrity of mind. He never wrote his poems as many war poets did, to make the effect of a personal gesture. He pitied others. He did not pity himself. In the last year of his life, he attained a clear vision of what he needed to say. And these poems survive him as his true and splendid testament.

[Holly Fry]

Since Owen's first collection came out after the war was over, its immediate crisis had passed. So this book came out as people were grieving and reckoning with the deaths of more than 880,000 British military personnel and more than 16,000 British civilians. Owen's poem spoke to this loss and grief and to the humanity of the soldiers in the trenches. So it really struck a chord with the reading public. Critics were not always as impressed with it, though. For example, William Butler Yeats largely dismissed it, saying, quote, passive suffering is not a theme for poetry. That sounds about right for Yates. And when he edited the Oxford Book of modern verse in 1936, he did not include any of Owen's work.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Another collection of Owen's work was published in 1931, edited by Edmund Blunden and containing 19 additional poems. Benjamin Britten also set several of Owen's war poems to music in his War Requiem, which also incorporated Latin liturgical texts, and this was first performed in 1962. The collected poems of Wilfred Owen, edited by C. Day Lewis, was published in 1963 and contained about 80 poems and fragments. War Requiem and this new edition of Owen's poems both came out as the anti Vietnam War movement was evolving in the 1960s, and Owen's work really resonated with that movement, which became part of his legacy as a war poet.

[Holly Fry]

That legacy was closely guarded by Owen's family, especially his mother, who died in 1942, and his brother Harold, who died in 1971. When Harold reprinted Wilfred's Military Cross citation, he changed the part about inflicting considerable losses to the enemy, instead saying he had captured them. It was as though Harold did not want to publicize that his brother had killed other people in battle. Harold pushed back against allegations that Wilfred had been accused of cowardice by a commanding officer. That's something that is not reflected at all in his military file. It's a little unclear where this idea first came from, but it was included in the first edition of poet Robert Graves memoir Goodbye to all that, something that Harold tried to get him to change.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Harold also made a concerted effort to dismiss the idea that Wilfred had relationships with other men. That was also something that Robert Graves included in later editions of his memoir, which described Wilfred as, quote, an idealistic homosexual. During Wilfred's lifetime, people just noticed that his social and literary circle included a lot of men who were either believed or known to be involved with other men. And Wilfred was also never known to have had a romantic relationship with a woman. There are also lots of references to Boys and Lads throughout his work and beyond works like Shadwell Stair that we read earlier, a number of these poems can be read as having homoerotic undertones.

[Holly Fry]

This may have been part of why Harold blacked out part of Wilfred's letters with India ink before they could be published, and he actually cut out some portions with scissors, noting these passages as illegible in the printed text. Their mother also destroyed some of Wilfred's correspondence completely, including some of his letters from Siegfried Sassoon, some of which were reportedly very passionate. Sassoon married a woman in 1931 and is known to have also had a number of relationships with men.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

We know that a lot of people, regardless of their gender, found Owen attractive, and a number of his letters describe basically being flirted with, but we just don't know with certainty whether he had a romantic or physical relationship with anybody during his lifetime. In his biography of Wilfred, Harold Owen described his brother as having, quote, eschewed any complications involving sex of any sort because such complications would, quote, risk the lessening of his intellectual powers. We can't really take that statement as face value, though, because it's very clear that Harold Owen was taking steps to put forth a particular image of his brother.

[Holly Fry]

The Ransom center at the University of Texas at Austin acquired some of Owen's letters, and a 2014 blog post by them describes efforts to use software to try to read through those marked out passages. If anything has come of that effort, it does not seem to have been published.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

That is Wilfred Owen, who I just. I want to hug.

[Holly Fry]

