Wilfred Owen’s “Insensibility” is said to be written as a response to William Wordsworth who once claimed that “Who is the happy warrior/ Who is he/ That every man in arms should wish to be”. (“Character of the Happy Warrior” )The poem appears to be a sarcastic retort to the Romantic poet when most of the stanzas begin with the tone “’Happy are these…” The format of the poem in the form of an ode adds to the cynicism of the poem. Since a ode is primarily meant to eulogize a person or aspect. Therefore Owen has made use of the Romantic poet’s medium to make his statement, and to put it through effectively.

The poet begins the poem by claiming that Happy are those soldiers who have made themselves impervious to suffering rendering their veins cold. Who have remain unaffected by compassion, neither do they have contempt or affinity for the same. They lie sore on the alleys, put together clumsily(cobbled) with their companions. The word ‘cobble’ may also signify that their value is as immaterial as material shoes. They are real troops who ‘fade’ here, real human beings and not vegetative flowers that the poet can feed on, for a subject to rant about. The soldiers come across only as statistics: Men who are defined only in terms of their ability to hold on longer to the fight, and as mechanical as tools. Their human and individual worth is relegated.

They are voluntarily trained to render themselves immune to feeling conditioned by inevitable suffering. They are immune to themselves and for themselves. They neither think of themselves subjectively or objectively. The militia are no longer vulnerable to the taste of uncertainty that the shell poses. The average soldier succumbs to Chance’s arithmetic, to the inscrutable logic of it all. No check is kept on the armies’ decimation as they are treated in terms of statistics.

Happy are those who are robbed of their most human aspect –‘imagination.’ The lack of this factor will allow them to function as machines without any scope for free-play of the imagination. No longer will they paint a roseate picture of life. They are so accustomed to wounding themselves, that their hurt no longer aches. The colour blood has foregrounded their vision so much that, it has become a’ default’ colour such as white, and can no longer be distinguished from the rest of the colours. Their senses rule over their heart now that terror’s first constriction is over. Their senses are said to be cauterized: that the already abnormal tissue is scarred in the battle. It remains damaged, and long since ironed (revived to its senses) and can therefore be no longer in a state of sanity:

Can laugh among the dying, unconcerned.
Happy truly is the soldier, who lies at home divorced from these notions: he does not know what lies in store for him:
How somewhere, every dawn, some men attack,
And many sighs are drained.

In such a situation, even expressions and interjections are drained. Happy is he who was not trained (for the army) or for these harsh realities of life. He still holds the resolve to sing valiantly along the march. They march reticent to their predicament, for the dusk that awaits their life.” The long, forlorn, relentless trend” Where days are larger, and nights huger…never-ending.

We seem to be world-wise. However, the thought of killing and attacking has besmirched and left blood all over our soul. What makes it easier to perform our task is to see it as ‘blunt’ with ‘lashless eyes” .The poet implies’ lack of insight’ as echoed by the word ‘blunt”.

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.

He is numb to feeling that he cannot distinguish the old man’s placidity from his. To the spectators, they may be cursed dullards,” whom no cannon stuns.” They should be hard-hearted as stones, wretched and mean. They are sensational in their practice that they seem to have lacked simplicity. Nevertheless, they have made themselves resistant to sympathy and empathy by choice. And all other mournful emotions to man, that they have no answer to. ”The last sea” and “hapless stars” are typical imagery the typical poet utilizes for make a statement on mourning. They have rendered themselves insensitive to anybody who leaves the shores of Life and:

Whatever shares
The eternal reciprocity of tears

The title “Insensibility” is indeed significant. It points to the soldiers who have accustomed themselves to the ‘insensibility’ of this all; and who have rendered themselves immune to experience. On the other hand, it may also refer to the insensibility of the spectators or onlookers to the plight of the average army man.

©Rukhaya MK 2010

The content is the copyright of Rukhaya MK. Any line reproduced from the article has to be appropriately documented by the reader. ©Rukhaya MK. All rights reserved.