I know my instinct is, oh, that poor sweet kid. Yeah, it also. I'll talk about it in behind the Scenes.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I won't talk about it now. Yeah, I have listener mail from Sarah. Sarah wrote to say, hey, ladies, longtime fan here. First. First time emailing. Nice to finally meet you. I've been listening since close to the beginning and I think I have the Symihc PhD. First off, thank you for your recent commentary about protecting research, the sciences, our civil servants, etc. The list goes on and on. I know people have already written about this, but to reiterate it means a lot to speak out so we're not alone as our country changes Last week I was thrilled with your very comprehensive national park episodes, much like everyone says when they email. I never had a reason to write in, but I kid you not. My husband's family is hosting a once every five years reunion in Shenandoah this weekend. I guess that's not saying much as it's the most popular by visitors, but I was delighted. My personal commentary to add to this note is that being Marylanders, we've spent a lot of time in Shenandoah, so I wanted to speak specifically to the efforts of patc, Potomac Appalachian Trail Club and park rangers who maintain the park and its historic properties. For reasonable prices, anyone can book an overnight stay at one of the homesteader's original houses, which my husband and I have done many times. There are other options too that were built by the PATC for the purposes of working within the park, but for obvious reasons, the historical ones are my personal favorites. It's a special way to thoroughly immerse yourself in the area, I should say too. It's not lost on me that these were people's homes and I consider them rather sacred. Each home has binders of their family histories you can read while you're there, and I enjoy trying to find related historic structures. Nearby, you can still see some gravestones and ruins of former houses, churches, et cetera that have been almost lost. I'll specifically call out the Corbin and the Jones families, whose last living property owners were allowed to live at each home until they passed. Anyway, I wanted to share a tidbit to humanize it even further. Honor the families who lost property and thank the folks who keep the history alive, you two included. In spite of the area's complex past, it's a place to enjoy nature and remember. Thank you for reading this very long email. Pet tax is attached. This is our daughter Poppy, a poodle in honor of Holly. Hope you're both off to some fun summer activities in your various locales and thanks again for everything you do to help us learn and grow. All my best Sarah. Thank you so much Sarah. There are a lot of local and regional hiking clubs and mountain clubs that do so much work to build and maintain trails, usually on a volunteer basis. Work that I like was not even fully aware happened by anyone other than park rangers until relatively recently in my life. If that is something that you are interested in, if you like hiking and you like the outdoors and you maybe have never really thought about that. You can check out in your area and see if there are organizations that are doing things like trail maintenance and trail cleanup. Some of it is stuff like picking up trash, but some of it is also making sure the trails are well maintained and stay graded the way that they need to be to let water run off and not pool and flood and things like that. So also, what an adorable. What an adorable dog.

[Holly Fry]

Three cheers for Poppy.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yes, Poppy is kind of a light chocolate or kind of cafe au lait kind of color for a dog and has one paw on a red ball, which is super duper cute. If you would like to send us a note about this or any other podcast, we're at history [e-mail] and you can subscribe to our show on the iheartradio app and anywhere else you like to listen to podcasts. Stuff you missed in history class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[Enrique Santos]

In 2012, 16 year old Brian Herrera was gunned down in broad daylight on his way to do homework. No suspects, no witnesses, no justice.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I would ask my husband, do you.

[Holly Fry]

Want me to stop? He was like, no, keep fighting.

[Enrique Santos]

After nearly a decade, a breakthrough changed everything. This is Cold Case Files Miami, stories of families who never stopped fighting. Listen to Cold Case Files Miami on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So what happened at Chappaquiddick? Well, it really depends on who you talk to.

[Enrique Santos]

There are many versions of what happened in 1969 when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond and.

[Holly Fry]

Left a woman behind to drown.

[Enrique Santos]

Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control. Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Listen to United States of Kennedy on.

[Holly Fry]

The iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

You get your podcast.

[Enrique Santos]

OpenAI is a financial abomination, a thing that should not be an aberration, a symbol of rot at the heart of Silicon Valley. And I'm gonna tell you why on my show, Better Offline, the rudest show in the tech industry where we're breaking down why OpenAI, along with other AI companies, are dead set on lying to your boss that they can take your job. I'm also going to be talking with the greatest minds in the industry about all the other ways the rich and powerful are ruining the computer. Listen to Better offline on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts. Wherever you happen to get your podcasts, are there any pictures of you online? Then you could already be in a massive police database without even knowing it. Clearview scrapes together images from Facebook, from LinkedIn, from Venmo accounts. I'm Dexter Thompson Thomas, host of Kill Switch, a podcast about how living in the future is affecting us right now. Police, they are trusting the software with this magical ability to lead them to the right suspect. In this episode we dive into how cops are using AI and facial recognition and sometimes getting it wrong and putting innocent people behind bars. So if your accuser is this algorithm but you're not even being told that it was used, let alone given any of it details about how it works. Listen to Kill Switch on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This is an iHeart podcast.